Modeling the Effects of Dissolved Hydrogen, Temperature, pH, and Global Stress on Stress Corrosion Cracking of a Cr-Ni Model Alloy in High-Temperature Water

As an extension of recently presented stress corrosion cracking (SCC) models for pure nickel and iron in high-temperature water, the anodic path, hydrogen-assisted stress corrosion cracking of a model Cr-Ni alloy is presented, utilizing Alloy 600 (UNS 06600) mechanical properties. With the local anodic path corrosion as the crack initiation phase, the respective oxides precipitate while the crack tip solution acidify and establish local hydrogen ion reduction conditions. Depending on the applied global stress, local plastic straining then provides an active crack tip surface that transfers atomic hydrogen to the plastic zone ahead of the crack tip. Hydrogen-assisted crack propagation is then controlled by the calculated local hydrogen ion reduction charge and the plastic strain distribution ahead of the crack tip. The results show that for global stress levels close to the yield stress and at constant dissolved oxygen contents, the increasing dissolved hydrogen contents provide peak crack growth rates at ...