Environmentally Assisted Cracking of Nickel Alloys

Book · Fri Feb 06 04:00:00 EST 2004

OSTI ID:897971

Rebak, R B

Environmentally Assisted Cracking (EAC) is a general term that includes phenomena such as stress corrosion cracking (SCC), hydrogen embrittlement (HE), sulfide stress cracking (SSC), liquid metal embrittlement (LME), etc. EAC refers to a phenomenon by which a normally ductile metal looses its toughness (e.g. elongation to rupture) when it is subjected to mechanical stresses in presence of a specific corroding environment. For EAC to occur, three affecting factors must be present simultaneously. These include: (1) Mechanical tensile stresses, (2) A susceptible metal microstructure and (3) A specific aggressive environment. If any of these three factors is removed, EAC will not occur. That is, to mitigate the occurrence of EAC, engineers may for example eliminate residual stresses in a component or limit its application to certain chemicals (environment). The term environment not only includes chemical composition of the solution in contact with the component but also other variables such as temperature and applied potential. Nickel alloys are in general more resistant than stainless steels to EAC. For example, austenitic stainless steels (such as S30400) suffer SCC in presence of hot aqueous solutions containing chloride ions. Since chloride ions are ubiquitous in most industrial applications, the use of stressed stainless steels parts is seriously limited. On the other hand, nickel alloys (such as N10276) are practically immune to SCC in presence of hot chloride solutions and therefore an excellent alternative to replace the troubled stainless steels. Nonetheless, nickel alloys are not immune to other types of EAC. There are several environments (such as hot caustic and hot hydrofluoric acid) that may produce embrittlement in nickel alloys (Crum et al, 2000) (Table 1). The conditions where nickel alloys suffer EAC are highly specific and therefore avoidable by the proper design of the industrial components.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 897971
• Report Number(s): UCRL-BOOK-202251
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CHLORIDES
ELONGATION
EMBRITTLEMENT
HYDROFLUORIC ACID
HYDROGEN EMBRITTLEMENT
LIQUID METALS
MICROSTRUCTURE
NICKEL ALLOYS
RESIDUAL STRESSES
STAINLESS STEELS
STRESS CORROSION
STRESSES
SULFIDES
SUPERCONDUCTING SUPER COLLIDER