Novel Stress Corrosion Cracking Model and Crack Growth Simulation

Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) model has been developed. In the model, grain boundary strength and corrosion were introduced as parameters. Using the developed model, several simulations of SCC crack propagation for unirradiated type306 stainless steel have been carried out. From the results of these simulations, we have obtained that the shear stress against grain boundary caused SCC crack branching, and the synergistic effect of shear stress and corrosion of grain boundary lead to the oblique crack growth. These tendency is observed in the experimental data and the structural materials of actual boiled water reactor.

Figure . Stress Corrosion Cracking model and results of simulation.

References
[1] T. Igarashi et al., "Two-Dimensional Stress Corrosion Cracking Model for Reactor Structural Materials", J. Power and Energy Systems, Vol2, No.4, pp.1188-1196 (2008).
[2] T. Igarashi et al., "Two-Dimensional Stress Corrosion Cracking Model for Reactor Structural Materials", 15th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering, (2007)