UNDERSTANDING THE MECHANISMS CONTROLLING ENVIRONMENTALLY-ASSISTED INTERGRANULAR CRACKING OF NICKEL-BASE ALLOYS

Creep and IG cracking of nickel-base alloys depend principally on two factors--the deformation behavior and the effect of the environment. We have shown that both contribute to the observed degradation in primary water. The understanding of cracking does not lie wholly within the environmental effects arena, nor can it be explained only by intrinsic mechanical behavior. Rather, both processes contribute to the observed behavior in primary water. In this project, we had three objectives: (1) to verify that grain boundaries control deformation in Ni-16Cr-9Fe at 360 C, (2) to identify the environmental effect on IGSCC, and (3) to combine CSLBs and GBCs to maximize IGSCC resistance in Ni-Cr-Fe in 360 C primary water. Experiments performed in hydrogen gas at 360 C confirm an increase in the primary creep rate in Ni-16Cr-9Fe at 360 C due to hydrogen. The creep strain transients caused by hydrogen are proposed to be due to the collapse of dislocation pile-ups, as confirmed by observations in HVEM. The observations only partially support the hydrogen-enhanced plasticity model, but also suggest a potential role of vacancies in the accelerate creep behavior in primary water. In high temperature oxidation experiments designed to examine the potential for selective internal oxidation in the IGSCC process, cracking is greatest in the more oxidizing environments compared to the low oxygen potential environments where nickel metal is stable. In Ni-Cr-Fe alloys, chromium oxides form preferentially along the grain boundaries, even at low oxygen potential, supporting a potential role in grain boundary embrittlement due to preferential oxidation. Experiments designed to determine the role of grain boundary deformation on intergranular cracking have established, for the first time, a cause-and-effect relationship between grain boundary deformation and IGSCC. That is, grain boundary deformation in Ni-16Cr-9Fe in 360 C primary water leads to IGSCC of the deformed boundaries. As well, the activation energy for grain boundary diffusion driving grain boundary deformation, QHAB=231 kJ/mole, is comparable to that for IGSCC initiation (212-241 kJ/mole), suggesting that grain boundary deformation is also the rate limiting factor for crack initiation. The resistance to IGSCC of Ni-16Cr-9Fe can be maximized by combining grain boundary misorientation with grain boundary carbide precipitation. Taken separately, an increased coincident site lattice fraction, and precipitation of grain boundary carbides increase the resistance to IGSCC initiation in 360 C primary water. In combination, the increase in resistance is greater than either of the effects taken separately. The grain boundary carbides tend to prefer the high angle boundaries, and thus, the combined treatment affords greater resistance by protecting a higher fraction of grain boundaries than either taken separately