R5/R6 NEWSLETTER

The R5/R6 Newsletter is Issued by the R5 and R6 Panels and is produced on a six-monthly basis to keep users informed of current developments in the R5 and R6 procedures. The first newsletter was produced in July 1990. Shown below are brief summaries of the newsletters going back to Issue Number 21.

Number 29

This issue has the second part of an article on the use of Partial Safety Factors, a review of developments in limit load recommendations and articles on the R5 treatment of ratchetting, and fatigue strength database for weldments.

Number 28

This edition describes the recent work on the elastic T-stress, use of Partial Safety Factors, creep-fatigue initiation, and creep damage assessment.

Number 27

This edition describes the recent Amendment to R6 Revision 4, the use of path-independent integrals, NESC tests, and creep assessment methods.

Number 26

This edition describes some developments in R5 Issue 3 Volumes 1,2/3,4/5 plus Volume 4/5 validation and a British Energy/CREIPI collaboration on structural integrity assessment.

Number 25

This edition, focussing mainly on developments relevant to R6, has articles on Leak before Break assessments, proposals to modify the C-Mn steel FAD, and a resume of projects supported by the European Commission.

Number 24

This edition has articles on defect interaction rules, validation of R5, international training, and analysis of the NESC spinning cylinder experiment.

Number 23

This edition has articles on the newly-issued R6 Revision 4, recent changes to R5, Fast reactor state variable application, high temperature leak before break, and ductile tearing.

Number 22

This edition has articles on flaw characterisation, Leak before Break, and mixed mode fracture tests relevant to R6, and on creep toughness reviews and austenitic weldment tests from the R5 development programme.

Number 21

This issue of the Newsletter is devoted to R6 Revision 4 which was briefly described in Newsletter number 19. The last major revision to R6, Revision 3, was produced in 1986. Since that time, there have been a number of revisions to the document including the addition of 10 new appendices providing advice on a wide range of topics. More recently, there have been developments worldwide in fracture mechanics methodology; notably, a European project SINTAP, a British Standards Guide BS7910:1999 and a draft American Petroleum Institute document API 579. Consequently, it was decided that it was timely to revise R6 in its entirety, taking benefit both from these worldwide developments and results from within the R6 development programme. In this Newsletter, the structure of the document is described first. Then the individual Chapters in Revision 4 are summarised, highlighting changes from Revision 3. Finally, some information on the R-CODE software is given.