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Title: Corrosion and stress corrosion cracking of type 304 stainless steel and carbon steel in simulated boiling water reactor

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:5315084

It was found that A508 C1.2 steel undergoes corrosion cracking in pure water containing 1 or 8 ppM of oxygen at tempertures ranging from 100 to 288 C. At temperatures of 100 and 150 C, cracks nucleate at corrosion pits. At higher temperatures, however, cracks nucleate beneath hematite crystals which grow via dissolution-precipitation upon a base oxide film at sites of high dissolution. The susceptibility to SCC increase with increasing oxygen concentration but passes through a maximum as a function of temperature at 250 C. The susceptibility of sensitized Type 304 stainless steel and ASTM A508 C1.2 steel to SCC in high temperature oxygenated water, as determined using constant extension rate tests, is found to depend upon the velocity of the fluid flow past the gauge section. This work has demonstrated that in both cases, the failure time increases with increasing flow rate and that both the crack initiation time and the apparent crack propagation rate depend upon the flow velocity. The longer failure time is mainly attributed to an increase in the crack initiation time. The smaller crack propagation rate during the initial crack propagation period is controlled by the physical and electrochemical factors but the higher crack propagation rate results from the fact that as initiation is delayed a higher stress intensity exists at the crack tip.

Research Organization:
Ohio State Univ., Columbus (USA)
OSTI ID:
5315084
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English