Subcritical Crack Growth: Environmentally Enhanced Crack Growth under Sustained Loads (or Stress Corrosion Cracking)

2012 ◽  
pp. 120-157
Author(s):  
Robert P. Wei

Subcritical crack growth can occur under steady or varying loads. In the former it is precipitated by specific environmental conditions that encourage the operation of time-dependent processes controlling crack advance. These include aggressive environments leading to stress corrosion cracking, or elevated temperature conditions leading to creep cavitation. The result is a time-dependent maintenance of a sharp crack profile during crack extension. Under varying loads such a sharp profile is readily achieved by plastic deformation on load reduction. Net crack advance in fatigue therefore occurs in each load cycle by this blunting-resharpening process, and empirical crack growth laws reflect this physical basis. Parameters such as K and J, which define crack tip deformation, are useful for correlating fatigue crack growth. In that they define crack tip stress-strain fields under load, they also partly describe crack advance for steady load creep and stress corrosion cracking. In particular they can define a threshold state for crack extension by all three processes. Under varying loads, if fatigue conditions are combined with an aggressive or high-temperature environment the description of crack growth can be complex. These areas of corrosion fatigue and creep fatigue are of considerable current practical interest.


1993 ◽  
Vol 314 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Card ◽  
R. M. Cannon ◽  
R. H. Dauskardt ◽  
R. O. Ritchie

AbstractIt is known that the fracture resistance of glass-copper interfaces depends strongly on the water content in ambient gaseous environments. In the present study, subcritical crack growth stimulated by water and other environmental species is investigated for such interfaces. Tests were conducted in various liquids, namely water, N-methylformamide, and n-butanol. All were found to accelerate fracture with the greatest effects from liquid water. Results are considered in the context of current models for stress-corrosion crack growth.


2006 ◽  
Vol 306-308 ◽  
pp. 447-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiichiro Tohgo ◽  
Nobuhiro Ogai

According to laboratory accelerated test data, stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in structural metal materials occurs by initiation and coalescence of micro cracks, subcritical crack growth, multiple large crack formation and final failure under the combination of materials, stress and corrosive environment. In this paper, a computer simulation model for the process of SCC has been proposed. The procedure is as follows: The possible number of crack initiations is set for a given space and the initiation times for all cracks are assigned by random numbers based on exponential distribution. The sites and length of the cracks are assigned by uniform random numbers and normal random numbers, respectively. The coalescence of cracks and the subcritical crack growth are determined based on the fracture mechanics. The simulation is terminated when the maximum crack length reaches a critical value or all of the possible number of cracks is initiated. The results obtained in this paper indicate the applicability of the present model to predict the SCC behavior in real structures based on the laboratory accelerated test data.


Author(s):  
Frank Y. Cheng

A thermodynamic model was developed to determine the interactions of hydrogen, stress and anodic dissolution at the crack-tip during near-neutral pH stress corrosion cracking in pipelines. By analyzing the free-energy of the steel in the presence and absence of hydrogen and stress, it is demonstrated that a synergism of hydrogen and stress promotes the cracking of the steel. The enhanced hydrogen concentration in the stressed steel significantly accelerates the crack growth. The quantitative prediction of the crack growth rate in near-neutral pH environment is based on the determination of the effect of hydrogen on the anodic dissolution rate in the absence of stress, the effect of stress on the anodic dissolution rate in the absence of hydrogen, the synergistic effect of hydrogen and stress on the anodic dissolution rate at the crack-tip and the effect of the variation of hydrogen concentration on the anodic dissolution rate.


Author(s):  
Frederick W. Brust ◽  
Paul M. Scott

There have been incidents recently where cracking has been observed in the bi-metallic welds that join the hot leg to the reactor pressure vessel nozzle. The hot leg pipes are typically large diameter, thick wall pipes. Typically, an inconel weld metal is used to join the ferritic pressure vessel steel to the stainless steel pipe. The cracking, mainly confined to the inconel weld metal, is caused by corrosion mechanisms. Tensile weld residual stresses, in addition to service loads, contribute to PWSCC (Primary Water Stress Corrosion Cracking) crack growth. In addition to the large diameter hot leg pipe, cracking in other piping components of different sizes has been observed. For instance, surge lines and spray line cracking has been observed that has been attributed to this degradation mechanism. Here we present some models which are used to predict the PWSCC behavior in nuclear piping. This includes weld model solutions of bimetal pipe welds along with an example calculation of PWSCC crack growth in a hot leg. Risk based considerations are also discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Rehmat Bashir ◽  
He Xue ◽  
Rui Guo ◽  
Yueqi Bi ◽  
Muhammad Usman

The structural integrity analysis of nuclear power plants (NPPs) is an essential procedure since the age of NPPs is increasing constantly while the number of new NPPs is still limited. Low-cyclic fatigue (LCF) and stress corrosion cracking (SSC) are the two main causes of failure in light-water reactors (LWRs). In the last few decades, many types of research studies have been conducted on these two phenomena separately, but the joint effect of these two mechanisms on the same crack has not been discussed yet though these two loads exist simultaneously in the LWRs. SCC is mainly a combination of the loading, the corrosive medium, and the susceptibility of materials while the LCF depends upon the elements such as compression, moisture, contact, and weld. As it is an attempt to combine SCC and LCF, this research focuses on the joint effect of SCC and LCF loading on crack propagation. The simulations are carried out using extended finite element method (XFEM) separately, for the SCC and LCF, on an identical crack. In the case of SCC, da/dt(mm/sec) is converted into da/dNScc (mm/cycle), and results are combined at the end. It has been observed that the separately calculated results for SCC da/dNScc and LCF da/dNm of crack growth rate are different from those of joint/overall effect,  da/dNom. By applying different SCC loads, the overall crack growth is measured as SCC load becomes the main cause of failure in LWRs in some cases particularly in the presence of residual stresses.


Author(s):  
B. Zhang ◽  
J. Fan ◽  
Y. Gogotsi ◽  
A. Chudnovsky ◽  
A. Teitsma

Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is a complex phenomenon that involves various interacting physical and chemical processes. There is a combination of determinism and stochasticity that results in SCC colony evolution. A statistical model that generates a random field of corrosion pits and crack initiation at randomly selected pits is proposed in this work. A thermodynamic model of individual SC crack growth has been recently developed within the framework of the Crack Layer theory. Mathematical realization of the SC crack growth model is presented in the form of relations between the crack growth, hydrogen diffusion and corrosion rates on one hand and corresponding thermodynamic forces on the other. Experimental program for determination of the kinetic coefficients employed in crack growth equations is briefly reported. Finally, application of the individual crack growth law to random configuration of multiple cracks results in a simulation of SCC colony evolution, including a stage of the large-scale crack interaction. The solution of the crack interaction problem via FRANC2D Finite Element Methods results in a computer simulation of multi-crack cluster formation within the colony.


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