Irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking of stainless steels in a PWR environment (A combined approach)

Abstract

This work deals with the study of the Irradiation Assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking and presents a methodology coupling microstructure,, strain field and crack’s initiation analysis. Its purpose is to improve the understanding of irradiation effects on the mechanical behaviour of internal stainless steel structures in a Pressurized Water Reactor environment.

Proton-irradiations were performed at the Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory on specimen that underwent Slow Strain Rate Tensile tests performed in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) environment. In order to correlate cracks initiation to microstructure, full field analysis is performed at a microscale thanks to a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) digital imaging correlation technique coupled with a crystallographic grain orientation mapping performed on the same area after irradiation. Moreover, cracking features were characterized using SEM.