• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.164-169
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• 2018

A detailed fatigue evaluation procedure was developed to mitigate the excessive conservativeness of the conventional environmental fatigue evaluation method for the pressurizer spray line elbow of domestic new nuclear power plants. The pressurizer spray line is made of austenitic stainless steel, which is relatively sensitive to the environmentally assisted fatigue, and has a low degree of design margin in terms of environmentally assisted fatigue due to the thermal stratification phenomenon on the pipe cross section as a whole or locally. In this study, to meet the environmental fatigue design requirements of the pressurizer spray line elbow, the new environmental fatigue evaluation has been performed, which used the ASME Code NB-3200-based detailed fatigue analysis and the environmental fatigue correction factor instead of the existing NB-3600 evaluation method. As a result, the design requirements for environmentally assisted fatigue were met in all parts of the pressurizer spray line elbow including the fatigue weakened zones by thermal stratification.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.526-538
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• 2001

Fatigue tests in air and in room temperature water were performed to obtain comparable data and stable crack measuring conditions. In air environment, fatigue crack growth rate was increased with increasing temperature due to an increase in crack tip oxidation rate. In room temperature water, the fatigue crack growth rate was faster than in air and crack path varied on loading conditions. In simulated light water reactor (LWR) conditions, there was little environmental effect on the fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) at low dissolved oxygen or at high loading frequency conditions. While the FCGR was enhanced at high oxygen condition, and the enhancement of crack growth rate increased as loading frequency decreased to a critical value. In fractography, environmentally assisted cracks, such as semi-cleavage and secondary intergranular crack, were found near sulfide inclusions only at high dissolved oxygen and low loading frequency condition. The high crack growth rate was related to environmentally assisted crack. These results indicated that environmentally assisted crack could be formed by the Electrochemical effect in specific loading condition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.225-232
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• 2008

To understand the effect of the cyclic strain rate on the environmentally assisted cracking behaviors of SA508 Gr.1a low alloy steel in deoxygenated water at $310^{\circ}C$, the fatigue surface and a sectioned area of specimens were observed after low cycle fatigue tests. On the fatigue surface of the specimen tested at a strain rate of 0.008 %/s, unclear ductile striations and a blunt crack tip were observed. Therefore, metal dissolution could be the main cracking mechanism of the material at this strain rate. On the other hand, on the fatigue surfaces of the specimens tested at strain rates of 0.04 and 0.4 %/s, brittle cracks and flat facets, which are evidences of the hydrogen induced cracking, were observed. In addition, a tendency of linkage between the main crack and the micro-cracks was observed on the sectioned area. Therefore, at higher strain rates, the main cracking mechanism could be hydrogen induced cracking. Additionally, evidence of the dissolved MnS inclusions was observed on the fatigue surface from energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer analyses. Thus, despite the low sulfur content of the test material, the sulfides seem to contribute to environmentally assisted cracking of SA508 Gr.1a low alloy steel in deoxygenated water at $310^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.19-30
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• 2017

Austenitic Stainless Steels (ASSs) are widely used as structural materials in the pressurized water reactors (PWRs) because of their superior mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. However, it is well known that ASSs are susceptible to the environmental assisted cracking (EAC) such as environmental assisted fatigue (EAF) during the long term operation. There have been extensive tests and researches to understand the extent and the mechanisms of environmental effects. In this paper, the world-wide EAF test results of ASSs are introduced including those of Korean test programs. The suggested EAF mechanisms of ASSs are also discussed. Finally, the areas of further research to resolve the issue of EAF are suggested.

• CORROSION AND PROTECTION
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2013

Austenitic stainless steels and Ni-base alloys are widely used as structural materials for major components and piping system in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). These austenitic alloys are known to be susceptible to environmental assisted cracking (EAC), such as environmentally-assisted fatigue (EAF) and primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) during long-term exposure to PWR primary water environment. In this paper, the current understanding on the phenomena and mechanisms of these EAC are briefly introduced using experimental results and literature review. The mechanisms for EAF and PWSCC for austenitic stainless steels and Ni-base alloys are discussed. Currently, austenitic stainless steels are known to be more susceptible to EAF, while less susceptible to PWSCC than Ni-base alloys. The possible explanations to such behaviors are proposed and discussed in view of the role of hydrogen and internal oxidation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.1 s.173
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• pp.156-162
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• 2000

Sensitized STS 304 stainless steel crack growth rate(CGR) in high temperature water was investigated under trapezoidal wave loading test using fracture mechanics techniques. The CGR, due to stress corrosion cracking(SCC), were systematically measured as a function of the stress intensity factor and stress. holding time under trapezoidal wave loading. In high temperature water, CGR was enhanced by a synergistic effects in combination with an aggressive environment and mechanical damage. The CGR, $(da/dN)_{env}$ was basically described as a summation of the environmentally assisted crack growth rate $(da/dN)_{SCC}$, $(da/dN)_{CF}$ and fatigue crack growth rate in air $(da/dN)air,. The CGR, $(da/dN)_{env}$, increased linearly with increasing stress holding time. The CGR, $(da/dN)_{SCC}$ decreased linearly with increasing stress holding time. Fracture surface mode varied from trans-granular cracking to inter-granular cracking with increasing stress holding time.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.479-489
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• 2019

Low-cycle fatigue (LCF) tests were performed for Alloy 690 and 316 SS in a simulated pressurized water reactor (PWR) environment. Alloy 690 showed about twice longer LCF life than 316 SS at the test condition of 0.4% amplitude at strain rate of 0.004%/s. Observation of the oxide layers formed on the fatigue crack surface showed that Cr and Ni rich oxide was formed for Alloy 690, while Fe and Cr rich oxide for 316 SS as an inner layer. Electrochemical analysis revealed that the oxide layers formed on the LCF crack surface of Alloy 690 had higher impedance and less defect density than those of 316 SS, which resulted in longer LCF life of Alloy 690 than 316 SS in a simulated PWR environment.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.93-97
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• 2003

Fatigue crack growth test or low alloy steel was performed in high temperature water. Test parameters were dissolved oxygen content. loading frequency and R-ratio ($P_{min}/P_{max}$). Since the sulfur content or the steel was low, there were no environmentally assisted cracks (EAC) in low dissolved oxygen(DO) water. At high DO, the crack growth rate at R = 0.5 tests was much increased due to environmental effects and the crack growth rate depended on loading frequency and maximized at a critical frequency. On the other hand, R = 0.7 test results showed an anomalous decrease of the crack growth rate as much different behavior from the R = 0.5. The main reason of the decrease may be related to the crack tip closure effect. All the data could be qualitatively understood by effects of oxide rupture and anion activity at crack tip.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.304-313
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• 2021

Nickel base Alloy X-750, which is used as fastener parts in light-water reactor (LWR), has experienced many failures by environmentally assisted cracking (EAC). In order to improve the reliability of passive components for nuclear power plants (NPP's), it is necessary to study the failure mechanism and to predict crack growth behavior by developing a probabilistic failure model. In this study, The Bayesian inference was employed to reduce the uncertainties contained in EAC modeling parameters that have been established from experiments with Alloy X-750. Corrosion fatigue crack growth rate model (FCGR) was developed by fitting into Paris' Law of measured data from the several fatigue tests conducted either in constant load or constant ΔK mode. These parameters characterizing the corrosion fatigue crack growth behavior of X-750 were successfully updated to reduce the uncertainty in the model by using the Bayesian inference method. It is demonstrated that probabilistic failure models for passive components can be developed by updating a laboratory model with field-inspection data, when crack growth rates (CGRs) are low and multiple inspections can be made prior to the component failure.