Analysis on Mechanical Property of Oxide Film in Stress Corrosion Cracking Tip of Nickel-based Alloys

It is one of the basic processes that the oxide film form and rupture in the tip of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of nickel-base alloys in high temperature water environment of the nuclear pressure vessel. Because of the particularity of the propagating mode and morphology of the tip of SCC, the stress and strain in the tip of SCC constituted of the tip oxide film and base metal was simulated and analyzed under the micro scale based on the sub-model technology in ABAQUS software. The results show that the groove-type crack significantly affects the stress and the plastic strain in the oxide film at the SCC crack tip, and the longer the groove-type crack is, the more obvious the effect is. On the other hand, compared with stress, the plastic strain is more sensitive to the morphology of the tip of SCC; therefore, the plastic strain should be an appropriate mechanical parameter to investigate the oxide film character in the SCC crack tip.