PNNL

Abstract

There is considerable interest in the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) susceptibility of austenitic stainless steels in low electrochemical potential (ECP), light water reactor (LWR) environments. Crack growth measurements are presented for ~20% cold-worked, 316 and 316L stainless steels tested in 288°C high-purity water under oxidizing (2000 ppb O2) and hydrogen water chemistry (74-1560 ppb H2) conditions. High SCC crack-growth rates of ~1x10-7 mm/s at constant K were observed in one heat at low ECP, hydrogen water chemistry conditions. Crack morphologies for this heat were mixed intergranular (IG) and transgranular (TG) for all environments but with less TG cracking at the lowest K level tested. Comparisons made to a larger set of data on cold-worked stainless steels indicate that the SCC crack-growth rates from PNNL on this heat are at the high end of test data under low ECP, LWR conditions. Possible reasons for the higher observed SCC propagation rates in the cold-worked 316LSS heat are discussed.