NDTsi 2001 Session: Advances in Non-Ultrasonic NDE Methods
High-Cycle Fatigue Cracking Behaviors of Low Alloy Steel SA533b1 and Type 316L Stainless Steel and Acoustic Emission Measurements
H.L. Lee, J.Y. Huang, J.J. Yeh, Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Taiwan; J.G. Huang, Taiwan Power Company, Taiwan
ABSTRACT
Low alloy steel SA533B1 and type 316L stainless steel are the engineering materials commonly used in light water reactors (LWRs) for reactor pressure vessels and in-core components, respectively. Their fatigue behavior is of great concern to reactor safety in terms of the long-term reactor operation. High cycle fatigue tests on these materials have been conducted in this study with a loading frequency of 20 cycles/sec at room temperature and 300oC. The influence of sulfur content on the fatigue behavior of SA533B1 and the influence of stress ratio on the fatigue limit of SS316L were investigated at these temperatures. Meanwhile, to investigate fatigue crack behavior acoustic emission measurements were also conducted in part of the fatigue tests. It was observed that the acoustic emission rate of SS316L during fatigue crack propagation is stronger than SA533B1 and the rate has a greater value at 300oC than at room temperature provided the signal attenuation due to the use of waveguide is taken into account. In addition, the acoustic emission rate of SA533B1 steel no longer appeared to change drastically when test temperature was elevated, and the fatigue life was observed to reduce, more for SS316L, for test at the elevated temperature (300oC). Keywords: NDE, fatigue damage, acoustic emission.
Publication Source: 3nd International Conference on NDE in Relation to Structural Integrity for Nuclear and Pressurized Components, November 14-16, 2001, Seville Spain. Publisher: Tecnatom s.a. - [Homepage]
