Crack Growth Rates of Nickel Alloy Welds in a PWR Environment

Abstract

In light water reactors (LWRs), vessel internal components made of nickel-base alloys are susceptible to environmentally assisted cracking. A better understanding of the causes and mechanisms of this cracking may permit less conservative estimates of damage accumulation and requirements on inspection intervals. A program is being conducted at Argonne National Laboratory to evaluate the resistance of Ni alloys and their welds to environmentally assisted cracking in simulated LWR coolant environments. This report presents crack growth rate (CGR) results for Alloy 182 shielded-metal-arc weld metal in a simulated pressurized water reactor (PWR) environment at 320°C. Crack growth tests were conducted on 1-T compact tension specimens with different weld orientations from both double-J and deep-groove welds. The results indicate little or no environmental enhancement of fatigue CGRs of Alloy 182 weld metal in the PWR environment. The CGRs of Alloy 182 in the PWR environment are a factor of ≈5 higher than those of Alloy 600 in air under the same loading conditions. The stress corrosion cracking for the Alloy 182 weld is close to the average behavior of Alloy 600 in the PWR environment. The weld orientation was found to have a profound effect on the magnitude of crack growth: cracking was found to propagate faster along the dendrites than across them. The existing CGR data for Ni-alloy weld metals have been compiled and evaluated to establish the effects of key material, loading, and environmental parameters on CGRs in PWR environments. The results from the present study are compared with the existing CGR data for Ni-alloy welds to determine the relative susceptibility of the specific Ni-alloy weld to environmentally enhanced cracking. iv Intentionally Left BlankForeword v This report presents crack growth rate data and the results of the corresponding fracture surface and metallographic examinations from cyclic loading and primary water stress-corrosion cracking (PWSCC) tests of two nickel-base Alloy 182 (A182) weldments, which are typical of those used in vessel penetrations and piping butt welds in nuclear power plants. The effect of crack orientation with respect to dendrite orientation is the most significant variable investigated in this study. However, this report also includes a review of data from several laboratories, which describes the effects of material composition, loading characteristics, and chemistry of the aqueous environment. The main conclusion is that the PWSCC growth rates described for A182 specimens in this report are comparable to the crack growth rates that characterize the performance of Alloy 600 (A600).This report is the first in a series documenting the results of crack growth rate testing in vessel head penetration materials, focusing on the weld metals, A182 and A152, and including results of some tests of the base metals, A600 and (eventually) A690. The results presented in this report were obtained in tests of a laboratory-fabricated, shielded metal arc welding deposit of A182. ...

Effect of thermal aging and irradiation on microstructure and crack growth response of Alloy 690

“…In this representation, the environmental enhancement, i.e., the departure from the "1:1 diagonal" can be easily visualized. Correlations describing cyclic CGRs in air and LWR environments have been established by ANL for Alloy 600, 690, Ni-base weldments as well as SSs [25][26][27][28][29]. For comparison, the expected cyclic CGR curve for Alloy 600 was also included.…”