Stress corrosión crack growth rate in dissimilar metal welds

Abstract

Dissimilar welds, used to join different sections in light water reactors, are potentially susceptible to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in aqueous mediums characteristic of nuclear plants. However, the study of these welds has been limited to evaluating the weld material susceptibility in these mediums. Little scarce data are available on crack growth rates due, fundamentally, to inadequate testing techniques. In order to address this lack of information the crack growth rate at the interface of ferritic SA533B-1 alloy and alloy 1-82, in a dissimilar weld (SA533B-1/I-82/316L), was studied. Experiments were conducted in water at 288 °C, 8 ppm of O₂ and 1 μS/cm conductivity.