Environment-assisted-cracking under measured and/or controlled ectrochemical potential

Abstract

Longer-term stress corrosion cracking (SCC) experiments, described in the activity plan E-20-56, are well underway at LLNL to evaluate the SCC susceptibility of candidate corrosion-resistant inner container materials in a 90°ºC acidic brine containing 5 weight percent (wt%) NaCl using fatigue-precracked wedge-loaded double-cantilever-beam (DCB) specimens. The results of a recent localized corrosion study have revealed that the propensity to pitting and crevice corrosion in susceptible alloys is characterized by "critical potentials" obtained from the cyclic potentiodynamic polarization (CPP) experiments described in the activity plan E-20-43/44. It is also well known that the tendency to SCC can be influenced by the electrochemical potential. But the role of electrochemistry in SCC has not been explored to a large extent. Therefore, the proposed activity is aimed at evaluating the SCC behavior of susceptible container materials under measured and/or controlled electrochemical potential in repository-relevant environments using DCB and slow-strain-rate (SSR) test specimens. The magnitude of the controlled potential will be selected based on the measured "critical potentials" obtained from the CPP experiment performed earlier in a similar environment. The resultant data will enable the mechanistic understanding of the cracking process in materials of interest under the synergistic influence of applied stress and corrosive medium, which will be utilized in developing and validating the SCC models for long-term performance assessment.