Understanding Susceptibility of In-core Components to Irradiation-assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking PDF Download
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Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 9
Book Description
As nuclear plants age and accumulated fluences of core structural components increase, susceptibility of the components to irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC) is also expected to increase. Irradiation-induced sensitization, commonly associated with an IASCC failure, was investigated in this study to provide a better understanding of long-term structural integrity of safety-significant in-core components. Irradiation-induced sensitization of high- and commercial-purity Type 304 stainless steels irradiated in BWRs was analyzed. 7 refs., 8 figs.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 9
Book Description
As nuclear plants age and accumulated fluences of core structural components increase, susceptibility of the components to irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC) is also expected to increase. Irradiation-induced sensitization, commonly associated with an IASCC failure, was investigated in this study to provide a better understanding of long-term structural integrity of safety-significant in-core components. Irradiation-induced sensitization of high- and commercial-purity Type 304 stainless steels irradiated in BWRs was analyzed. 7 refs., 8 figs.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
. Irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC) is a known issue in current reactors. In a 60 year lifetime, reactor core internals may experience fluence levels up to 15 dpa for boiling water reactors (BWR) and 100+ dpa for pressurized water reactors (PWR). To support a safe operation of our fleet of reactors and maintain their economic viability it is important to be able to predict any evolution of material behaviors as reactors age and therefore fluence accumulated by reactor core component increases. For PWR reactors, the difficulty to predict high fluence behavior comes from the fact that there is not a consensus of the mechanism of IASCC and that little data is available. It is however possible to use the current state of knowledge on the evolution of irradiated microstructure and on the processes that influences IASCC to emit hypotheses. This report identifies several potential changes in microstructure and proposes to identify their potential impact of IASCC. The susceptibility of a component to high fluence IASCC is considered to not only depends on the intrinsic IASCC susceptibility of the component due to radiation effects on the material but to also be related to the evolution of the loading history of the material and interaction with the environment as total fluence increases. Single variation type experiments are proposed to be performed with materials that are representative of PWR condition and with materials irradiated in other conditions. To address the lack of IASCC propagation and initiation data generated with material irradiated in PWR condition, it is proposed to investigate the effect of spectrum and flux rate on the evolution of microstructure. A long term irradiation, aimed to generate a well-controlled irradiation history on a set on selected materials is also proposed for consideration. For BWR, the study of available data permitted to identify an area of concern for long term performance of component. The efficiency of hydrogen water chemistry mitigation technology may decrease as fluence increases for high-stress intensity factors. This report describes a program plan to determine the efficiency of hydrogen water chemistry as a function of the stress intensity factor applied and fluence. The use of existing, available, materials and the generation of additional materials via irradiation in a research reactor are considered.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
The overall goal of the project is to determine the mechanism of irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC). IASCC has been linked to hardening, microstructural and microchemical changes during irradiation. Unfortunately, all of these changes occur simultaneously and at similar rates during irradiation, making attribution of IASCC to any one of these features nearly impossible to determine. The strategy set forth in this project is to develop means to separate microstructural from microchemical changes to evaluate each separately for their effect on IASCC. In the first part, post irradiation annealing (PIA) treatments are used to anneal the irradiated microstructure, leaving only radiation induced segregation (RIS) for evaluation for its contribution to IASCC. The second part of the strategy is to use low temperature irradiation to produce a radiation damage dislocation loop microstructure without radiation induced segregation in order to evaluate the effect of the dislocation microstructure alone. A radiation annealing model was developed based on the elimination of dislocation loops by vacancy absorption. Results showed that there were indeed, time-temperature annealing combinations that leave the radiation induced segregation profile largely unaltered while the dislocation microstructure is significantly reduced. Proton irradiation of 304 stainless steel irradiated with 3.2 MeV protons to 1.0 or 2.5 dpa resulted in grain boundary depletion of chromium and enrichment of nickel and a radiation damaged microstructure. Post irradiation annealing at temperatures of 500 600°C for times of up to 45 min. removed the dislocation microstructure to a greater degree with increasing temperatures, or times at temperature, while leaving the radiation induced segregation profile relatively unaltered. Constant extension rate tensile (CERT) experiments in 288°C water containing 2 ppm O2 and with a conductivity of 0.2 mS/cm and at a strain rate of 3 x 10-7 s-1 showed that the IASCC susceptibility, as measured by the crack length per unit strain, decreased with very short anneals and was almost completely removed by an anneal at 500°C for 45 min. This annealing treatment removed about 15% of the dislocation microstructure and the irradiation hardening, but did not affect the grain boundary chromium depletion or nickel segregation, nor did it affect the grain boundary content of other minor impurities. These results indicate that RIS is not the sole controlling feature of IASCC in irradiated stainless steels in normal water chemistry. The isolation of the irradiated microstructure was approached using low temperature irradiation or combinations of low and high temperature irradiations to achieve a stable, irradiated microstructure without RIS. Experiments were successful in achieving a high degree of irradiation hardening without any evidence of RIS of either major or minor elements. The low temperature irradiations to doses up to 0.3 dpa at T
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 115
Book Description
The internal components of light water reactors are exposed to high-energy neutron irradiation and high-temperature reactor coolant. The exposure to neutron irradiation increases the susceptibility of austenitic stainless steels (SSs) to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) because of the elevated corrosion potential of the reactor coolant and the introduction of new embrittlement mechanisms through radiation damage. Various nonsensitized SSs and nickel alloys have been found to be prone to intergranular cracking after extended neutron exposure. Such cracks have been seen in a number of internal components in boiling water reactors (BWRs). The elevated susceptibility to SCC in irradiated materials, commonly referred to as irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC), is a complex phenomenon that involves simultaneous actions of irradiation, stress, and corrosion. In recent years, as nuclear power plants have aged and irradiation dose increased, IASCC has become an increasingly important issue. Post-irradiation crack growth rate and fracture toughness tests have been performed to provide data and technical support for the NRC to address various issues related to aging degradation of reactor-core internal structures and components. This report summarizes the results of the last group of tests on compact tension specimens from the Halden-II irradiation. The IASCC susceptibility of austenitic SSs and heat-affected-zone (HAZ) materials sectioned from submerged arc and shielded metal arc welds was evaluated by conducting crack growth rate and fracture toughness tests in a simulated BWR environment. The fracture and cracking behavior of HAZ materials, thermally sensitized SSs and grain-boundary engineered SSs was investigated at several doses (≤3 dpa). These latest results were combined with previous results from Halden-I and II irradiations to analyze the effects of neutron dose, water chemistry, alloy compositions, and welding and processing conditions on IASCC. The effect of neutron irradiation on the fracture toughness of austenitic SSs was also evaluated at dose levels relevant to BWR internals.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking is a key materials degradation issue in today s nuclear power reactor fleet and affects critical structural components within the reactor core. The effects of increased exposure to irradiation, stress, and/or coolant can substantially increase susceptibility to stress-corrosion cracking of austenitic steels in high-temperature water environments. . Despite 30 years of experience, the underlying mechanisms of IASCC are unknown. Extended service conditions will increase the exposure to irradiation, stress, and corrosive environment for all core internal components. The objective of this effort within the Light Water Reactor Sustainability program is to evaluate the response and mechanisms of IASCC in austenitic stainless steels with single variable experiments. A series of high-value irradiated specimens has been acquired from the past international research programs, providing a valuable opportunity to examine the mechanisms of IASCC. This batch of irradiated specimens has been received and inventoried. In addition, visual examination and sample cleaning has been completed. Microhardness testing has been performed on these specimens. All samples show evidence of hardening, as expected, although the degree of hardening has saturated and no trend with dose is observed. Further, the change in hardening can be converted to changes in mechanical properties. The calculated yield stress is consistent with previous data from light water reactor conditions. In addition, some evidence of changes in deformation mode was identified via examination of the microhardness indents. This analysis may provide further insights into the deformation mode under larger scale tests. Finally, swelling analysis was performed using immersion density methods. Most alloys showed some evidence of swelling, consistent with the expected trends for this class of alloy. The Hf-doped alloy showed densification rather than swelling. This observation may be related to the formation of second-phases under irradiation, although further examination is required.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 14
Book Description
Certain safety-related core internal structural components of light water reactors, usually fabricated from Type 304 or 316 austenitic stainless steels (SSs), accumulate very high levels of irradiation damage (20--100 displacement per atom or dpa) by the end of life. The data bases and mechanistic understanding of, the degradation of such highly irradiated components, however, are not well established. A key question is the nature of irradiation-assisted intergranular cracking at very high dose, i.e., is it purely mechanical failure or is it stress-commotion cracking? In this work, hot-cell tests and microstructural characterization were performed on Type 304 SS from the hexagonal fuel can of the decommissioned EBR-11 reactor after irradiation to (approximately)50 dpa at (approximately)370 C. Slow-strain-rate tensile tests were conducted at 289 C in air and in water at several levels of electrochemical potential (ECP), and microstructural characteristics were analyzed by scanning and transmission electron microcopies. The material deformed significantly by twinning and exhibited surprisingly high ductility in air, but was susceptible to severe intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC) at high ECP. Low levels of dissolved O and ECP were effective in suppressing the susceptibility of the heavily irradiated material to IGSCC, indicating that the stress corrosion process associated with irradiation-induced grain-boundary Cr depletion, rather than purely mechanical separation of grain boundaries, plays the dominant role. However, although IGSCC was suppressed, the material was susceptible to dislocation channeling at low ECP, and this susceptibility led to poor work-hardening capability and low ductility.
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Author: H. M. Chung
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