PSI - Issue 72

Sergio Arrieta et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 72 (2025) 362–369

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Framatome GmbH (Germany), KTU (Lithuania), KAERI (South Korea), and the University of Manchester (UK). Maintaining the effective inter-partner communication and collaboration established during the INCEFA-PLUS project is crucial for INCEFA-SCALE, given the strong interdependencies between data mining, experimental testing, model development, and the advancement of mechanical understanding. Furthermore, INCEFA-SCALE maintains collaborative relationships with external organizations, including the USNRC, EPRI, MHI, NRA (Japan), and the NNL (USA), to ensure the project's outputs are of maximum relevance to the nuclear industry. 5. Project details The experimental program will primarily utilize 316L stainless steel, provided by EDF, as a common base for the majority of tests. Select partners will additionally investigate a proprietary 300 series stainless steel due to their specific national requirements. This comparative analysis will facilitate the differentiation of the presently characterized material from the 304L stainless steel employed in the preceding INCEFA-PLUS project. To ensure methodological consistency and data integrity, participants will establish committees, mirroring the INCEFA-PLUS model, tasked with developing standardized testing methodologies and protocols. An Experts Panel will conduct quality assurance reviews of the generated results. Furthermore, participating organizations have committed to harmonizing data formats, where feasible, despite the diverse test methods employed within INCEFA SACALE. This will facilitate data deposition within the JRC-managed MatDB repository. This collaborative effort has already yielded consensus on four standardized procedures: a data management plan, a testing protocol, a striation spacing evaluation procedure, and a protocol for open access publication. A comprehensive analysis of fatigue test data from previous campaigns has been conducted (Cicero et al. (2023). The data sources included the INCEFA-PLUS project, various national program materials, and data provided by MHI (all accessible via the MatDB database), supplemented by data from VTT, USNRC, ANL, and EPRI. The dataset encompasses results from both ambient air and PWR environment fatigue tests (more than 5000 datapoints). A representative selection of air and PWR environment fatigue data from the aforementioned sources is presented in Fig. 1. Analysis revealed a data deficit at low strain amplitudes and a demonstrable influence of cyclic waveform on fatigue life. 5.1. Data mining

Fig. 1. Selection of fatigue test data (NUREG/CR-6909,Rev.1 model in green).

5.2. Test campaign

A comprehensive experimental program is underway to characterize the EAF behavior, extending beyond standard uniaxial testing of solid and hollow cylindrical specimens. This investigation encompasses a range of advanced methodologies, including biaxial loading regimes, the utilization of membrane-type and notched specimens under uniaxial stress, and complex waveform loading patterns. The complete aim is to clarify discrepancies in EAF response