Initiation of stress corrosion cracking in pre-stained austenitic stainless steels exposed to primary water ; Amorçage des fissures de corrosion sous contrainte dans les aciers inoxydables austénitiques pré-déformés et exposés au milieu primaire des réacteurs à eau sous pression

Austenitic stainless steels are widely used in primary circuits of Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) plants. However, a limited number of cases of Intergranular Stress Corrosion Cracking (IGSCC) has been detected in cold-worked (CW) areas of non-sensitized austenitic stainless steel components in French PWRs. A previous program launched in the early 2000's identified the required conditions for SCC of cold-worked stainless steels. It was found that a high strain hardening coupled with a cyclic loading favoured SCC. The present study aims at better understanding the role of pre-straining on crack initiation and at developing an engineering model for IGSCC initiation of 304L and 316L stainless steels in primary water. Such model will be based on SCC initiation tests on notched (not pre-cracked) specimens under “trapezoidal” cyclic loading. The effects of pre-straining (tensile versus cold rolling), cold-work level and strain path on the SCC mechanisms are investigated. Experimental results demonstrate the dominating effect of strain path on SCC susceptibility for all pre-straining levels. Initiation can be understood as crack density and crack depth. A global criterion has been proposed to integrate both aspects of initiation. Maps of SCC initiation susceptibility have been proposed. A critical crack depth between 10 and 20 µm has been demonstrated to define transition between slow propagation and fast propagation for rolled materials. For tensile pre-straining, the critical crack depth is in the range 20 - 50 µm. Experimental evidences support the notion of a KISCC threshold, whose value depends on materials, pre-straining ant load applied. The initiation time has been found to depend on the applied loading as a function of (max/YV)11,5. The effect of both strain path and surface hardening is indirectly taken into account via the yield stress. In this study, material differences rely on strain path effect on mechanical properties. As a result, a stress high exponent has been identified which includes all ...