Measurement of fatigue crack growth rate of reactor structural material in air based on DCPD method

The principles and details of direct current potential drop (DCPD) in monitoring the crack growth of reactor structural materials was introduced in this paper. Based on this method, the fatigue crack growth rate (CGR) of typical structural materials in nuclear power systems was measured. The effects of applied load, load ratio and loading frequency on the fatigue crack growth rate of reactor structural materials were discussed. The result shows that the fatigue crack growth rate of reactor structural materials depends on the hardness of materials, and the harder the material is, the higher the rate of crack growth is. (authors)