While uranium alloys have been observed to stress corrosion crack in a variety of environments, a previous study1 has shown that the principal stress corrodent for U-0.75 Wt% Ti in air and aqueous environments is H2O. Since uranium alloys, particularly alloys with low alloy additions, react rapidly with H2O to form uranium oxide and H2,2 a program was initiated to determine the cracking behavior of U-0.75 Wt% Ti in H2. This note describes some of the preliminary data obtained from material aged at 357 C for 18 hours (σys ≅ 900 Mn/m2, 130 ksi) and tested in 100 torr of H2.
Side grooved, tapered-double-cantilevered beam specimens described in a previous report3 were used in this study. With this type of specimen the stress intensity (K) is independent of the crack length and therefore...
