A new stress corrosion cracking model for Inconel 600 in PWR media

A model of cracking in corrosion under stress, based on corrosion-plasticity interactions at cracking points, is proposed to describe the generally intergranular breakage of Inconel 600 in PWR medium. It is shown by calculation, and verified experimentally by observations in SEM, that a pseudo-intergranular breakage connected to the formation of micro facets in zigzags along the joints is possible, as well as a completely intergranular breakage. This allows us to assume that a continuity of mechanisms exists between the trans- and intergranular cracking by corrosion under material stress. (author)