Procedure and equipment have been designed to implement an assessment of propensity to SCC (stress corrosion cracking) for thin-walled cladding tube. The assessment is based on a schema of corrosion tests conducted in a localized zone of contact of a material with an aggressive environment which allows tracing the evolution of single corrosion defects through AE (acoustic emission) measurements. Based on these measurements during testing for 8 hours two stages were revealed in the process of tube SCC. The developed procedure of SCC testing in the local zone of corrosion induced fracture based on AE measurements allows the analysis of the mechanism and kinetics of fracture in real time which substantially shortens the time of corrosion tests. Thin-walled zirconium tubes having different structural states were comparatively tested. The influence of structure factors on kinetics and resistance to SCC was demonstrated.

Subject
Pits, Test methods, Materials, Corrosion kinetics, Metal surfaces, Tubes, Corrosion evolution, Corrosion cracking, Defects, Zirconium alloys, Fracture, Fractography, Stress corrosion cracking
© 2002 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
2002
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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