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Environmentally assisted cracking of T91 ferritic-martensitic steel in heavy liquid metals

Abstract In order to advance material development for future nuclear systems, an insight into the cracking conditions of T91 ferritic-martensitic steel in heavy liquid metals (HLM) is provided. The paper critically reviews previous experimental data and summarizes them with new results. The new testing of T91 steel was performed in contact with slow flow and static HLM to study crack initiation, especially in liquid PbBi eutectic at 300°–350°C and Pb at 400°C with about 1 × 10−6 wt.% of oxygen. Pre-stressed coupons were exposed to the liquid metals for up to 2000 h. Constant extension rate tests (CERTs) were performed in the liquid metals to accelerate cracking development. Under static conditions, the testing resulted in oxidation without any crack observation. Under the CERT ones, the T91 steel showed a tendency to crack initiation in PbBi, while in Pb, cracks were not initiated even when the oxide layer was broken. Moreover, the environmentally assisted crack initiated at the maximum load and continued to grow under further loading without unstable failure. Both previous and new data have confirmed that high stress and plastic strain are pre-conditions for the environmentally assisted cracking of T91 in static HLM. It indicates that in the systems utilizing continuous oxygen control of HLM, the LME/EAC of the T91 could develop only in the beyond design load conditions. Further testing is necessary to address the HLM flow speed effect.