Irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking of stainless steels in a PWR environment (A combined approach)

Morgane Le Millier (1) , Olivier Calonne (2) , Jérôme Crépin (1) , Cecilie Duhamel (1) , Fabrice Gaslain (1) , Eva Heripre (3) , Ovidiu Toader (4) , Y. Vidalenc (2)

1 CDM - Centre des Matériaux
2 AREVA NP - Centre Technique (FRANCE)
3 LMS - Laboratoire de mécanique des solides
4 Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan.

This work deals with the study of the irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking. The purpose is to improve the understanding of irradiation effects on the mechanical behaviour of internal stainless steel structures in PWR environment. The aim is to identify the physical mechanisms responsible for plasticity and damage in relation with the microstructure heterogeneities and to separate the effects induced by the chemical environment to those due to mechanical loading and irradiation. Proton-irradiations are performed in the Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory. Slow Strain Rate Tensile tests are performed both in PWR primary water and under inert atmosphere to study the deformation mechanisms of irradiated samples and their coupling with the environment. To correlate cracking to microstructure, full field analysis are performed, at a microscale, by SEM digital imaging correlation technique coupled with EBSD cartography of the grain orientations after irradiation. Moreover, cracking features are characterized using SEM and TEM.

Mots clés: 304 L stainless steel; PWR; deformation fields; IASCC

Domaines: Matériaux

Morgane Le Millier, Olivier Calonne, Jérôme Crépin, Cecilie Duhamel, Fabrice Gaslain, et al.. Irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking of stainless steels in a PWR environment (A combined approach). 15th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems - Water Reactors, Aug 2011, Colorado springs, United States. pp.1293-1307, ⟨10.1007/978-3-319-48760-1_79⟩. ⟨hal-00683115⟩