CORDIS

Crack growth material properties data are used in high temperature integrity assessments procedures. In this project it is planned to develop novel methods for Creep Crack Growth (CCG) material data generation and analysis. Present CCG testing standards only allow tests on the Compact Tension (CT) specimen geometry. CT has been found to be unsuitable for sampling from many engineering components and therefore other geometries have had to be tested in laboratories in order to better match the size, crack position, shape and crack-tip constraint in the industrial components. Industry requires that a testing standard should cater for alternative geometries and material properties. Therefore in addition to developing the test and data analysis techniques for these novel specimens a priority for this project is to draft a CCG testing Code of Practice to address these issues. The recommendations from this work will be input for use by industrial users and into the various standardization committees, such as CEN and VAMAS TW A25 who are working towards standardizing CCG testing methods. There is substantial industrial backing for this project and the interested industry is invited to take active part in exploitation together with the project consortium. Thus formed "Exploitation Committee" will be involved in the validation and verification of the new proposed methods.