Computational reconstruction of environmentally accelerated cyclic crack growth in reactor steels

This paper reports the fracture surface topography analysis (FRASTA) technique applied to several pressure vessel steels tested under simulated PWR service conditions in attempting to establish the mechanism underlying environmentally accelerated cyclic crack growth. FRASTA, which seeks to reconstruct the crack propagation process in microscopic detail by comparing the topographies of conjugate fracture surfaces, showed differences in the process zone microfeatures in A533B-1 and A508-2 steel and also differences in A508-2 steel tested in a dry argon environment.