Analysis of mechanisms inducing corrosion cracking of irradiated austenitic steels and development of a model for prediction of crack initiation

Boris Margolin*, Alexander Sorokin, Natalia Pirogova, Aki Toivonen, Faiza Sefta, Cédric Pokor

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    10 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The austenitic steels used for RPV internals of light water reactors (LWR) are considered. Mechanisms having a potential effect on irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC) of austenitic steels in the LWR environment have been analyzed. Based on the analysis and generalization of reference and original data on IASCC, an IASCC initiation criterion has been formulated. The nature of low-temperature creep of irradiated austenitic steels has been considered, constitutive equations have been derived. Relying on the formulated criterion of grain-boundary microcrack nucleation and the derived creep equations, an IASCC initiation model has been developed. The model allows one to predict the dependence of the threshold stress σth IASCC on neutron dose and also to calculate the IASCC initiation time with stresses exceeding σth IASCC.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number104235
    JournalEngineering Failure Analysis
    Volume107
    Early online date14 Oct 2019
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jan 2020
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Keywords

    • Austenitic steels
    • Constant load tests
    • Constitutive equations
    • Creep
    • Damage dose
    • Grain boundary sliding
    • Intergranular fracture
    • Irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking
    • Localized deformation
    • Microcrack
    • Neutron irradiation
    • Passive film
    • RPV internals
    • Slow strain rate tests

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