Abstract
Crack kinking or branching has been observed in laboratory stress corrosion cracking tests and in some components suffering from stress corrosion cracking in nuclear power plant coolants. There are several types of crack branching: i.e., macroscopic multiple branching cracks, local crack branching or the combination of both. Crack branching affects the crack tip stress/strain distribution in terms of stress intensity factor and crack tip strain rate, and consequently affects crack growth behavior. The crack tip mechanical fields in some typical crack branching systems are quantified using empirical, analytical and numerical simulation methods. The effect of crack branching is less significant in contoured double cantilever beam specimens than in compact tension specimens for the same size and configuration of branched cracks. The applications of the analysis results to some observed crack branching phenomena of austenitic alloys in high temperature water environments are discussed based on the theoretical crack growth rate formulation.
Published Version
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