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Corrosion Fatigue Crack Initiation in Zr-2.5Nb

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Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems – Water Reactors

Part of the book series: The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series ((MMMS))

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ABSTRACT

In-service inspections of Zr-2.5Nb pressure tubes may reveal blunt flaws such as fretting wear or crevice corrosion marks. These flaws pose no immediate threat to the integrity of the pressure tube but may be potential fatigue crack initiation sites. An understanding of the effect of the coolant environment, specifically on fatigue crack initiation, is important in this context. Tests were conducted on notched transverse tensile specimens at 275 and 300 °C with a load rise time between 50 and 3600 s. Current tests investigated the effects of applied loading frequency and hydrogen on fatigue crack initiation. Results have indicated that long rise time and a water environment reduce the time to fatigue crack initiation in non-hydrided and pre-hydrided specimens as compared to tests conducted in air. If enough hydrogen is able to diffuse to the notch during the test, it may also be possible to reach conditions where there is an interaction between corrosion , fatigue and hydride cracking.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    As-received pressure tube material was extruded at 815 °C, cold worked 27% and steam autoclaved at 400 °C for 24 h.

  2. 2.

    Hydrogen and hydrides refer to all isotopes of hydrogen and all solids precipitated once solubility has been exceeded, respectively. In these tests, hydrogen ingress refers to deuterium ingress and hydrides to deuterides.

  3. 3.

    Although nominally the notches have a root radius of 15 ± 2 µm and a notch depth of 0.8 µm, the pre-hydrided specimens tended to have a shallower notch depth than the non-hydrided specimens.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge: J. Liverud, P.A. Wiig, C. Hartmann, K.L. Moum, V. Andersson, P-M. Harlem, V. Staal, I. Thoresen, and F.H. Lilleborgen from IFE for test setup, autoclave facility operation and SEM analysis. M. Seguin, A. Briton and R. MacLeod from CNL for performing the metallography and HVEMS analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River Laboratories, Chalk River, ON, K0J 1J0, Canada

    H. M. Nordin, A. J. Phillion & S. Persaud

  2. Institute for Energy Technology, OECD Halden Reactor Project, Halden, Norway

    T. M. Karlsen

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  1. H. M. Nordin
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  2. A. J. Phillion
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  3. T. M. Karlsen
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  4. S. Persaud
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Correspondence to H. M. Nordin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, USA

    John H. Jackson

  2. Naval Nuclear Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Denise Paraventi

  3. Chalk River Laboratories, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, ON, Canada

    Michael Wright

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© 2019 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society

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Nordin, H.M., Phillion, A.J., Karlsen, T.M., Persaud, S. (2019). Corrosion Fatigue Crack Initiation in Zr-2.5Nb. In: Jackson, J., Paraventi, D., Wright, M. (eds) Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems – Water Reactors. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04639-2_117

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