Delayed hydride cracking in Zr–2.5Nb tube with the cooling rate and the notch tip shape

The objective of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of the Kim’s delayed hydride cracking (DHC) model. To this end, this study has investigated the velocity and incubation time of delayed hydride cracking (DHC) for the water-quenched and furnace-cooled Zr–2.5Nb tubes with a different radius of notch tip. DHC tests were carried out at constant KI of 20 MPa √m on cantilever beam (CB) specimens subjected to furnace cooling or water quenching after electrolytic charging with hydrogen. An acoustic emission sensor was used to detect the incubation time taken before the start of DHC. The shape of the notch tip changed from fatigue cracks to smooth cracks with its tip radius ranging from 0.1 to 0.15 mm. The DHC incubation time increased remarkably with the increased radius of the notch tip, which appeared more strikingly on the furnace-cooled CB specimens than on the water-quenched ones. However, both furnace-cooled and water-quenched CB specimens indicated little change in DHC velocity with the radius of the notch tip unless their notch tip exceeded 0.125 mm. These results demonstrate that the nucleation rate of hydrides at the notch tip determines the incubation time and the DHC velocity becomes constant after the concentration of hydrogen at the notch tip reaches terminal solid solubility for dissolution (TSSD), which agrees well with the Kim’s DHC model. A difference in the incubation time and the DHC velocity between the furnace-cooled and water-quenched specimens is attributed to the nucleation rate of reoriented hydrides at the notch tip and the resulting concentration gradient of hydrogen between the notch tip and the bulk region.