Evaluation of fracture toughness of fine-grained isotropic graphites for HTGR

In order to investigate the effects of the experimental methodology and the notch angle on the fracture toughness of the fine-grained isotropic nuclear graphites IG-110 and IG-430, the three-point-bending test, which has been recently proposed as the methodology to evaluate the fracture toughness of graphite for high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs), was performed using two types of the specimens with different notch angles. The results obtained in this study could be summarized as follows: (1) the values of the fracture toughness of IG-110 and IG-430 measured in this study were 0.890 MPa m1/2 and 1.031 MPa m1/2, respectively. It was also found that the value of the fracture toughness of IG-110 was nearly equal to or smaller than the values obtained by the other method reported previously. (2) The values of the fracture toughness of the fine-grained isotropic graphites were not affected between the notch angles introduced by the incisive razor blade. (3) The ratio of the tensile strengths of IG-110 and IG-430 was estimated from Griffith Theory using the experimental data obtained in this study. The estimated strength ratio was in good agreement with the strength ratio obtained from the supplierʹs data.