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Characterization of austenitic stainless steels with regard to environmentally assisted fatigue in simulated light water reactor conditions

Year of publication

2021

Authors

Bruchhausen, Matthias; Dundulis, Gintautas; McLennan, Alec; Arrieta, Sergio; Austin, Tim; Cicero, Romá N.; Chitty, Walter John; Doremus, Luc; Ernestova, Miroslava; Grybenas, Albertas; Huotilainen, Caitlin; Mann, Jonathan; Mottershead, Kevin; Novotny, Radek; Perosanz, Francisco Javier; Platts, Norman; Roux, Jean Christophe Le; Spätig, Philippe; Celeizábal, Claudia Torre; Twite, Marius; Vankeerberghen, Marc
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Abstract

A substantial amount of research effort has been applied to the field of environmentally assisted fatigue (EAF) due to the requirement to account for the EAF behaviour of metals for existing and new build nuclear power plants. We present the results of the European project INcreasing Safety in NPPs by Covering Gaps in Environmental Fatigue Assessment (INCEFA-PLUS), during which the sensitivities of strain range, environment, surface roughness, mean strain and hold times, as well as their interactions on the fatigue life of austenitic steels has been characterized. The project included a test campaign, during which more than 250 fatigue tests were performed. The tests did not reveal a significant effect of mean strain or hold time on fatigue life. An empirical model describing the fatigue life as a function of strain rate, environment and surface roughness is developed. There is evidence for statistically significant interaction effects between surface roughness and the environment, as well as between surface roughness and strain range. However, their impact on fatigue life is so small that they are not practically relevant and can in most cases be neglected. Reducing the environmental impact on fatigue life by modifying the temperature or strain rate leads to an increase of the fatigue life in agreement with predictions based on NUREG/CR-6909. A limited sub-programme on the sensitivity of hold times at elevated temperature at zero force conditions and at elevated temperature did not show the beneficial effect on fatigue life found in another study.
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Organizations and authors

Publication type

Publication format

Article

Parent publication type

Journal

Article type

Original article

Audience

Scientific

Peer-reviewed

Peer-Reviewed

MINEDU's publication type classification code

A1 Journal article (refereed), original research

Publication channel information

Journal

Metals

Volume

11

Issue

2

Article number

307

Pages

1-20

​Publication forum

82338

​Publication forum level

1

Open access

Open access in the publisher’s service

Yes

Open access of publication channel

Fully open publication channel

License of the publisher’s version

CC BY

Self-archived

No

Other information

Fields of science

Mechanical engineering; Materials engineering

Keywords

[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Language

English

International co-publication

Yes

Co-publication with a company

Yes

DOI

10.3390/met11020307

The publication is included in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Publication data collection

Yes