Stress Corrosion Cracking in Tear Drop Specimens

Laboratory tests were conducted to investigate the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of 304L stainless steel used to construct the containment vessels for the storage of plutonium-bearing materials. The tear drop corrosion specimens each with an autogenous weld in the center were placed in contact with moist plutonium oxide and chloride salt mixtures. Cracking was found in two of the specimens in the heat affected zone (HAZ) at the apex area. Finite element analysis was performed to simulate the specimen fabrication for determining the internal stress which caused SCC to occur. It was found that the tensile stress at the crack initiation site was about 30% lower than the highest stress which had been shifted to the shoulders of the specimen due to the specimen fabrication process. This finding appears to indicate that the SCC initiation took place in favor of the possibly weaker weld/base metal interface at a sufficiently high level of background stress. The base material, even subject to a higher tensile stress, was not cracked. The relieving of tensile stress due to SCC initiation and growth in the HAZ and the weld might have foreclosed the potential for cracking at the specimen shoulders where higher stress was found.