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Microstructural and Stress Corrosion Cracking Characteristics of Austenitic Stainless Steels Containing Silicon

  • Symposium: Materials for the Nuclear Renaissance
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An Erratum to this article was published on 15 October 2009

Abstract

Austenitic stainless steels (SSs) core internal components in nuclear light water reactors (LWRs) are susceptible to irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC). One of the effects of irradiation is the hardening of the SS and a change in the dislocation distribution in the alloy. Irradiation may also alter the local chemistry of the austenitic alloys; for example, silicon may segregate and chromium may deplete at the grain boundaries. The segregation or depletion phenomena at near-grain boundaries may enhance the susceptibility of these alloys to environmentally assisted cracking (EAC). The objective of the present work was to perform laboratory tests in order to better understand the role of Si in the microstructure, properties, electrochemical behavior, and susceptibility to EAC of austenitic SSs. Type 304 SS can dissolve up to 2 pct Si in the bulk while maintaining a single austenite microstructure. Stainless steels containing 12 pct Cr can dissolve up to 5 pct bulk Si while maintaining an austenite structure. The crack growth rate (CGR) results are not conclusive about the effect of the bulk concentration of Si on the EAC behavior of SSs.

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Notes

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Acknowledgments

The technical expertise of Bill Catlin, Mike Pollick, Steve Buresh, Tony Barbuto, David Wark, James Evertsen, and James Grande is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are grateful to Yoichi Takeda and Tetsuo Shoji from Tohoku University (Contract # EP - P26520/C12734), Palo Alto, CA for sending some of the material used for testing. This work was funded by the Electric Power Research Institute, Sendai, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GE Global Research Center, Schenectady, NY, 12309, USA

    Peter L. Andresen (Research Scientist), Martin M. Morra (Laboratory Manager), J. Lawrence Nelson (Laboratory Manager) & Raul B. Rebak (Research Scientist)

  2. Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA

    Peter H. Chou (Program Manager)

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  1. Peter L. Andresen
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  2. Peter H. Chou
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  3. Martin M. Morra
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Correspondence to Raul B. Rebak.

Additional information

This article is based on a presentation given in the symposium “Materials for the Nuclear Renaissance,” which occurred during the TMS Annual Meeting, February 15–19, 2009, in San Francisco, CA, under the auspices of the Corrosion and Environmental Effects and the Nuclear Materials Committees of ASM-TMS.

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11661-009-0090-0

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Andresen, P.L., Chou, P.H., Morra, M.M. et al. Microstructural and Stress Corrosion Cracking Characteristics of Austenitic Stainless Steels Containing Silicon. Metall Mater Trans A 40, 2824–2836 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-009-9960-8

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