Effect of Material Macrostructural Parameters on Quantitative Stress Corrosion Cracking Plastic Zone Using Extended Finite Element Method in Welded Joints for Light Water Reactor Environment

Abstract

Alloy 600, a nickel-chromium alloy, has an outstanding corrosion resistance with excellent fabricability and is used in light water reactors(LWRs) at elevated temperatures. The alloy is also being considered for an advanced reactor concept because of its high allowable design strength at the elevated temperature. The Alloy 600 is a power hardening material and basic plastic properties of the alloy are changed in the welded zone due to inhomogeneity in weld joints. The extended finite element method(XFEM) is used in which the problem of variations invariably in the stress intensity factors, K, at a different instant rate exists. This paper focuses on the effect of variations in macrostructural properties of the alloy on stress corrosion cracking(SCC) plastic zone ahead of crack-tip using XFEM.To control the variations in the K, a new technique is also introduced in this research. The results show that the plastic zone is affected by K(increases with the increase of K), yield strength(plastic zone decreases with the increase in yield strength), and hardening exponent “n”(core region increases with the increase of exponent) of the materials. Simulations are carried in ABAQUS 6.14 and results are compared with experimental data.

Prognosis methods of stress corrosion cracking under harsh environmental conditions

“…By enriching the standard finite element mesh with additional degrees of freedom to capture crack growth, XFEM enables accurate simulations of complex crack patterns and crack interactions [ 150 ]. Rehmit [ [142] , [151] , [152] ] investigates the effect of variations in macrostructural properties of Alloy 600 on stress corrosion cracking plastic zone ahead of the crack-tip using the extended finite element method (XFEM). The results show that the plastic zone is affected by stress intensity factors, yield strength, and hardening exponent “n" of the materials.…”

Stress corrosion cracking under extreme near-neutral GCC conditions, parametric and comparative study using phase field modeling

“…The F-A formula may be stated as follows in Eq. (2) using [ 50 ] Eq. (1) ; Where k a denotes the oxidative reaction rate, denotes the crack tip strain rate, and m denotes the solution and electrochemistry constants.…”

Effect of Material Heterogeneity on Environmentally Assisted Cracking Growth Rate of Alloy 600 for Safe-End Welded Joints

“…If r 0 is unsuitable, the predicting results may deviate from the actual data [ 11 ]. However, it is difficult to accurately predict it because the material microstructure is complicated and heterogeneous [ 12 ].…”