Emc2 staff have studied different types of flaws (corrosion thinning, through-wall and surface cracks, mechanical damage, etc.), multiple site and multiple element damage of aging aircraft, and high temperature creep-fatigue assessment of engine components including turbine blades in life-extension studies for our clients. The piping and pipe component fracture efforts at Emc2 have involved different flaw orientations (axial, circumferential, and helical for spiral-welded pipe), crack initiation and crack propagation evaluations including natural crack growth.
- Probabilistic load modeling
- Probabilistic Mechanics analysis
- Damage tolerant analysis
- Structural integrity (metallic and composite)
- Risk Assessment
Probabilistic Mechanics Analyses of Nuclear Piping Systems
Emc2 led the development of the probabilistic mechanics code to analyze the progression of damage due to fatigue, inter-granular stress corrosion cracking, and primary water stress corrosion cracking. Initially developed for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), it was subsequently upgraded through an internationally sponsored program and released as PROLOCA (PRObabilistic Loss Of Coolant Accident) 3.0. This code the served as the basis for the joint government (NRC) and industry (Electric Power Research Institute) code xLPR (extremely Low Probability of Rupture) 1.0. Because of the code’s basis and importance it is being further developed by a second international program to produce PROLOCA 4.0. The primary advance for PROLOCA 4.0 is the new adaptive sampling methodology. This sampling technique allows the code to perform importance sampling as the calculations are being made. Sandia National Laboratories has evaluated this methodology and conclude that it can calculate probabilities on the order of 1 in 1,000,000 with 50,000 or fewer simulations