ALLOY 800 STEAM GENERATOR TUBE STRESS CORROSION CRACKS - DETECTION

1)

A Erhard 1) F. Otremba 1) F. Mohr 2) R. Kilian3)

BAM Bundesanstalt fr Materialforschung und prfung (BAM), Berlin;
2)
AREVA NDE Solutions/ IntelligeNDT - Erlangen
3)
AREVA NP GmbH Erlangen

ABSTRACT
Intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC) in Alloy 800 steam generator tubes was until recently an
unknown damage mechanism for this material. But in the meanwhile such cracks were detected within the
tube sheet between upper and lower mechanical tube expansion and in the outer tube bundle periphery.
The detection and the sizing of such defects were not reliable with the common NDT methods. Steam
generator (SG) tube integrity constitutes the main barrier against release of activity to the secondary circuit. When through wall cracks occur, primary water can leak into the secondary circuit due to the influence of the pressure difference between the primary and secondary circuit. Such cracks may have safety
relevance if the crack growth is not negligible. Therefore optimized inspection methods are necessary for
tube integrity assessment.
The overall requirements in this particular case are to guarantee the tube integrity in the time between the periodically in-service inspections until the next inspection by placing special emphases of NDT
methods. In the present contribution, NDT methods for the inspection of defects like IGSCC are presented. Some statements about the root cause for this special degradation mechanism will also be described.

INTRODUCTION
Steam generator (SG) tubes within nuclear Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) coolant systems are part of
the primary circuit. SG tube walls maintain separation between the primary and the secondary circuits. To
avoid leakage from the primary into the secondary circuit, SG tube integrity is verified using in-service
inspection methods plus surveillance techniques testing for radioactivity in the secondary circuit. Typical
defects include corrosion due to wastage near the top of the tube sheet (TTS) and near the tube support
plates (TSP) plus fretting wear/1-3/ near the TSPs. Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) was a problem for
Alloy 600 steam generator tubes /4-7/. To understand the damage mechanism in SG tubes, it is necessary
to have information about Primary Water SCC (PWSCC) commonly observed at the roll transition zone,
at U-bends and tube denting locations, and Outer-Diameter SCC (ODSCC) commonly occurring near
TSP. In /6/ it is mentioned that SCC on both the primary and the secondary sides of SG tubes has become
the principal degradation mode and that this kind of cracking has been observed in Alloy 600 tubes. Due
to recent indications of damage within Alloy 800, starting from the OD of the tubes (secondary circuit),
this degradation mechanism must now to be considered, too. These damage mechanisms are, so far as
known in the moment, related to the design of the steam generator tube supports (Fig 1). There are geometrical parts in the tube sheet area, but limited to the outer tube bundle periphery, as well as in the support grid area in which deposits can be buildup. In these deposits an enrichment of corrosive species, e.g.
sulphur species, can occur. A decrease of the pH-value is the consequence and subsequently an increasing
the potential for SCC. Finally an increase of stress corrosion cracking growth was detected between two
inspection intervals.
In parallel to the investigation related to the root cause of different SG tube damage mechanisms,
the development of non-destructive testing methods was the challenge. Eddy current testing is currently
the method for SG tube inspection.

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Figure 1: Locations at which ODSCC of Alloy 800 tubing was observed

STEAM GENERATOR TUBE INSPECTION

SG tube inspection of Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) has been required in standards and codes since PWR
plant construction. For this purpose Eddy Current Techniques (ET) are common around the world. Different research laboratories have conducted investigations to optimize these techniques, especially for the
detection of cracks, since volumetric defects like fretting or wastage are in general not a challenge for ET,
due to the high sensitivity of Eddy Current (EC) for such defects. Nevertheless, depending on the technique being employed, the measured ET probe response gives information about the defect location (inner
or outer diameter of the tube), and the relative defect orientation (axial, circumferential). Such signals are
easily sorted without the influence of TTS or TSP structures that also have a significant impact on the EC
signal. If defects are located near geometrical changes or changes of the tube material properties, then
some efforts are necessary to separating and recognizing damage signals from geometrical signals as explained in /8/. The signal received from IGSCC placed on the OD was superimposed on signals received
from the TSP (TSP is made of carbon steel /8/). In this case, the signal generated by the SCC is not clearly
recognizable any more. The optimization of EC probes for the inspection of these areas was one of the
challenges in the past. In /9/ an optimization procedure is described where the disturbed eddy current field
due to a crack is calculated as well as the impedance changes. In derivation of these theoretical results,
optimizations of the probe coils are presented. The shape and geometry of these coils are more or less
those which are well known conventionally. Further investigations for the optimization of EC probes are
described in /10/. In this presentation, sample calculations were performed with a three-dimensional (3D)
finite-element model to describe the response of an EC probe to defects in SG tubing. Such calculations
could be very helpful in understanding and interpreting EC probe responses to complex tube defect geometries associated with the in-service inspection (ISI) of SG tubes. In general, when designing an EC probe
for a new application, the primary criterion is the detection capability or the sensitivity to the target defects, in our special case intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC), in the presence of the design
material and geometry. From the mechanism producing IGSCC it is clear that the interaction of ECs with
IGSCC is totally different from the interaction with e.g. wastage, fretting or fatigue cracks.
As mentioned before, the optimization of EC probes contains a high detection capability but also a
good potential for defect sizing. For this task the application of so-called array eddy current probes /11-16/
has some advantages. In /16/ it is mentioned that the biggest evolution in eddy current sensor technology
is the eddy current array technique. Eddy current array technology increases detection capabilities due to

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the kind of coil arrangement (Figure. 2). The principle of those probes is described especially with the
emphasis on crack extent measurement as follows:

Figure 2: Principle of an EC array probe

As shown in the example of Figure 2, the complete eddy current probe consists of a number of single coils arranged in three parallel rows (see also picture at the top right). At the bottom of the right hand
side of figure, the flexibility of the probe and cable arrangement at a SG U-bend tube is pointed. The number of coils depends on the inner diameter of the tube; however with increase in the diameter the number
of coils must also be increased to achieve the same resolution along the surface. At present EC probes with
8 to 18 single coils are available on the market. A further increase in effective coil density is achieved by
switching coils between transmitter (T) and Receiver (R) mode respectively. For detection and estimation
of the length extent of axially oriented cracks in the SG tubes the following alternative measurements may
be conducted:
Signal transmission is initially made using the transmitter coil T1 and signal reception using the receivers R1 and R2. The measurement steps continue with the transmitter coil changed from T1 to T2 and the
receiver coils to R2 and R3, and subsequently following the algorithm Tn+1, Rn+1 and Rn+2 respectively. By
means of this procedure, an examination of axial defects in the whole tube circumference is achieved.
For the detection and sizing of circumferentially oriented defects the transmit coils are T1 and T2
and the receivers are R4 and R5. The circumferentially oriented display is developed following the Transmitter-Receiver algorithm analogous to the axial sequence as shown above.
A criterion for defect detection is the sensitivity of the EC probe which depends among others on
the aperture size (extension of the coils), the electrical conditions of the specimen and the defect geometry.
The influence of the defect length extension is plotted in Figure 3, as expected theoretically and as received during measurements. The theoretical curve describes the measured behavior very well; the sensitivity is increasing with increasing the length extension until a maximum. The maximum is achieved when
the defect length is equal the aperture size. In this particular case the aperture size was approximately 14
mm. The theoretical curve fits the measured well only the sensitivity maximum is shifted to shorter defect
extensions. The theory is more conservative than the measurement. Further the signal decreases lightly for

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Figure 3: Sensitivity distrubution of an EC array probe

Figure 4: Comparison of the results received with EC techniques and fractography /18/
defect length larger than the aperture size and change over to a saturation. The signal maximum can be
explained as the influences of the edges of the defect when the defect length achieves the aperture size.
The black line is presenting the signal of the middle of the defect. This signal is equivalent with the maximum measured signal when the defect is smaller than the aperture and decrease when the defect length is
larger the aperture. However, the signal saturation is achieved by a little bit longer defect extensions due to
the weaker geometry influence in the middle of the defect. An example of measured results employing the
EC array probe described above is printed in /17/ and shown in Figure 4. In the middle of the figure the
axial orientation of the defect is clearly visible, whereas the measured quasi 3-dimensional image gives the
information of a crack-like defect with two deeper extensions. The evaluation of the depth of these two
measured peaks gives crack depths of 73% and 42% of the wall thickness respectively. For validation of

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the EC inspection results and for investigation of the degradation mechanism, this tube was pulled from
the steam generator. From the fractography on the left hand side, a maximum crack depth of 1.05 mm was
obtained. This is equivalent to a wall thickness reduction of 80% if a wall thickness of 1.30 mm for the SG
tube is assumed. Comparing these results with the eddy current estimate shows good agreement. A cross
section of another IGSCC crack is printed on the right hand side of the figure. The estimation of the smaller crack depth gives a wall thickness reduction of 0.38 mm. This is equivalent to approximately 30% of
the wall thickness. This bigger difference of the crack between the EC measured and the fractography is
may be due to the interaction between the signals from the two cracks. Further, the investigation has
shown that IGSCC cracks are start in general on corroded surface areas, as also seen in the figure on the
right hand side (see also Figure 6).
Additional results received from a second removed SG tube are shown in Fig. 5. Again, in the middle the measured 3D eddy current result using the array probe is shown. The wall degradation was estimated at 56%. From the fractography a reduction of the wall thickness due to IGSCC of 0.86 mm was
measured at that position, which is equivalent to a wall thickness degradation of 66%. Depending on the
circumferential position the evaluation of the opened cracking position delivers two intergranular cracks;
one has the mentioned wall thickness reduction of 66% and the second has a reduction of 51% The circumferential position of this defected area is also visible on the 3D plot at the right hand side. In the EC
signal plot of Fig 5, only one defect is clear recognizable. The two separate cracks in close proximity to
each other cannot be clearly distinguished. The reason in this particular case is the large aperture EC coils
and therefore relatively limited lateral resolution. The weak separation of these two close cracks is obviously. However, the resolution is always under discussion in the application of nondestructive testing
methods and of course also the application of EC techniques. If the distance between defects is similar to
the aperture size then a separation is impossible. The plotted result is an integral of all signals beneath the
aperture.

Figure 5: Comparison of the results received with EC techniques and fractography /18/

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ROOT CAUSE
The in-service inspection of SG tubes was carried out in accordance with the requirements in the code.
The detection of IGSCC on the outer (OD) tube wall was astonishing. The results of the fractography explained in the previous section together with the results obtained during the in-service inspection employing EC array techniques gave not a clear information about the root cause of ODIGSCC mechanism. In
Figure 6, an overview of a damaged area of a pulled tube is shown left hand side above. The corroded area
on the surface is recognizable visually. On the ground of this corroded area, using a higher magnification,
a crack was detected (picture at the right hand side and in the middle below). The same damage situation
was revealed on a second pulled tube. Following years of operation, some difficulties with the condenser
may occur, allowing some leakage coupled with sulphur or other chemical substances that can come into
the secondary medium and hide out between the SG tube and TS. The logical consequence is the concentration of corrosive species e.g. sulphurs in this area increasing the corrosion potential. But in general for
IGSCC generation tensile strength is also a sufficient necessity. To get an answer residual stress measurements were carried out on different SG tubes.

Figure 6: Surface conditions on the cracked area

The residual stress measurements were carried out using tubes of two Alloy 800 heats from the
same manufacturing period and manufacturing plant as the removed damaged tubes. A residual stress profile from the OD to the ID was created using electrochemical metal removal and X-ray residual stress
measurements (Figure 7). The measurements were carried out at three positions at the circumference of
the Alloy 800 tubes. The results showed that compressive stresses in the axial as well as in the circumferential direction were present. Based on experience with the tube manufacturing process, these compressive
stresses can be attributed to the fabrication of the SG tubes. With increasing measurement depth the compressive stresses decrease. At a depth of approximately 50 m, a transition from compressive to tensile
stresses could be demonstrated at all measuring positions. This is one explanation for the special degradation mechanism recognized by the fractography investigations described in the previous section. From this
point it is clear understandable that a corroded surface must be present always to reduce compressive
stresses on the surface. Further results of residual stress distribution have been obtained on SG tubes with
surface treatment using glass bead irradiation. This type of surface treatment was employed for the so
called Konvoi NPP produced by the former KWU, whereas only three were build (commercial operation
1988 und 1989). The result of the residual measurements, using the same procedure as mentioned above,
is printed in Figure 8. The comparison with the older (marked with A) tubes is obviously. The tubes
treated by glass bead irradiation (marked with B) have approximately a 6 times deeper compressional
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stress zone than the older tubes. Nevertheless, totally avoidance of the generation of ODIGSCC is impossible when chemical substances e.g. due to condenser problems, are into the second circuit.

Figure 7: Residual stresses of SG ab tube (as fabricated)

Figure 8: Residualstresses of a SG tubes

Periodically inspection using non-destructive testing methods is one of the consequences to avoid
leakage of radiation between the primary and secondary circuit. A second method SG tube integrity assessment is verified using surveillance techniques testing for radioactivity in the secondary circuit e.g.
tritium (3H) measurements and hide out return calculations /19/ after shutdown.

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CONCLUSION
The detection of ODIGSCC at SG tubes near the TS is one of the challenges for EC inspection techniques.
In the past, the EC inspection of this area was difficult due to the big carbon steel mass of the TS. With the
application of eddy current arrays the detection of cracks in this area has become more reliable. The results present in this paper show the advantage of that technique in relation to defect detection, sizing and
characterization by image presentation. Studies of the root cause of the damage mechanism for the generation of OD IGSCC at the secondary circuit shows, that depending on the treatment of the SG tubes during
fabrication, tensile strength regions some m beneath the surface are detected and can cause this behavior.
The results are helpful for understanding the mechanism, and an extension to other PWRs with similar SG
tube characteristics seems to be possible.
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