Continuity of Environmentally Assisted Fatigue and Stress Corrosion Cracking Based on Short Crack Growth Behavior of 316 Stainless Steel in Simulated PWR Primary Water

Abstract

Environmental correction factor (Fen) is one of the parameters to evaluate the effect of a pressurized high temperature water environment. It has been reported that Fen for stainless steel saturates at a very low strain rate. However, the relationship between environmentally assisted fatigue (EAF) and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is still unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the short crack growth behavior and possible continuity of EAF and SCC at very low strain rates. Short crack initiation and propagation have similar behaviors, which retard the crack growth between 100–200 μm in depth. We find that the striation spacing correlates well with the maximum crack growth rate (CGR) data. Based on the correlation, it is clarified that the local CGR on an intergranular facet was faster than that on a transgranular facet. Furthermore, the overall maximum and average CGR from the EAF data is well interpreted and compared with the SCC data.