Abstract

This report summarizes work performed by Argonne National Laboratory on fatigue and environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) in light water reactors (LWRs) from January to December 2001. Topics that have been investigated include (a) environmental effects on fatigue S-N behavior of austenitic stainless steels (SSs), (b) irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC) of austenitic SSs, and (c) EAC of Alloy 600. The effects of key material and loading variables, such as strain amplitude, strain rate, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO) level in water, and material heat treatment, on the fatigue lives of wrought and cast austenitic SSs in air and LWR environments have been evaluated. The mechanism of fatigue crack initiation in austenitic SSs in LWR environments has also been examined. The results indicate that the presence of a surface oxide film or difference in the characteristics of the oxide film has no effect on fatigue crack initiation in austenitic SSs in LWR environments. Slow-strain-rate tensile tests and post-test fractographic analyses were conducted on several model SS alloys irradiated to {approx}2 x 10{sup 21} n {center_dot} cm{sup -2} (E > 1 MeV) ({approx}3 dpa) in He at 289 C in the Halden reactor. The results were used to determine the influence of alloyingmore » and impurity elements on the susceptibility of these steels to IASCC. Corrosion fatigue tests were conducted on nonirradiated austenitic SSs in high-purity water at 289 C to establish the test procedure and conditions that will be used for the tests on irradiated materials. A comprehensive irradiation experiment was initiated to obtain many tensile and disk specimens irradiated under simulated pressurized water reactor conditions at {approx}325 C to 5, 10, 20, and 40 dpa. Crack growth tests were completed on 30% cold-worked Alloy 600 in high-purity water under various environmental and loading conditions. The results are compared with data obtained earlier on several heats of Alloy 600 tested in high-DO water under several heat treatment conditions.« less

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