Examples of corrosion cracking in Cr18Ni10Ti steel caused by residual stresses at bends and pittings

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 904-908
Author(s):  
B. K. Barakhtin ◽  
V. N. Malyshev
2013 ◽  
Vol 747-748 ◽  
pp. 723-732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ru Xiong ◽  
Ying Jie Qiao ◽  
Gui Liang Liu

This discussion reviewed the occurrence of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of alloys 182 and 82 weld metals in primary water (PWSCC) of pressurized water reactors (PWR) from both operating plants and laboratory experiments. Results from in-service experience showed that more than 340 Alloy 182/82 welds have sustained PWSCC. Most of these cases have been attributed to the presence of high residual stresses produced during the manufacture aside from the inherent tendency for Alloy 182/82 to sustain SCC. The affected welds were not subjected to a stress relief heat treatment with adjacent low alloy steel components. Results from laboratory studies indicated that time-to-cracking of Alloy 82 was a factor of 4 to 10 longer than that for Alloy 182. PWSCC depended strongly on the surface condition, surface residual stresses and surface cold work, which were consistent with the results of in-service failures. Improvements in the resistance of advanced weld metals, Alloys 152 and 52, to PWSCC were discussed.


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.


Author(s):  
Frederick W. Brust ◽  
R. E. Kurth ◽  
D. J. Shim ◽  
David Rudland

Risk based treatment of degradation and fracture in nuclear power plants has emerged as an important topic in recent years. One degradation mechanism of concern is stress corrosion cracking. Stress corrosion cracking is strongly driven by the weld residual stresses (WRS) which develop in nozzles and piping from the welding process. The weld residual stresses can have a large uncertainty associated with them. This uncertainty is caused by many sources including material property variations of base and welds metal, weld sequencing, weld repairs, weld process method, and heat inputs. Moreover, often mitigation procedures are used to correct a problem in an existing plant, which also leads to uncertainty in the WRS fields. The WRS fields are often input to probabilistic codes from weld modeling analyses. Thus another source of uncertainty is represented by the accuracy of the predictions compared with a limited set of measurements. Within the framework of a probabilistic degradation and fracture mechanics code these uncertainties must all be accounted for properly. Here we summarize several possibilities for properly accounting for the uncertainty inherent in the WRS fields. Several examples are shown which illustrate ranges where these treatments work well and ranges where improvement is needed. In addition, we propose a new method for consideration. This method consists of including the uncertainty sources within the WRS fields and tabulating them within tables which are then sampled during the probabilistic realization. Several variations of this process are also discussed. Several examples illustrating the procedures are presented.


Author(s):  
J. Broussard ◽  
P. Crooker

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) are working cooperatively under a memorandum of understanding to validate welding residual stress predictions in pressurized water reactor primary cooling loop components containing dissimilar metal welds. These stresses are of interest as DM welds in pressurized water reactors are susceptible to primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) and tensile weld residual stresses are one of the primary drivers of this stress corrosion cracking mechanism. The NRC/EPRI weld residual stress (WRS) program currently consists of four phases, with each phase increasing in complexity from lab size specimens to component mock-ups and ex-plant material. This paper describes the Phase 1 program, which comprised an initial period of learning and research for both FEA methods and measurement techniques using simple welded specimens. The Phase 1 specimens include a number of plate and cylinder geometries, each designed to provide a controlled configuration for maximum repeatability of measurements and modeling. A spectrum of surface and through-wall residual stress measurement techniques have been explored using the Phase 1 specimens, including incremental hole drilling, ring-core, and x-ray diffraction for surface stresses and neutron diffraction, deep-hole drilling, and contour method for through-wall stresses. The measured residual stresses are compared to the predicted stress results from a number of researchers employing a variety of modeling techniques. Comparisons between the various measurement techniques and among the modeling results have allowed for greater insight into the impact of various parameters on predicted versus measured residual stress. This paper will also discuss the technical challenges and lessons learned as part of the DM weld materials residual stress measurements.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2416
Author(s):  
Yun Luo ◽  
Wenbin Gu ◽  
Wei Peng ◽  
Qiang Jin ◽  
Qingliang Qin ◽  
...  

In this paper, the effect of repair welding heat input on microstructure, residual stresses, and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) sensitivity were investigated by simulation and experiment. The results show that heat input influences the microstructure, residual stresses, and SCC behavior. With the increase of heat input, both the δ-ferrite in weld and the average grain width decrease slightly, while the austenite grain size in the heat affected zone (HAZ) is slightly increased. The predicted repair welding residual stresses by simulation have good agreement with that by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The transverse residual stresses in the weld and HAZ are gradually decreased as the increases of heat input. The higher heat input can enhance the tensile strength and elongation of repaired joint. When the heat input was increased by 33%, the SCC sensitivity index was decreased by more than 60%. The macroscopic cracks are easily generated in HAZ for the smaller heat input, leading to the smaller tensile strength and elongation. The larger heat input is recommended in the repair welding in 304 stainless steel.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1127 ◽  
pp. 121-126
Author(s):  
Georgy Shimov ◽  
Andrey Serebryakov ◽  
Aleksander Serebryakov

The main reason of appearance and growth of corrosion damages of the nuclear steam generator heat exchanger tubes is the process of stress-corrosion cracking of metal under the influence of residual tensile stress.The article contain the suggestion of the method that combines the operation of heat processing and straightening of pipes by stretching. The approbation of the method was carried out in the laboratory conditions. There is described the construction and working principle of a trial installation. During the experiments different parameters of electrocontact heating with stretching were tested. Approbation showed that the proposed method can reduce the level of tensile residual stresses or get compressive residual stresses in the wall of the tubes, which increases their resistance to corrosion.Keywords:Steam generator, heat exchange tubes, stress corrosion cracking, intercrystalline corrosion, residual stresses


Author(s):  
L. F. Fredette ◽  
Paul M. Scott ◽  
F. W. Brust ◽  
A. Csontos

Full Structural Weld Overlay (FSWOL) has been used successfully to mitigate intergranular stress corrosion cracking in boiling water reactor (BWR) welded stainless steel piping for many years. The FSWOL technique adds structural reinforcement, can add crack resistant material, and can create compressive residual stresses at the inside surface of the welded joint which reduces the possibility of further stress corrosion cracking. Recently, the FSWOL has been applied as a preemptive measure to prevent primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) in pressurized water reactors (PWR) on susceptible welded pipes with dissimilar metal welds common to PWR primary cooling piping. This study uses finite element models to evaluate the likely residual and operating stress profiles remaining after FSWOL and describes the results of sensitivity studies which were performed to examine the effect of weld overlay thickness on the residual stresses for typical dissimilar metal weld configurations.


Author(s):  
L. F. Fredette ◽  
Paul M. Scott ◽  
F. W. Brust ◽  
A. Csontos

Full Structural Weld Overlay (FSWOL) has been used successfully to mitigate intergranular stress corrosion cracking in boiling water reactor (BWR) welded stainless steel piping for many years. The FSWOL technique adds structural reinforcement, can add crack resistant material, and can create compressive residual stresses at the inside surface of the welded joint which reduces the possibility of further stress corrosion cracking. Recently, the FSWOL has been applied as a preemptive measure to prevent primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) in pressurized water reactors (PWR) on susceptible welded pipes with dissimilar metal welds common to PWR primary cooling piping. This study uses finite element models to evaluate the likely residual and operating stress profiles remaining after FSWOL for typical dissimilar metal weld configurations and describes the results of sensitivity studies which were performed to examine the effect of weld sequencing on the residual stresses produced in common configurations of PWR primary cooling system piping.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Hu ◽  
Hao-Yong Jiang ◽  
Yun Luo ◽  
Qiang Jin ◽  
Wei Peng ◽  
...  

The repair reinforcement height is an important parameter of repair welding, which may have a great influence on structural integrity. In this paper, the effects of repair welding reinforcement height on the microstructure, microhardness, residual stresses and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behavior of a 304 stainless steel-repaired joint were investigated by experimentation and simulation. With an increase of the repair weld reinforcement height, the δ ferrite content in weld and fusion zone is obviously reduced, and the ferrite shape is gradually changed from the skeleton to the worm shape. With the increase of repair welding reinforcement height, the microhardness and residual stresses decrease gradually. The tensile strength and elongation for higher repair weld reinforcement height are larger than those with lower repair weld reinforcement height. The higher the repair weld reinforcement height, the harder it is for SCC to occur. The repair welding in 304 stainless steel is recommended to be repaired no more than two times.


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