THE INITIATION OF ENVIRONMENTALLY ASSISTED CRACKING IN SEMIELLIPTIC SURFACE CRACKS

A criterion to predict under what conditions EAC would initiate in cra cks in a high-sulfur Steel in contact with low-oxygen water was recent ly proposed by Wire and Li (1996). This EAC initiation cl criterion wa s developed using transient analyses for the diffusion of sulfides plu s experimental test results. The experiments were conducted mainly on compact tension type specimens with initial crack depths of about 2.54 mm. The present paper expands upon the work of Wire and Li by: presen ting results for significantly deeper initial semi-elliptical surface cracks. In addition, in one specimen, the surface crack penetrated wel d-deposited cladding into the high-sulfur steel. The results Sor the s emi-elliptical surface cracks agreed quite well with the EAC initiatio n criterion, and provide confirmation of the applicability of the crit erion to crack configurations with more restricted access to water.