scope:

WRC Bulletin 440 reports work conducted under the PVRC Elevated Temperature Design Committee sponsored by the High Pressure Institute of Japan and the Japan PNC. It is one of three parts of a project to develop simplified nonlinear inelastic methods for application during the early design stages for the Japanese fast breeder reactor program. This bulletin covers the subject of high temperature crack growth with a discussion of the approach used by France in the framework of the development of their RCC-MR Construction Code based on a preliminary version of the A16 defect assessment procedure. The A16 document is presented with its major guidelines. A flow diagram is included that summarizes the procedure and provides guidance for applying the calculation methods. Comparisons with the British R5 and R6 methods are made, and the A16 procedure is also compared to a Japanese method. The report also includes the main experimental data used for validating the A16 procedure. The report presents the A16 procedure, shows comparisons with other defect assessment rules, summarizes the experimental data and provides step-by-step examples of the A16 procedure along with experimental validation summaries. The report concludes with a discussion of the procedure along with recommendations for future work and summarizes the significant conclusions drawn from the collaborative studies