Detection of embedded fatigue cracks in Inconel weld overlay and the evaluation of the minimum thickness of the weld overlay using eddy current testing

This study evaluates the applicability of eddy current testing to the detection and sizing of fatigue cracks embedded in Inconel weld overlays. Welded plate specimens, which model head penetration welds and their weld overlays, are fabricated, and fatigue cracks are artificially introduced into the specimens. Eddy current inspections are performed using a uniform eddy current probe driven with 10 kHz, and all of the fatigue cracks are detected with clear signals. Subsequent numerical inversions estimate that the minimum thicknesses of the weld overlays are 1.47, 2.17, and 2.23 mm, whereas true thicknesses revealed through destructive testing are 1.51, 3.25, and 2.10 mm, respectively. Thicknesses are also evaluated using potential drop and ultrasonic testing methods; the results demonstrate that eddy current testing is the most efficient of the three methods.     

核电厂反应堆主泵主轴疲劳可靠性试验与评估

为了获得给定置信度、不同可靠度下的核电厂反应堆主泵主轴材料疲劳可靠性数据，制造了一段内外径尺寸、加工工艺与产品主轴完全相同的模拟轴用于取样，测试了常温光滑、常温焊接、常温缺口、高温光滑、高温焊接、高温缺口6种试样的疲劳寿命；应用可靠性统计方法分别确定了置信度为0.9、0.95时，在不同可靠度下6种试样的疲劳可靠性寿命置信下限方程以及6种试样的可靠性疲劳极限；分析了试样与主轴疲劳寿命的区别与修正方法，利用修正后的试样数据对主轴疲劳失效的薄弱环节进行可靠性评估。结果表明，置信度为0.9、0.95时，主轴在寿期内不发生疲劳失效的可靠度超过0.9999。本研究实现了反应堆主泵主轴疲劳失效更为准确的可靠性评估。      

Caution when applying eddy current inversion to stress corrosion cracking

This study evaluates the applicability of computer-aided eddy current inversion techniques to the profile evaluation of stress corrosion cracking in Inconel welds. Welded plate specimens, which model head penetration welds of pressurized water reactors, are fabricated; notches and stress corrosion cracks are artificially introduced into the weld metal of the specimens. Eddy current inspections are performed using a uniform eddy current probe driven at frequencies of 10 and 40 kHz. Since weld noise is observed uniformly along the weld line, a simple signal processing is applied to eliminate it. First, the artificial notches are reconstructed and good agreements between reconstructed and true profiles are provided, which demonstrates that the computer-aided eddy current inversion technique can deal with defects in welds. Then, numerical simulations are performed to evaluate the profiles of the stress corrosion cracks. In the numerical simulations, the stress corrosion cracks are modeled as a conductive region with a fixed width of 0.3 mm. The cross-sectional profiles of the cracks are reconstructed from measured eddy current signals directly above and along a crack. Although eddy current signals calculated from the reconstructed profiles agree well with measured ones, the true profiles revealed by destructive testing are found to be very different from the reconstructed ones. Whereas the most plausible reason for the difference is the unexpectedly volumetric profile of the stress corrosion cracks, this study has revealed that computer-aided eddy current inversion techniques that have been used to consider cracks in thin structures would not at this point be directly applicable to those in thick structures. It is also important to know in advance those crack features that can adversely impact accurate crack sizing including whether a detected crack is volumetric or not, namely there are many parallel cracks in a cluster or not.     

Fatigue cracks in Eurofer 97 steel: Part I. Nucleation and small crack growth kinetics

Fatigue crack nucleation and growth were studied in the Eurofer 97 ferritic-martensitic steel at room temperature. Cylindrical specimens with a shallow notch and no artificial crack starters were used. The constant strain amplitude cycling was adopted. First fatigue cracks nucleate at about 5% of the fatigue life along the surface slip bands. If a crack overcome the barrier of the first high angle boundary, its growth is regular and an exponential growth law is observed. This law may be used for the residual fatigue life prediction based on the small crack growth kinetics.     

Behavior of duplex stainless steel casting defects under mechanical loadings

Several components in the primary circuit of pressurized water reactors are made of cast duplex stainless steels. This material contains small casting defects, mainly shrinkage cavities, due to the manufacturing process. In safety analyses, the structural integrity of the components is studied under the most severe assumptions: presence of a large defect, accidental loadings and end-of-life material properties accounting for its thermal aging embrittlement at the service temperature. The casting defects are idealized as semi-circular surface cracks or notches that have envelope dimensions. In order to assess the real severity of the casting defects under mechanical loadings, an experimental program was carried out. It consisted of testing, under both cyclic and monotonic solicitations, three-point bend specimens containing either a natural defect (in the form of a localized cluster of cavities) or a machined notch having the dimensions of the cluster’s envelope. The results show that shrinkage cavities are far less harmful than envelope notches thanks to the metal bridges between cavities. Under fatigue loadings, the generalized initiation of a cluster of cavities (defined when the cluster becomes a crack of the same global size) is reached for a number of cycles that is much higher than the one leading to the initiation of a notch. In the case of monotonic loadings, specimens with casting defects offer a very high resistance to ductile tearing. The tests are analyzed in order to develop a method that takes into account the behavior of casting defects in a more realistic fashion than by an envelope crack. Various approaches are investigated, including the search of equivalent defects or of criteria based on continuum mechanics concepts, and compared with literature data. This study shows the conservatism of current safety analyses in modeling casting defects by envelope semi-elliptical cracks and contributes to the development of alternative approaches.     

余热排出系统管道热疲劳裂纹萌生方向的理论和数值研究

在压水堆核电站余热排出系统冷热水混合区管道发现了由热疲劳导致的不同方向的浅裂纹群,疲劳裂纹的萌生方向可根据临界面方向进行预测。本文对临界面方向进行了理论推导,得出了双轴疲劳载荷作用下临界面方向的解析解。基于C++语言开发了临界面方向的分析程序,同时采用C++开发的分析程序和有限元软件Code_Aster计算了临界面方向,并将计算结果与理论解析解进行了对比验证。临界面方向分析结果与余热排出系统管道中发现的热疲劳裂纹方向吻合。研究表明,余热排出系统管道焊接残余应力对热疲劳裂纹萌生方向具有决定性的作用。     

Investigation of the behaviour of cracks in a dissimilar weld

Using the finite-element method the behaviour of an axial and a circumferential crack in a dissimilar weld of the ferritic steel X20 CrMoV 12 1 and the austenitic X10 NiCrAITi 32 20 has been investigated. Stresses due to internal pressure and stresses resulting from temperature cycling due to different thermal expansion coefficients have been calculated. The circumferential crack located within the austenite in the region of maximum longitudinal stress is loaded at its deepest point by a stress intensity factor of 473 The axial crack is loaded up to a stress intensity of 325 N mm^−3/2 not at its deepest point, but within the X20 CrMoV 12 1. The resulting crack growth for both cracks has been estimated and compared with a component test with artificial defects in a dissimilar weld undergoing similar loadings.     

焊后热处理对16MND5钢焊接组织结构与残余应力的影响

16MND5钢广泛应用于核岛承压容器构件,其焊接接头不可避免地会引入高的残余应力,而焊后热处理可有效消减焊接残余应力以克服应力腐蚀裂纹的影响。本工作利用轮廓法和中子衍射技术研究了焊后热处理对16MND5钢焊接残余应力的影响。结果表明,轮廓法与中子衍射测试结果在趋势和数值上取得了较好的一致性,焊后热处理使焊接态的残余应力峰值从约420 MPa降低至约210 MPa。同时,利用金相法和SEM研究了焊后热处理对焊缝区域组织结构的影响。结果表明,焊后热处理主要表现为贝氏体和少量自回火马氏体的焊缝中心组织转变为回火贝氏体和回火马氏体,热处理后的焊缝区晶粒明显长大。     

Fatigue growth and fracture risk from postulated cracks in pressurized-water reactor piping welds

The necessity of taking quick corrective action when a crack indication is discovered in a nuclear piping weld, has led Framatome to evaluate beforehand the potential risk of such a situation by investigating postulated cracks. Considering pessimistic loading conditions to act on a postulated crack of a given shape and orientation enables the determination of the critical size of such a defect. Introduction of fatigue crack growth then yields the maximum crack size that can be tolerated, given the remaining lifetime of the unit. Additionally, detailed analysis of the scenario that leads to these results contributes to the understanding of the potential risk and helps in alleviating it. In this paper, a review of the basic principles and the application to the case of a branch connection weld are presented.     

Thermal fatigue strength of type 304 stainless steel in simulated BWR environment

Thin-walled cylindrical carbon steel specimens were thermally fatigued in a pressurized autoclave. Since high and low temperature pure water were alternately supplied into the autoclave, the specimens were subjected to homogeneous thermal stress through the wall thickness. The thermal fatigue life was defined as the number of cycles to crack penetration to the inside of the cylindrical specimen. The thermal fatigue strength was compared with the mechanical fatigue strength performed in air and in high temperature water. Even if taking account of the Higuchi-Iida formula, which considers the effects of strain rate, dissolved oxygen concentration and water temperature on fatigue life, the thermal fatigue lives of carbon steel were found to be slightly shorter than the mechanical fatigue lives.     

Application of eddy current inversion technique to the sizing of defects in Inconel welds with rough surfaces

This paper evaluates the applicability of eddy current inversion techniques to the sizing of defects in Inconel welds with rough surfaces. For this purpose, a plate Inconel weld specimen, which models the welding of a stub tube in a boiling water nuclear reactor is fabricated, and artificial notches machined into the specimen. Eddy current inspections using six different eddy current probes are conducted and efficiencies were evaluated for the six probes for weld inspection. It is revealed that if suitable probes are applied, an Inconel weld does not cause large noise levels during eddy current inspections even though the surface of the weld is rough. Finally, reconstruction of the notches is performed using eddy current signals measured using the uniform eddy current probe that showed the best results among the six probes in this study. A simplified configuration is proposed in order to consider the complicated configuration of the welded specimen in numerical simulations. While reconstructed profiles of the notches are slightly larger than the true profiles, quite good agreements are obtained in spite of the simple approximation of the configuration, which reveals that eddy current testing would be an efficient non-destructive testing method for the sizing of defects in Inconel welds.     

Fatigue and fracture behavior of straight pipe with flaws in inner surface

Fatigue and fracture tests of piping models with flaws in the inner surface were carried out to investigate the fatigue crack growth, coalescence of multiple cracks and fracture behavior.Two straight test pipes with and without weldment in the test section of AISI type 304L stainless steel were tested under almost the same test conditions by imposing moment loads. Three artificial defects were machined in the inner surface of the test section of the test pipes and the fatigue test was performed until the cracks coalesced and grew through the thickness. Subsequently, a static load was imposed on the test pipe which contained a large crack in the test section.The fatigue test results are compared with an analytical crack growth behavior predicted by the method described in the Section XI of ASME Code, and show slower crack growth than that of the prediction. From the fracture test results, it is found that the test pipes can endure considerably high load.     

Fatigue cracks in Eurofer 97 steel: Part II. Comparison of small and long fatigue crack growth

The fatigue crack growth rate in the Eurofer 97 steel at room temperature was measured by two different methodologies. Small crack growth data were obtained using cylindrical specimens with a shallow notch and no artificial crack starters. The growth of semicircular cracks of length between 10-2000 μm was followed in symmetrical cycling with constant strain amplitude (R_ε = −1). Long crack data were measured using standard CT specimen and ASTM methodology, i.e. R = 0.1. The growth of cracks having the length in the range of 10-30 mm was measured. It is shown that the crack growth rates of both types of cracks are in a very good agreement if J-integral representation is used and usual assumptions of the crack closure effects are taken into account.     

Low cycle fatigue of welded joints: new experimental approach

To take into account the reduced fatigue strength of welded joints, a reduction life factor applied on fatigue curves (J_f value) was introduced into the RCC-MR [Design and Construction Rules for Mechanical Components of FBR Nuclear Islands, AFCEN, 1993], for the design and construction of fast breeder reactors. To better assess this factor, previous work showed that mechanical behavior of a welded assembly is influenced by the geometry of the weld and by the interaction of the different cyclic plastic behavior of the two materials: base metal (BM) and weld metal (WM). A new procedure (named FFAST) was performed on welded joint specimens extracted from butt-welded pipe connections (uniaxial tensile–compressive load). An innovative experimental approach is proposed to study the local mechanical behavior of the welded joint specimens and then determine the J_f parameter. The main advantage of the method is to avoid problems due to the relative stiffness of weld part versus the BM part of the specimen. A continuous recording of the stress and strain in the weld allows an estimation of the mechanical behavior and finally the fatigue life of the joint. Observations of the crack surface show two different crack initiation zones near the weld depending on the load level. Calculations of the tests and comparison with experimental results are presented. These studies make it possible to assess in a practical way the J_f design method. It appears that J_f value cannot be considered as a single value for it is influenced by several factors depending on the weldment and on the load level.     

Fatigue crack propagation properties from small sized rod specimens

Mechanical properties characterization is needed in many industrial applications yet sufficient amount of material for fabricating standard-sized testing specimens is often not available. Techniques for testing miniaturized specimen must be adopted. Much effort has been made to develop techniques for impact, fracture toughness and tensile properties of sub-sized specimens. Work on the testing of fatigue properties is more limited. In this study, fatigue crack propagation behavior is evaluated from the growth of surface crack in a cylindrical rod under tension. Rods of various lengths and diameters were tested. As the size of the rod specimen is reduced, the fatigue crack growth rate tends to increase when correlated using the stress intensity factor range. This increase is explained largely by the decrease in the degree of premature crack closure in the small specimens. Valid fatigue crack growth data can be obtained among the specimens examined except on the crack growth on the surface of the smallest specimen, which has a length of 26 mm and diameter of 8 mm. Even so, valid data can still be elucidated on the latter specimen if the interior growth is considered. The dimensions of the latter specimen allow fatigue properties to be evaluated using broken remnants from impact or other test specimens.     

Fatigue Behavior of Magnox AL80 and Irradiation Effect on Fatigue Properties

Bending fatigue tests were carried out at room temperature on Magnox AL80 of different grain size specimens as well as on welded specimens. Also, the structure of the surface of the fatigue fractured specimens was examined. The fatigue strength of the fine-grained specimens was much larger than that of the coarse-grained. The fatigue behavior of the welded specimens was not appreciably different from that of the fine-grained specimens, although the S-N curves for these specimens were slightly different. In the fine-grained specimens, the fatigue cracks nucleated in the slip striations within the grains and propagated intergranularly for the most part. In the coarse-grained specimens the cracks propagated along slip bands within the grains or along the grain boundaries.

The irradiation effect on the fatigue properties of Magnox AL80 was also investigated. The fatigue resistance of the fine-grained specimens, including the welded specimens, was lowered by irradiation to an exposure of 1×10¹⁷nvt when tested at high stress levels; conversely, that of coarse-grained specimens was raised.     

Influence of the specimen configuration and the insert material on fracture toughness characterisation with reconstituted specimens

Specimen reconstitution techniques offer the possibility to obtain fracture toughness measurements when only small amounts of material are available. In order to obtain extra information from charpy specimens, an electron-beam weld reconstitution method is established to obtain compact tension specimens (CT) from the broken halves of the charpy ones. Three types of reconstituted CT specimens with different weld configurations are tested in order to analyse the influence of specimen configuration on fracture toughness evaluation. The validity of the fracture toughness characterisation is analysed by comparing J-integral resistance curves (J–R curves) of specimens with insert and those of reference specimens without insert.     

焊接接头非均匀力学性能对J积分和失效评定曲线的影响

由于焊缝填充金属的不同和焊接热循环的作用,焊接接头不同区域有着不同的力学性能。本文将焊接接头模化为由两种材料组成,即母材金属和焊缝金属,用弹塑性有限元分析法计算了焊接接头强度组配对Ｊ积分和失效评定曲线的影响。结果表明,焊接接头不均匀强度组配对裂纹驱动力－Ｊ积分和失效评定曲线的形状与位置有很大影响。对于一个特定的焊接接头,如果接头为低组配或等组配,则以母材金属的极限载荷作为无因次载荷而建立的安全评定     

核级不锈钢管座焊接区与母材区疲劳裂纹扩展性能对比研究

焊接接头广泛应用于核电站管座处,而疲劳裂纹扩展是导致焊接接头失效的重要原因之一。因此,研究焊接区材料的疲劳裂纹扩展和寿命预测方法对准确预测焊接接头的寿命具有重要意义。本文以核电厂常用的304L不锈钢焊缝材料为对象,研究不同载荷比、不同取样方向对疲劳裂纹扩展速率的影响;基于试验数据建立焊缝材料的疲劳裂纹扩展速率模型,并与美国机械工程师协会（ASME）标准中奥氏体钢进行对比。结果表明:不同取样方向对焊缝疲劳裂纹扩展速率的影响不大,但载荷比对其有较大影响,较低载荷比下,焊缝的疲劳裂纹扩展速率在某个应力强度因子幅值（?K）前高于母材的疲劳裂纹扩展速率,在其之后则低于母材,而较高载荷比下则恰恰相反。      

1Cr18Ni9Ti焊缝疲劳短裂纹的形态演化

试验研究了1Cr18Ni9Ti焊缝光滑试样的单轴疲劳短裂纹形态演化规律.基于"有效短裂纹准则",把注意力放在"主导有效短裂纹(DESFC)"萌生及裂尖前沿区域.观测发现,ESFCs萌生于焊缝局部delta铁素体与奥氏体基质界面,取向在与加载轴垂直截面小于45°随机分布.之后,受微观结构约束,表面倾向于沿垂直于轴向不规则扩展;深度方向,裂纹初始与加载方向垂直,之后倾向于与柱状晶生长方向垂直.当若干取向基本一致,裂尖前沿相邻的ESFCs发生合并即形成真实DESFC,由微观结构短裂纹(MSC)阶段进入物理短裂纹(PSC)阶段.PSC阶段,表面DESFC近似与轴向垂直,在微观结构干扰下不规则扩展;深度方向,逐步演变与柱状晶生长方向垂直,后期及长裂纹阶段倾向于与加载轴成45°.最后,试样沿与加载轴垂直方向瞬时断裂.这说明了疲劳短裂纹与长裂纹形态变化具有明显差异.