CORROSION EVALUATION OF CARBON STEELS USING NONDESTRUCTIVE TECHNIQUE

Primary water stress corrosion crack (PWSCC) in the piping used at the nuclear power plant has been one of the major issues for the safety of plant. The major objective in this paper is to clarify the corrosion degree and damage by the PWSCC using nondestructive technique. The instrument of the tube typed reactor with the internal conditions of the temperature of 473K under pressure of 10 MPa was designed for corrosion of the material. The tensile specimens of the same material with the reactor were corroded in the reactor for evaluation of mechanical properties according to the corrosion. The corrosion of the specimen was maintained over one year, and an acoustic emission technique was applied to inspect the corrosion damage of the specimen periodically. A tensile test was performed for the corroded specimen, and then the elastic waves caused the deformation of the corroded specimen were analyzed. With the increase of the corrosion time the elastic waves generated in the specimen due to the tensile load showed a little difference, and these differences of the waves work as a cause of the change of acoustic emission (AE) parameters. The number of AE events at the beginning of the load increased with the corrosion time. AE parameters of amplitude and energy decreased as the corrosion times increased, while the level of duration time and count were increased with the corrosion periods. The velocity and attenuation of the elastic wave were also analyzed for the specimen, and these factors showed a close relation with the corrosion times. In addition, SEM and XRD analysis were performed to evaluate the damage behavior of the carbon steel due to corrosion.