• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.266-273
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• 2004

The objective of this study is an understanding of stress corrosion cracking of metals that is recognized to mostly limit the lifetime of the structural materials by comparing the features of delayed hydride cracking of zirconium alloys with those of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of Ni-based alloys and hydrogen cracking of stainless steels. To this end, we investigated a dependence of delayed hydride cracking (DHC) velocity on the applied stress intensity factor and yield strength, and correlated a temperature dependence of the striation spacing and the DHC velocity. We reviewed a similarity of the features between the DHC of zirconium alloys, the SCC of Ni-based alloys and turbine rotor steels, and the hydrogen cracking of stainless steels and discussed the SCC phenomenon in metals with our DHC mode.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.292.1-292
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• 2001

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.49-59
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• 1989

The effect of non-metallic inclusions on the HAZ hydrogen induced cracking was investigated. Quench and temper high tensile strength steels containing various sulphur contents were employed. The sulphur contents range between 0.007% and 0.040%. Non-metallic inclusions were mainly MnS type sylphide and Mn-Al-Si type. The sensitivity of HAZ delayed cracking was evaluated by implant testing. Diffusible hydrogen content was varied by controlling the moisture absorbing condition of manual arc welding electrodes. The one was asreceived condition, the other was dipping the electrodes in the water for ten minutes. The main results obtained were as follows; 1) The results of implant test showed that critical stress increased with increasing S content up to 0.013%. But steel containing 0.040%S showed lower critical stress than that of 0.013% S. These result suggest that there will be optimum S content to prevent HAZ delayed cracking of high strength steels. 2) Under the lower D.H.C. level, critical stress was increased with rolling reduction, but higher D.H.C. level, effect of rolling reduction was not recognized.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.341-341
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• 2001

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.171-178
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• 2009

The rate of delayed hydride cracking (DHC), V, has been measured in cold-worked and stress-relieved Zircaloy-4 fuel cladding using the Pin-Loading Tension technique. At $250^{\circ}C$ the mean value of V from 69 specimens was $3.3({\pm}0.8)x10^{-8}$ m/s while the temperature dependence up to $275^{\circ}C$ was described by Aexp(-Q/RT), where Q is 48.3 kJ/mol. No cracking or cracking at very low rates was observed at higher temperatures. The fracture surface consisted of flat fracture with no striations. The results are compared with previous results on fuel cladding and pressure tubes.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.675-680
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• 2002

Cracking and bulging in welded and internally lined pressure vessels that work in thermal-mechanical cycling service have been well known problems in the petrochemical, power and nuclear industries. However, published literature and industry surveys show that similar problems have been occurring during the last 50 years. A better understanding of the causes of cracking and bulging causes is needed to improve the reliability of these pressure vessels. This study attempts to add information required for increasing the knowledge and fundamental understanding required. Typical examples of this problem are the coke drums in the delayed coking units refinery process. This case was selected for experimental work, field study and results comparison. Delayed coking units are among the refinery units that have higher economical yields. To shut down these units represents a high negative economical impact in refinery operations. Also, the maintenance costs associated with repairs are commonly very high. Cracking and bulging occurrences in the coke drums, most often at the weld areas, characterize the history of the operation of delayed coking units. To design and operate more robust coke drums with fewer problems, an improved metallurgical understanding of the cracking and bulging mechanisms is required. A methodology that is based field experience revision and metallurgical analyses for the screening of the most important variables, and subsequent finite element analyses to verify hypotheses and to rank the variables according to their impact on the coke drum lives has been developed. This indicated approach provides useful information for increasing coke drum reliability. The results of this work not only order the most important variables according to their impact in the life of the vessels, but also permit estimation of the life spans of coke drums. In conclusion, the current work shows that coke drums may fail as a combination of thermal fatigue and other degradation mechanisms such as: corrosion at high and low temperatures, detrimental metallurgical transformations and plastic deformation. It was also found that FEA is a very valuable tool for understanding cracking and bulging mechanisms in these services and for ranking the design, fabrication, operation and maintenance variables that affect coke drum reliability.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.265-276
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• 2013

Pressure tubes made of Zr-2.5 wt% Nb alloy are important components consisting reactor coolant pressure boundary of a pressurized heavy water reactor, in which unanticipated through-wall cracks and rupture may occur due to a delayed hydride cracking (DHC). The Canadian Standards Association has provided deterministic and probabilistic structural integrity evaluation procedures to protect pressure tubes against DHC. However, intuitive understanding and subsequent assessment of flaw behaviors are still insufficient due to complex degradation mechanisms and diverse influential parameters of DHC compared with those of stress corrosion cracking and fatigue crack growth phenomena. In the present study, a deterministic flaw assessment program was developed and applied for systematic integrity assessment of the pressure tubes. Based on the examination results dealing with effects of flaw shapes, pressure tube dimensional changes, hydrogen concentrations of pressure tubes and plant operation scenarios, a simple and rough method for effective cooldown operation was proposed to minimize DHC risks. The developed deterministic assessment program for pressure tubes can be used to derive further technical bases for probabilistic damage frequency assessment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.663-667
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• 2017

Delayed hydride cracking (DHC) was first observed in pressure tubes in Canadian CANDU reactors. In light water reactors, DHC was not observed until the late 1990s in high-burnup boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel cladding. In recent years, the focus on DHC has resurfaced in light of the increased interest in the cladding integrity during interim conditions. In principle, all spent fuel in the wet pools has sufficient hydrogen content for DHC to operate below $300^{\circ}C$. It is therefore of importance to establish the critical parameters for DHC to operate. This work studies the threshold stress intensity factor ($K_{IH}$) to initiate DHC as a function of temperature in Zry-4 for temperatures between $227^{\circ}C$ and $315^{\circ}C$. The experimental technique used in this study was the pin-loading testing technique. To determine the $K_{IH}$, an unloading method was used where the load was successively reduced in a stepwise manner until no cracking was observed during 24 hours. The results showed that there was moderate temperature behavior at lower temperatures. Around $300^{\circ}C$, there was a sharp increase in $K_{IH}$ indicating the upper temperature limit for DHC. The value for $K_{IH}$ at $227^{\circ}C$ was determined to be $2.6{\pm}0.3MPa$ ${\surd}$m.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.1138-1147
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• 2018

Delayed hydride cracking (DHC) is an important failure mechanism for Zircaloy tubes in the demanding environment of nuclear reactors. The threshold stress intensity factor, $K_{IH}$, and critical hydride length, $l_C$, are important parameters to evaluate DHC. Theoretical models of them are developed for Zircaloy tubes undergoing non-homogenous temperature loading, with new stress distributions ahead of the crack tip and thermal stresses involved. A new stress distribution in the plastic zone ahead of the crack tip is proposed according to the fracture mechanics theory of second-order estimate of plastic zone size. The developed models with fewer fitting parameters are validated with the experimental results for $K_{IH}$ and $l_C$. The research results for radial cracking cases indicate that a better agreement for $K_{IH}$ can be achieved; the negative axial thermal stresses can lessen $K_{IH}$ and enlarge the critical hydride length, so its effect should be considered in the safety evaluation and constraint design for fuel rods; the critical hydride length $l_C$ changes slightly in a certain range of stress intensity factors, which interprets the phenomenon that the DHC velocity varies slowly in the steady crack growth stage. Besides, the sensitivity analysis of model parameters demonstrates that an increase in yield strength of zircaloy will result in a decrease in the critical hydride length $l_C$, and $K_{IH}$ will firstly decrease and then have a trend to increase with the yield strength of Zircaloy; higher fracture strength of hydrided zircaloy will lead to very high values of threshold stress intensity factor and critical hydride length at higher temperatures, which might be the main mechanism of crack arrest for some Zircaloy materials.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.174-182
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• 2002

The integrity evaluation of pressure tube is essential for the safety of CANDU reactor, and integrity must be assured when flaws or contacts between pressure tube and surrounding calandria tube are found. In order to complete the integrity evaluation, not only complicated and iterative calculation procedures but also a lot of data and knowledge are required. For this reason, an integrity evaluation system, which provides an efficient way of the evaluation with the help of attached databases, was developed. The developed system was built on the basis of ASME Sec.？ and FFSG issued by the AECL, and applicable for the evaluation of blister, sharp flaw and blunt notch. Delayed hydride cracking and blister evaluation modules are included in the general flaw and notch evaluation module. In order to verify the developed system, several case studies have been performed and the results were compared with those from AECL. A good agreement was observed between those two results.