Influence of PWR Primary Coolant Environment on Corrosion Fatigue Crack Growth of Austenitic Stainless Steel

Author(s):  
David Tice ◽  
Norman Platts ◽  
Keith Rigby ◽  
John Stairmand ◽  
David Swan

The rate of growth of flaws in reactor circuit components by fatigue is usually determined using the reference crack growth curves in Section XI of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. These curves describe the rate of crack propagation per cycle (da/dN) as a function of the applied stress intensity factor range (ΔK). No reference curves for water-wetted defects in austenitic stainless steels are currently available. This paper describes the results of testing of Type 304L stainless steel in simulated PWR primary coolant over a range of temperatures and mechanical loading conditions. The data on wrought stainless steel presented in this paper demonstrate that crack growth rates can be significantly enhanced by the PWR primary environment at temperatures between 150°C and 300°C. The degree of enhancement increases significantly with reducing loading frequency and decreases with decreasing water temperature. The environmental influence on fatigue is also smaller at very high R ratio (≥0.85). At long rise times the maximum enhancement of crack growth rate over inert crack growth rates was between 1 and 2 orders of magnitude at 250–300°C. However there is evidence that at very long rise times the environmental effect starts to decrease again. The conditions under which this occurs are influenced by temperature and water flowrate, with turbulent flow conditions appearing to have a limited beneficial effect. Due to the strong time dependence of crack growth rate, the data are best rationalized using a time domain (a˙e–a˙i) approach.

Author(s):  
Norman Platts ◽  
David Tice ◽  
Keith Rigby ◽  
John Stairmand

The rate of growth of flaws in reactor circuit components by fatigue is usually determined using the reference crack growth curves in Section XI of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. These curves describe the rate of crack propagation per cycle (da/dN) as a function of the applied stress intensity factor range (ΔK). No reference curves for water-wetted defects in austenitic stainless steels are currently available. This paper describes the results of testing of austenitic stainless steel and weld metal in simulated PWR primary coolant over a range of temperatures and mechanical loading conditions. Previous data presented by the authors on wrought stainless steel demonstrated that crack growth rates can be significantly enhanced by the PWR primary environment at temperatures between 150°C and 300°C. The current study extends these data to weld metal and also investigates the impact of other loading waveforms (e.g. trapezoidal loading) on the degree of environmental enhancement. The environmental enhancement increases significantly with reducing loading frequency and decreases with decreasing water temperature. The environmental influence on fatigue is shown to be independent of load ratio over the range R = 0.1 to R = 0.8. The level of enhancement is frequently smaller at very high R ratio (≥0.85) with the enhanced rates of fatigue frequently being unsustained at these high load ratios. There is a strong correlation between the rise time and the level of enhancement of crack growth rate over inert crack growth rates at all temperatures tested. Weld metal has been shown to exhibit similar behavior to wrought material over the whole temperature range studied although the apparent rates of enhancement relative to average inert crack growth rates are lower than found for wrought material. For complex loading waveforms (e.g. trapezoidal loading with hold periods at maximum or minimum load) it is possible predict the level of enhancement on the basis of the test data generated using simpler saw tooth loading regimes.


1971 ◽  
Vol 93 (4) ◽  
pp. 976-980 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Shahinian ◽  
H. H. Smith ◽  
H. E. Watson

The dependence of fatigue crack growth rates on range of stress intensity factor (ΔK) in Type 316 stainless steel was investigated over the temperature range of 75 to 1100 deg F. The data for the most part could be described by a power law relationship. An increase in temperature generally increased crack growth rate for a given ΔK and decreased fatigue life. The dependence of crack growth rate on temperature is not described adequately by an Arrhenius relation over the range investigated. On the other hand, by normalizing ΔK with respect to Young’s modulus, E, the crack growth rates for the various temperatures tend to fall within a single band.


1986 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Van Der Sluys ◽  
R. H. Emanuelson

During normal operation light water reactor (LWR) pressure vessels are subjected to a variety of transients resulting in time varying stresses. Consequently, fatigue and environmentally assisted fatigue are growth mechanisms relevant to flaws in these pressure vessels. In order to provide a better understanding of the resistance of nuclear pressure vessel steels to flaw growth process, a series of fracture mechanics experiments were conducted to generate data on the rate of cyclic crack growth in SA508-2 and SA533B-1 steels in simulated 550°F Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) and 550°F Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) environments. Areas investigated over the course of the test program included the effects of loading frequency and R ratio (Kmin/Kmax) on crack growth rate as a function of the stress intensity factor (ΔK) range. In addition, the effect of sulfur content of the test material on the cyclic crack growth rate was studied. Cyclic crack growth rates were found to be controlled by ΔK, R ratio, and loading frequency. The sulfur impurity content of the reactor pressure vessel steels studied had a significant effect on the cyclic crack growth rates. The Higher growth rates were always associated with materials of higher sulfur content. For a given level of sulfur, growth rates were higher in a 550°F simulated BWR environment than in a 550°F simulated PWR environment. In both environments cyclic crack growth rates were a strong function of the loading frequency. Further, the loading frequency at which the highest cyclic crack growth rate was observed was found to be a function of the applied ΔK level. In most cases, all cyclic crack growth rates were on or under the ASME Section XI high R water reference flaw growth line and above the Section XI air reference flaw growth line, supporting the position of these lines on the growth rate–ΔK level graph.


Author(s):  
Lei Zhao ◽  
Lianyong Xu

Creep-fatigue interaction would accelerate the crack growth behaviour and change the crack growth mode, which is different from that presenting in pure creep or fatigue regimes. In addition, the constraint ahead of crack tip affects the relationship between crack growth rate and fracture mechanics and thus affects the accuracy of the life prediction for high-temperature components containing defects. In this study, to reveal the role of constraint caused by various specimen geometries in the creep-fatigue regime, five different types of cracked specimens (including C-ring in tension CST, compact tension CT, single notch tension SENT, single notch bend SENB, middle tension MT) were employed. The crack growth and damage evolution behaviours were simulated using finite element method based on a non-linear creep-fatigue interaction damage model considering creep damage, fatigue damage and interaction damage. The expression of (Ct)avg for different specimen geometries were given. Then, the variation of crack growth behaviour with various specimen geometries under creep-fatigue conditions were analysed. CT and CST showed the highest crack growth rates, which were ten times as the lowest crack growth rates in MT. This revealed that distinctions in specimen geometry influenced the in-plane constraint level ahead of crack tip. Furthermore, a load-independent constraint parameter Q* was introduced to correlate the crack growth rate. The sequence of crack growth rate at a given value of (Ct)avg was same to the reduction of Q*, which shown a linear relation in log-log curve.


Author(s):  
Kokleang Vor ◽  
Catherine Gardin ◽  
Christine Sarrazin-Baudoux ◽  
Jean Petit ◽  
Claude Amzallag

The scope of this study is to investigate the effect of tensile prestrain on crack growth behavior in a 304L stainless steel. Fatigue crack propagation tests were performed on single-edge notched tension (SENT) raw specimens (0% of prestrain) and on prestrained specimens (2% and 10%). On one hand, it is found that the different levels of prestrain exhibit no significant influence on crack propagation in the high range of Stress Intensity Factor (SIF), where there is no detectable crack closure. On the other hand, a clear effect of prestrain on crack growth rate can be observed in the near threshold region where closure is detected. Thus, it can be concluded that the prestrain mainly affects the crack growth rate through its influence on the crack closure.


2001 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mamdouh M. Salama

Optimization of weight, cost, and performance of deepwater offshore structures demands the increased utilization of high strength, light weight, and corrosion resistant materials such as titanium alloys. Titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V has been considered for several critical components such as risers and taper joints. Because of the novelty of use of titanium alloys in the offshore industry, there is currently no standard governing design of titanium components for offshore structures. Since these structural components are subjected to a complex spectrum of environmental loading, assessment of defect tolerance using fatigue crack growth analysis is generally considered an important design parameter. In this paper, more than 60 crack growth data sets from 20 independent laboratories were collected and analyzed to develop crack growth rate equations for use in defect assessment. These data include the results of fatigue testing of both base material and welded joints in air and seawater with and without cathodic protection and at different R-ratios and test frequencies. The results suggest that for crack growth rates above 10−7 in./cycle, crack growth of Ti-6Al-4V appears to be independent of testing condition and materials processing. At the low crack growth rate (below 10−7 in./cycle), the review revealed that data are very limited. These limited data, however, suggest that the crack growth threshold is dependent on the R-ratio and slightly dependent on material processing. Comparison between crack growth rates of steel and titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) showed that the two materials have very similar behavior.


2008 ◽  
Vol 33-37 ◽  
pp. 261-266
Author(s):  
Sheng Nan Wang ◽  
Yi Li ◽  
Jian Bo Qin ◽  
Ya Long Liu ◽  
Yue Quan Zhou

The effects of five single and three mixed corrosive environments on the fatigue crack growth and residual strength of steel 30CrMnSiNi2A were experimentally studied. The crack growth rates in corrosive environments, obtained by using Paris equation, were compared with crack growth rate in lab air. The results showed that the interactions of aggressive environments with fatigue loads caused the accelerations of fatigue crack growth rates in steel 30CrMnSiNi2A. But the effects of various environments on the fatigue crack growth rate are different. Among the environments the most detrimental one was oil-box zone, followed by cookroom&washroom, tank seeper, 3.5%NaCl, moist air, high altitude and dried air. Also, the test data showed the less effect of various corrosive environments on critical crack length, that is, no direct infection of corrosive environments on residual strength capability dominated by fracture toughness.


Author(s):  
Eun Ju Song ◽  
Joseph A. Ronevich

One of the most efficient methods for supplying gaseous hydrogen long distances is by using steel pipelines. However, steel pipelines exhibit accelerated fatigue crack growth rates in gaseous hydrogen relative to air. Despite conventional expectations that higher strength steels would be more susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement, recent testing on a variety of pipeline steel grades has shown a notable independence between strength and hydrogen assisted fatigue crack growth rate. It is thought that microstructure may play a more defining role than strength in determining the hydrogen susceptibility. Among the many factors that could affect hydrogen accelerated fatigue crack growth rates, this study was conducted with an emphasis on orientation dependence. The orientation dependence of toughness in hot rolled steels is a well-researched area; however, few studies have been conducted to reveal the relationship between fatigue crack growth rate in hydrogen and orientation. In this work, fatigue crack growth rates were measured in hydrogen for high strength steel pipeline with different orientations. A significant reduction in fatigue crack growth rates were measured when cracks propagated perpendicular to the rolling direction. A detailed microstructural investigation was performed, in an effort to understand the orientation dependence of fatigue crack growth rate performance of pipeline steels in hydrogen environments.


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