Stress Corrosion Cracking Test Pieces for

Inspection Qualification and NDT Development

David Ludlow, AMEC
BINDT & ICORR Symposium on Inspection and Monitoring Techniques to
Manage the Corrosion of Valuable Assets

The Centre, Birchwood Park, Warrington

Wednesday 17th April 2013
Overview

ƒ What do we do
ƒ Stress corrosion
cracking (SCC)
ƒ Inspection
ƒ NDT test pieces
ƒ MISTIQ SCC test
pieces
ƒ NDT developments
ƒ Case study
ƒ Future developments
ƒ Conclusions

2
 AMEC NDT Inspection Capability

Inspection Validation
Monitoring & Inspection Design Centre
Concept Development Problem Understanding
Research Inspection Specification Qualification Strategy

Design Independent
Inspection Techniques Technology Transfer Qualification Body

Modelling and Simulation Rigs and Test Pieces

Qualification
Reliability Testing Deployment Consultancy

Technical Justifications Human Factors

Inspection Audit

Plant Implementation Training Audit

Procedure Development Data Analysis

Training Human Factors Site Support

3
Why Inspect?

Plant Failures:
ƒ Flixborough explosion – SCC of
chemical reactor, UK 1974
ƒ Bhopal accident, India 1984
ƒ Swiss swimming pool collapse
caused by SCC, 1985
ƒ Carlsbad pipeline explosion, New
Mexico, 2000
ƒ El Al Boeing 747 crash caused by
SCC, Amsterdam 1992

SCC is major degradation

mechanism & difficult to
detect

4
Stress Corrosion Cracking

5
SCC Initiation & Growth

Schematic diagram showing SCC initiation and growth

(Ref. R. Staehle, “Predicting the SCC of Reactor Components from First Principles”,
EUROCORR, 2009, Nice, France, Acropolis Palais de Congress, 6-10 September, 2009)

6
SCC 2-D Morphology

TGSCC IGSCC
Chloride SCC in 304L ASS Left Ref. NACE (Inconel heat exchanger)
Ref. Colorado Metallurgical Right Ref. Okamura, Japan NPP
Services

7
 SCC 2-D Morphology

SKI Report 2006:24 Crack Characterisation for In-service Inspection Planning

Nearly 100 SCC defects characterised from plant, 77% IGSCC

8
SCC 3-D Morphology

9
 Inspection

AssetHoly Grail
Management
ƒ Periodic NDT during outage
ƒ Risk based approach (RBI)
ƒ NDT needs careful design
ƒ Technique Now?
ƒ Equipment
Targeted Online
ƒ Personnel
Monitoring
ƒ Design needs validation
ƒ Formal Qualification

ƒ Universal Technique
Future
ƒ No Operational Interference
Structural Health
ƒ Early Warning Monitoring
10
NDT Techniques

SCC Surface
ƒ Visual
ƒ Liquid dye penetrant
(LPI)
ƒ Magnetic particle (MPI)
ƒ Eddy current (ECT)
ƒ Electro-magnetic

Volumetric
ƒ Ultrasonics
ƒ Radiography
ƒ Acoustic emission

11
 NDT Test Piece Development

ƒ Representative test
pieces
– Material, geometry, defects
ƒ Crack defects
– EDM notches, fatigue cracks
(smooth defects)

E.g. UT response weaker for

SCC compared to fatigue
cracks leading to SCC defects
being missed / unreported
during plant inspections

Requirement for realistic

SCC defects
(rough defects)

12
AMEC MISTIQ SCC Process

ƒ Need for IGSCC in Inconel

alloys
ƒ Control over crack length &
depth
ƒ Accelerated process
ƒ Stainless steels & DM welds
ƒ Standard plate specimens
ƒ Bespoke specimens
ƒ Dedicated rigs
ƒ FE analysis support

13
SCC Images

Plant SCC AMEC MISTIQ SCC

14
NDT Developments using SCC Test Pieces

ƒ Online data collection

ƒ Gates & alarms
ƒ Signal processing
ƒ Enhanced visual display
ƒ Data analysis
ƒ Phased array
– Total focussing method
(TFM)
– Full matrix capture
(FMC)

15
UT Online Monitoring

ƒ Pulse echo
– SCC initiation
– First stages of
growth

ƒ Time of flight
diffraction
(TOFD)
– SCC crack depth

16
Online Data Collection

Pre SCC SCC

B-scan showing
TOFD A-scan
SCC initiation & TOFD A-scan
growth

17
Online Data Analysis: Gates & Alarms

Automated Recognition
18
Enhanced Visual Display

A-scan from Marker

Rotatable
3-D View

Slider to Move
A-scan Marker
3-D View Control

Prototype UT software with enhanced visualisation

19
UT Phased Array

Phased array TFM

image superimposed on
MISTIQ SCC
(grade 304 plate)

FMC is data collection

for every transmit-
receive combination.

20
Case Study

ƒObjective
– To deliver large DM weld
SCC specimen to Japan for
round robin trials
ƒChallenges
–Largest SCC bespoke
specimen
–DM weld composition
–Rig design & loading
conditions
–NDT
–Delivery schedule
–SCC target: 20mm wide &
20mm deep

21
 Case Study

ƒ Weld metal trials weld

ƒ Loading conditions: FE analysis

ƒ NDT cladding

–UT specialised probes

–DPI carbon steel

ƒ Destructive Examination
stainless steel
(304)

Ref. E.Journal of Advanced Manufacturing,

Vol.3 No.3 NT40 & Vol.2 No.2 NT24

NDT Destructive
Examination
Specimen Length Depth Length Depth
mm mm mm mm
1 27 29 27 23
2 23 16 21 16

22
Future Developments

ƒ SCC in ferritic steels &

Al alloys
ƒ TGSCC NDT specimens
ƒ Complicated geometries
e.g. full pipe sections
ƒ Degradation
mechanisms – pitting,
general corrosion
ƒ Thermal fatigue & H
cracking specimens

23
Conclusions

ƒ There is a real need for realistic SCC

specimens to improve inspection
systems for SCC detection & sizing

ƒ AMEC MISTIQ SCC test pieces offer a

step improvement over conventional
test pieces for SCC inspections
– Widely used in qualified inspections for NPP

ƒ Targeted NDT techniques can be

adapted for online condition
monitoring

24
Questions?

Acknowledgements
BINDT & ICORR
AMEC – Nick Smart, Bernard McGrath & MID Team

Contact:
David Ludlow
T: 01925 254914
E: david.ludlow@amec.com

AMEC
Clean Energy- Europe
Walton House, Birchwood,
Warrington, Cheshire, WA3 6GA

25