Author(s):  
Ankang Cheng ◽  
Nian-Zhong Chen

Subsea structures such as pipelines are vulnerable to environment-assisted crackings (EACs). As a type of EAC, corrosion fatigue (CF) is almost inevitable. For such a process, stress corrosion (SC) and hydrogen-assisted cracking (HAC) are the two mainly driving mechanisms. And it was further pointed out that slip dissolution (SD) and hydrogen embrittlement (HE) should be responsible for SC and HAC respectively. Based on such a fact, a two-component physical model for estimating the CF crack propagation rate was proposed. The proposed model was built in a frame of fracture mechanics integrated with a dissolution model for C-Mn steel and a newly established model by the authors accounting for the influence from HE upon crack propagation. The overall CF crack propagation rate is the aggregate of the two rates predicted by the two sub-individual models, and then the crack propagation time is calculated accordingly. The model has been proven to be capable of capturing the features of HE influenced fatigue cracking behaviour as well as taking mechanical factors such as the loading frequency and stress ratio into account by comparison with the experimental data of X42 and X65 pipeline steels.


Author(s):  
James Frith ◽  
Robert Frith

After operating for a number of years, a high temperature rotary ore cooler suffered cracking. The cracks grew through the shell wall resulting in leakage of water from the water bath into the ore. Under the extreme temperature, the risk of water dissociation into hydrogen and subsequent explosion was of substantial concern and instigated the investigation in to the root cause of the cracking which was deduced to be driven by high thermally induced stresses. The root cause for the thermally induced stressing was found to be related to a design flaw that was not immediately obvious. The investigation outcome was a recommendation to change the design to eliminate the high localized stresses which were believed to be the driving force behind the corrosion fatigue crack propagation. This paper presents the investigation approach which included advanced thermal and stress analysis and reports on the general design principle that should be adopted to avoid thermal stress induced corrosion fatigue cracking under high temperature operation.


Author(s):  
Gang Chen ◽  
Puning Jiang ◽  
Xingzhu Ye ◽  
Junhui Zhang ◽  
Yifeng Hu ◽  
...  

Although stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and corrosion fatigue cracking can occur in many locations of nuclear steam turbines, most of them initiate at low pressure disc rim, rotor groove and keyway of the shrunk-on disc. For nuclear steam turbine components, long life endurance and high availability are very important factors in the operation. Usually nuclear power plants operating more than sixty years are susceptible to this failure mechanism. If SCC or corrosion fatigue happens, especially in rotor groove or keyway, it has a major influence on nuclear steam turbine life. In this paper, established methods for the SCC and corrosion fatigue-controlled life prediction of steam turbine components were applied to evaluating a new shrunk-on disc that had suffered local keyway surface damage during manufacture and loss of residual compressive stress.


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