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A Mechanistic Study of the Effect of Temperature on Crack Propagation in Alloy 600 Under PWR Primary Water Conditions

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Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems – Water Reactors

Part of the book series: The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series ((MMMS))

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Abstract

Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in Alloy 600 has been studied in simulated pressurized water reactor (PWR) primary water at various temperatures. A clear correlation between temperature and crack growth rate (CGR) was found showing that the CGR increased monotonously within the range of temperatures used in this study (320–360 °C). In order to understand the temperature dependence of CGR, high-resolution characterization was used to study the crack tips. The crack tips obtained from different temperatures were analyzed by high-resolution analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to reveal the crack tip morphology and chemistry, which enable the study of a thermally activated diffusion-based mechanism operating during SCC propagation. Transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) was used to investigate mechanical response-based mechanisms in SCC propagation through quantifying the size and extent of plastic deformation around the crack tips. Results obtained in this study show that the thermally activated diffusion along the grain boundary increased with temperature while the changes of plastic deformation around the crack tip were small and nearly independent of temperature, suggesting that a thermally activated diffusion-based mechanism was dominant.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Koji Arioka (INSS) for providing the samples used in this study and for useful discussions. Zhao Shen is also grateful to China Scholarship Council for providing financial support. The EPSRC (EP/K040375/1) is acknowledged for funding the ‘South of England Analytical Electron Microscope’ used in this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Road, OX1 3PH, Oxford, UK

    Zhao Shen & Sergio Lozano-Perez

Authors
  1. Zhao Shen
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  2. Sergio Lozano-Perez
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Correspondence to Zhao Shen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, USA

    John H. Jackson

  2. Naval Nuclear Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Denise Paraventi

  3. Chalk River Laboratories, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, ON, Canada

    Michael Wright

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© 2019 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society

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Shen, Z., Lozano-Perez, S. (2019). A Mechanistic Study of the Effect of Temperature on Crack Propagation in Alloy 600 Under PWR Primary Water Conditions. In: Jackson, J., Paraventi, D., Wright, M. (eds) Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems – Water Reactors. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04639-2_28

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