Stress Intensity Effect on Solid State Oxidation of Ni-Cr Alloy with Different Chromium Concentrates

Abstract

Ni-base alloy is widely used in light water reactor component and the recent study has shown stress corrosion cracking (SCC). Over the years various attempts have been made to obtain mechanism of SCC but it still require more fundamental study to understand clearly. This study presents an approach based on the multiscale modeling, to assess the influence of alloy composition and stress intensity on the initial stage of solid state oxidation of the Ni-Cr alloy. The multiscale modeling considers different length scales such as finite element method (FEM) / quasi-continuum (QC) / quantum chemical molecular dynamics (QCMD), for analyzing crack tip molecular domain. The compact tension (CT) specimen of alloy 600 has been loaded for stress intensity, after that the micro region has chosen for the QC model which is a combination of continuum and atomic method. Finally, the deformed atomic position has picked for the QCMD simulation with some water molecules. The simulated results show that the chromium segregates faster than nickel atoms from the surface and make preferential bonding with oxygen. The preferential bonding forms a passive film. Applied stress intensity deformed the structure which may increase the atomic distance. As distance increases the absorption of water molecule or OH or oxygen into lattice increases. The stress intensity raises the crack tip solid state oxidation that may enhance SCC initiation.