Influencing Factors for Improving Accuracy in Prediction of Stress Corrosion Crack Growth Rate in Boiling Water Reactor Operational Condition: Part 1—Prediction of SCC Growth Rate in Terms of Vickers Hardness

It is known that stress corrosion cracking (SCC) found in the operational power plants show complex cracking behaviors and it’s resulted in complex crack shape e.g. crack branching and its uneven crack front. For the cracking near the weldment, this is due to crack penetrated along the complex distribution of residual stress and strain hardened area. In this investigation, in order to advance the accuracy for crack growth prediction with considering such complex fields, theoretical formulation for SCC growth was further modified. Hardness of the materials, which is a measureable parameter even in operational power plant, was focused on to reflect strain hardening of the component like heat affected zone of the weldments. The theoretical formulation for SCC growth has terms with yield strength of the material and strain hardening exponent to describe crack tip strain rate. Strain hardening was simulated by cross rolling with the range of 4 – 32% as thickness reduction. Correlation between yield strength, strain hardening exponent at 288°C and Vickers hardness was obtained by means of tensile tests and hardness tests on 316L stainless steel. It was observed that a monotonic increase in Vickers hardness and yield strength with degree of reduction in thickness worked by cross rolling. Relationship between Vickers hardness and yield strength was found to have linear correlation. Further confirmation was made by plotting the reported mechanical properties data in terms of Vickers hardness. In addition, linear relationship was found between yield strength and strain hardening exponent. These relationships were introduced into SCC theoretical formulation and a SCC growth rate prediction curve in terms of Vickers hardness was proposed. SCC crack growth evaluation tests with selected work hardened 316L stainless steel were performed in oxygenated pure water environment at 288°C to confirm the predictability of the formulation. The prediction curve had a good agreement with available literature data as well as obtained crack growth rates in the hardness range of 140–300HV which was likely expected one in weld HAZ.