Principal Investigator Ronald Ballinger
Project Website http://canes.mit.edu/effect-thermal-aging-properties-stainless-steel-weld-metals
The effect of thermal aging on the environmentally assisted crack growth is being explored by Professor Ballinger’s group. While the initial thrust of the program focused on static (stress corrosion crack growth) crack growth, the program has now added an additional task-exploration of a newly identified immerging issue that has been termed “environmental fracture”.
This phenomenon, identified and formally characterized for the first time in Professor Ballinger’s laboratory, manifests itself as a large reduction in resistance to unstable crack propagation and fracture when a material is exposed in high temperature water (~300°C) for periods that exceed approximately 2000 hours. Factors of over 50% reduction in fracture toughness have been observed. The program is focused on environmental fracture of welds in the current program.