Environmental effects on fatigue of steels for structural parts in water-steam-circuits of light water reactors. Considerations concerning the question of transferability of results from laboratory tests to real operating conditions

Based on material science and physical chemistry it seems plausible that a corrosive medium can influence the fatigue behaviour of structural materials, i.e. steels. It has been shown decades before that high temperature water has significant effects on the fatigue behaviour of steels, decreasing the crack initiation time or increasing the growth rate of existing cracks. At the beginning of nuclear regulations this expected influence of the medium on fatigue of components of nuclear power plants was worldwide not accounted for in the relevant standards (for instance ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, section III). There was a general consideration of medium effects on the da/dN crack growth curves in the ASME Code, section XI for the assessment of the surface flaw behaviour during operation. Historically, these regulations were implemented long before the experimental observation of medium effects on crack initiation and crack growth during fatigue of steels in high-temperature water. Besides this fact there have been worldwide no generic, systematic damages of medium containing components in light-water reactors due to corrosion fatigue. Singular damages with significant medium influenced fatigue features could always be explained by not specified operational transients, like thermal stratification or local flow-induced vibrations. The contribution provides considerations that explain the discrepancy between to worldwide positive operational experience and the definitive experimental indication of a medium-enhanced fatigue. Based on these considerations the author scrutinizes critically the US NRC Regulatory Guide 1.207 with respect to the medium influence on the component's fatigue behaviour. Possibilities for experimental assessment of the discussed hypothesis are shown