Environmentally-assisted cracking of carbon and low-alloy steels in light water reactors

Seifert, Hans-Peter; Ritter, Stefan

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-823719-9.00005-6

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…The fractographical post-test investigations showed transgranul SICC cracking with features typically observed in EAC tests with LAS in a high-temper ture water environment Figure 7. [2,7]. This behaviour of the EPN signal was observed many tests of previous studies [25] and could be clearly attributed to EAC initiation.…”

Section: Cert Tests With Continuous Chloride Additionsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Considering the limited information available from PSI's experience and literature data on the mechanism behind chloride-induced EAC and based on the film rupture/anodic dissolution model of Ford and Andresen [2,4,5], it is believed that a combination of all the phenomena described above may contribute to the chloride-enhanced crack initiation process. The thinning of the protective oxide film, together with a decreased rupture Considering the limited information available from PSI's experience and literature data on the mechanism behind chloride-induced EAC and based on the film rupture/anodic dissolution model of Ford and Andresen [2,4,5], it is believed that a combination of all the phenomena described above may contribute to the chloride-enhanced crack initiation process. The thinning of the protective oxide film, together with a decreased rupture strain, might increase the number of rupture events caused by mechanical straining and exposes more areas of bare metal to the water.…”

Section: Mechanistic Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Environmentally-assisted cracking (EAC) of structural materials in the primary circuit of light water reactors is one of the most frequent ageing mechanisms, challenging the economic and safe operation of nuclear power plants. In former research projects at PSI and elsewhere, the EAC behaviour of low-alloy steel (LAS) pressure boundary components has been well established under transient-free, steady-state boiling water reactor (BWR) power operation conditions and revealed very low susceptibility to EAC crack growth under constant load [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. On the other hand, more recent crack growth investigations at PSI [8][9][10], Framatome GmbH (formerly Areva GmbH) [11,12], and GE-Global Research Center [13][14][15][16] have shown that small amounts of chloride in the simulated (oxygenated) reactor water can cause very high crack growth rates under constant load.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, the possible effect of short-term water chemistry transients on the transition EAC crack growth behaviour during and, in particular, after a transient under subsequent steady-state power operation is of great interest for safety assessments. Therefore, the effect of chloride on the EAC initiation behaviour was further investigated at PSI in the framework of a national research program [18]. In the current paper, the results are briefly summarized, and the paper has been adopted from the project report [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the effect of chloride on the EAC initiation behaviour was further investigated at PSI in the framework of a national research program [18]. In the current paper, the results are briefly summarized, and the paper has been adopted from the project report [18]. Table 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of Chloride on the Environmentally-Assisted Crack Initiation Behaviour of Low-Alloy Steel under Boiling Water Reactor Conditions

Ritter

Seifert

2022

CMD

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Low-alloy reactor pressure vessel steels have a rather low susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in a boiling water reactor (BWR) environment if the high-temperature water contains no anionic impurities. Recent investigations revealed that under oxidizing BWR normal water chemistry (NWC) conditions extremely small amounts of chloride, can cause very high SCC growth rates in these materials. Therefore, the effect of continuous and temporary chloride additions on the crack initiation behaviour was explored by a series of constant extension rate tensile (CERT) and constant load tests in high-temperature water. In an NWC environment, containing ≥2 ppb of chloride, strain-induced corrosion cracking (SICC) initiation occurred briefly after the onset of plastic yielding and at much smaller strains than in high-purity water. On the other hand, under reducing hydrogen water chemistry conditions with up to 700 ppb chloride, no SICC was detected up to very high strains. CERT experiments, with moderate short-term chloride transients before and during the loading, showed that even serious mechanical loading transients, one day after returning to high-purity water, did not result in early SICC initiation.

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Section: Cert Tests With Continuous Chloride Additionsupporting

confidence: 78%