New observations on the crack growth rate of low alloy nuclear grade ferritic steels under constant active load in oxygenated high-temperature water

Abstract Within the scope of reactor safety research attempts have been made over several decades to determine corrosion-assisted crack growth rates. National and international investigations have been performed on both an experimental and an analytical basis. A compilation of internationally available experimental data for ferritic steels exhibits a scatter of crack growth rates of up to 5 decades. This was one of the reasons for commencing further experimental investigations focused on the evaluation of corrosion-assisted crack growth rates. These experimental studies were performed under constant, active, external load on 2T-CT specimens of the materials 20 MnMoNi 5 5 with 0.009 and 0.020% S (similar to A508 Cl.3), 22 NiMoCr 3 7 with 0.006% S (similar to A508 Cl.2) and 17 MnMoV 6 4 with 0.017% S. The tests were carried out in deionized oxygenated high-temperature water (240°C; 0.4 and 8.0 ppm O 2 ). For K I values up to 60 MPa m 1 2 , the experimental results showed no significant dependence between corrosion-assisted crack growth rates and the stress intensity factor, the oxygen content of the medium or the sulphur content of the steel. Here it is important to note, that in this K I region the high crack growth rates after the onset of cracking due to loading are decreasing and finally come to a standstill after a short period of time as compared with operational times of plants. Consequently, the determination of crack growth velocities as corrosion-assisted crack advance divided by the test duration, so far practised worldwide, results in wrong crack growth rate values in the above-mentioned range of loading up to 60 MPa m 1 2 . Based on a test duration of 1000 h, the average crack growth rates are below 10 −8 mm s −1 for K I ≤ 60 MPa m 1 2 . When applied to a single start-up and service period of one year, this would formally lead to an average crack growth rate of 2·10 −9 mm s −1 (equivalent to 0.06 mm per year). At K I values between 60 and 75 MPa m 1 2 the average corrosion-assisted crack growth rates increase significantly. It can be observed experimentally that the crack propagates during the whole period of the test. Consequently the calculation of crack growth velocities as corrosion-assisted crack advance divided by the test duration as mentioned earlier can be applied as a first estimate. Finally, for K I values ≥ 75 MPa m 1 2 high crack growth rates up to 10 −4 mm s −1 can be observed. In this region the average crack growth rates are also in quite good agreement with a theoretically based crack growth model.