Stress corrosion cracking (SCC), corrosion fatigue, and hydrogen assisted cracking are all mechanisms of environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) that affect fossil fueled power plant components. These damage mechanisms may affect all types of components in the water/steam cycle, including deaerators, feedwater heaters, boiler tubes, headers, piping, turbine rotors, blading, generators, retaining rings, and condensers. A number of these components are considered "critical components" because of the economic and safety impacts should such a component fail. In certain cases, failure of a component is regarded as the inability to perform its function rather than catastrophic failure. This paper reviews EAC mechanisms in critical components and presents methods for assessing damage and the remaining useful life of the component.

Subject
Crack growth, Corrosion fatigue, Materials, Tubes, Inspection, Corrosion cracking, Stress cracking, Stress, Mechanical failure, Repair, Boilers, Pitting, Stress corrosion cracking
Keywords:
environmentally assisted cracking (EAC), stress corrosion, fatigue, nondestructive evaluation (NDE), life assessment, condition assessment, failure prevention, power plant components
© 1991 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).
1991
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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