Characterization of tensile strength and fracture toughness of nuclear graphite NBG-18 using subsize specimens

The mechanical properties of NBG-18 nuclear grade graphite were characterized using small specimen test techniques and statistical treatment on the test results. New fracture strength and toughness test techniques were developed to use subsize cylindrical specimens with glued heads and to reuse their broken halves. Three sets of subsize cylindrical specimens of different sizes were tested to obtain tensile fracture strength and fracture toughness. The mean fracture strength decreased as the specimen size increased. The fracture strength data indicate that in the given diameter range the size effect is not significant and much smaller than that predicted by the Weibull moduli estimated for individual specimen groups of the Weibull distribution. Further, no noticeable size effect existed in the fracture toughness data. The mean values of the fracture toughness datasets were in a narrow range of 1.21–1.26 MPa√m.