Abstract
It has been clarified that the fatigue life is decreased in the fatigue test of high-temperature and high-pressure water that simulates PWR reactor coolant environment compared to that in the atmosphere. Temperature, strain rates, dissolved oxygen concentration, etc. affect the decrease of fatigue life.
The influence of crack growth behavior on the fatigue life of Type 316 austenitic stainless steel [1] in simulated PWR reactor coolant environment of different temperatures was investigated in this study. Fatigue tests were conducted under different temperatures (200°C and 325°C) in a simulated PWR reactor coolant environment with interrupting, and cracks generated on the specimen surface were observed with two-step replica method. From the results of observation, the influence of crack growth behavior in different temperatures on the fatigue life was clarified.
As a result, it was confirmed that the decrease of the fatigue life due to high temperature is mainly caused by the acceleration of crack propagation rate in the depth direction by the increase of crack coalescence frequency due to the increase of crack initiation number and crack propagation rate in the length direction.
Crack Growth Behavior of IN100 Alloy Using In-Situ Observational Methods under High Temperature Creep and Fatigue Conditions