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Abstract

Microscopic strains associated with stress corrosion cracks have been investigated in stressed C-rings of Alloy 600 boiler tubing. Polychromatic X-ray Microdiffraction (PXM) was used to measure deviatoric strain tensors and the distribution of dislocations near cracks that had been propagated in electrochemically-accelerated corrosion tests. Stress corrosion cracking (SCC)-generated intergranular cracks were produced in two Alloy 600 specimens after 6h and 18h tests. The diffraction patterns and resultant strain tensors were mapped around the cracked area to a one micron spatial resolution. The strain tensor transverse to the crack growth direction showed tensile strain at the intergranular region just ahead of the crack tip for both specimens. Both cracks were found to follow grain boundary pathways that had the lowest angle of misorientation. Dislocation distributions within each grain were qualitatively obtained from the shapes of the diffraction spots and the effect of “hard” and “soft” grains on the crack pathway was explored for both 6h and 18h specimens.

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Correspondence to N. Stewart McIntyre .

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© 2011 TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society)

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Chao, J. et al. (2011). The Study of Stress Corrosion Cracking on Alloy 600 C-Ring Samples by Polychromatic X-Ray Microdiffraction. In: Busby, J.T., Ilevbare, G., Andresen, P.L. (eds) Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems — Water Reactors. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48760-1_105

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