Piping Cracks in JPDR, (III)Metallurgical Examination of Cracks in Stainless Steel Pipe

摘要

Failure analysis was made on samples taken from type 304 stainless steel piping systems (core spray, unloading and feed water pipes) that had cracked in service. In the core spray pipe, large cracks including one penetrating through the wall were found in the upper half of the pipe wall, within the heat-affected zone of the weld joint between the pipe and the nozzle safe end of the reactor pressure vessel. These cracks were of intergranular type, also small transgranular cracks were found beyond the heat-affected zone. Strong correlation was established between the intergranular cracking and severe sensitization in the heat-affected zone.In the unloading pipe, the region close to the weld joint contained cracks similar to those in the core spray pipe. The feed water pipe, in contrast to the foregoing cases, contained numerous shallow transgranular cracks both within and outside the heat-affected zone.