• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.164-169
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• 2018

A detailed fatigue evaluation procedure was developed to mitigate the excessive conservativeness of the conventional environmental fatigue evaluation method for the pressurizer spray line elbow of domestic new nuclear power plants. The pressurizer spray line is made of austenitic stainless steel, which is relatively sensitive to the environmentally assisted fatigue, and has a low degree of design margin in terms of environmentally assisted fatigue due to the thermal stratification phenomenon on the pipe cross section as a whole or locally. In this study, to meet the environmental fatigue design requirements of the pressurizer spray line elbow, the new environmental fatigue evaluation has been performed, which used the ASME Code NB-3200-based detailed fatigue analysis and the environmental fatigue correction factor instead of the existing NB-3600 evaluation method. As a result, the design requirements for environmentally assisted fatigue were met in all parts of the pressurizer spray line elbow including the fatigue weakened zones by thermal stratification.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.19-30
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• 2017

Austenitic Stainless Steels (ASSs) are widely used as structural materials in the pressurized water reactors (PWRs) because of their superior mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. However, it is well known that ASSs are susceptible to the environmental assisted cracking (EAC) such as environmental assisted fatigue (EAF) during the long term operation. There have been extensive tests and researches to understand the extent and the mechanisms of environmental effects. In this paper, the world-wide EAF test results of ASSs are introduced including those of Korean test programs. The suggested EAF mechanisms of ASSs are also discussed. Finally, the areas of further research to resolve the issue of EAF are suggested.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.2977-2981
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• 2021

Corrosion fatigue crack growth (FCG) behavior of 316LN stainless steel was investigated in high-temperature pressurized water at different temperatures, load ratios (R = K_max/K_min) and rise times (t_R). The environmental assisted effect on FCG rate was observed when both the R and t_R exceeded their critical values. The FCG rate showed a linear relation with stress intensity factor range (ΔK) in double logarithmic coordinate. The environmental assisted effect on FCG rate depended on the ΔK and quantitative relations were proposed. Possible mechanisms of environmental assisted FCG rate under different testing conditions are also discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.526-538
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• 2001

Fatigue tests in air and in room temperature water were performed to obtain comparable data and stable crack measuring conditions. In air environment, fatigue crack growth rate was increased with increasing temperature due to an increase in crack tip oxidation rate. In room temperature water, the fatigue crack growth rate was faster than in air and crack path varied on loading conditions. In simulated light water reactor (LWR) conditions, there was little environmental effect on the fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) at low dissolved oxygen or at high loading frequency conditions. While the FCGR was enhanced at high oxygen condition, and the enhancement of crack growth rate increased as loading frequency decreased to a critical value. In fractography, environmentally assisted cracks, such as semi-cleavage and secondary intergranular crack, were found near sulfide inclusions only at high dissolved oxygen and low loading frequency condition. The high crack growth rate was related to environmentally assisted crack. These results indicated that environmentally assisted crack could be formed by the Electrochemical effect in specific loading condition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2600-2609
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• 2021

Low cycle fatigue behaviors of SA508-3 low-alloy steel were investigated in room-temperature air, high-temperature air and in light water reactor (LWR) water environments. The fatigue mean curve and design curve for the low-alloy steel are developed based on the fatigue data in room-temperature and high-temperature air. The environmental fatigue model for low-alloy steel is developed by the environmental fatigue correction factor (F_en) methodology based on the fatigue data in LWR water environments with the consideration of effects of strain rate, temperature, and dissolved oxygen concentration on the fatigue life.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.93-97
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• 2003

Fatigue crack growth test or low alloy steel was performed in high temperature water. Test parameters were dissolved oxygen content. loading frequency and R-ratio ($P_{min}/P_{max}$). Since the sulfur content or the steel was low, there were no environmentally assisted cracks (EAC) in low dissolved oxygen(DO) water. At high DO, the crack growth rate at R = 0.5 tests was much increased due to environmental effects and the crack growth rate depended on loading frequency and maximized at a critical frequency. On the other hand, R = 0.7 test results showed an anomalous decrease of the crack growth rate as much different behavior from the R = 0.5. The main reason of the decrease may be related to the crack tip closure effect. All the data could be qualitatively understood by effects of oxide rupture and anion activity at crack tip.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.243-251
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• 2008

Magnesium alloys become popular research topic in last decade due to its light weight and relatively high strength-to-weight ratio in the energy aspiration age. Almost all structure materials are supposed to suspend stress. Magnesium is quite sensitive to corrosive environment, and also sensitive to environmental assisted cracking. However, so far we have the limited knowledge about the environmental sensitive cracking of magnesium alloys. The corrosion fatigue (CF) test was conducted. Many factors' effects, like grain size, texture, heat treatment, loading frequency, stress ratio, strain rate, chemical composition of environment, pH value, relative humidity were investigated. The results showed that all these factors had obvious influence on the crack initiation and propagation. Especially the dependence of CF life on pH value and frequency is quite different to the other traditional structural metallic materials. In order to interpret the results, the electrochemistry tests by polarization dynamic curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were conducted with and without stress. The corrosion of magnesium alloys was also studied by in-situ observation in environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). The corrosion rate changed with the wetting time during the initial corrosion process. The pre-charging of hydrogen caused crack initiated at $\beta$ phase, and with the increase of wetting time the crack propagated, implying that hydrogen produced by corrosion reaction participated in the process.

• CORROSION AND PROTECTION
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2013

Austenitic stainless steels and Ni-base alloys are widely used as structural materials for major components and piping system in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). These austenitic alloys are known to be susceptible to environmental assisted cracking (EAC), such as environmentally-assisted fatigue (EAF) and primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) during long-term exposure to PWR primary water environment. In this paper, the current understanding on the phenomena and mechanisms of these EAC are briefly introduced using experimental results and literature review. The mechanisms for EAF and PWSCC for austenitic stainless steels and Ni-base alloys are discussed. Currently, austenitic stainless steels are known to be more susceptible to EAF, while less susceptible to PWSCC than Ni-base alloys. The possible explanations to such behaviors are proposed and discussed in view of the role of hydrogen and internal oxidation.