Nonlinear Rayleigh waves to detect initial damage leading to stress corrosion cracking in carbon steel

This research experimentally investigates second harmonic generation of Rayleigh waves propagating through carbon steel samples damaged in a stress corrosion environment. Damage from stress corrosion cracking is of major concern in nuclear reactor tubes and in gas and fuel transport pipelines. For example, certain types of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) account for more failures in steam generator tubes than most other damage mechanisms, yet these cracks do not initiate until late in the structure's life. Thus, there is a need to be able to measure the damage state prior to crack initiation, and it has been shown that the acoustic nonlinearity parameter - the parameter associated with second harmonic generation - is sensitive to microstructural evolution. In this work, samples are immersed in a sodium carbonate-bicarbonate solution, which typically forms in the soil surrounding buried pipelines affected by SCC, and held at yield stress for 5-15 days to the onset of stress corrosion cracking. Measurements of second harmonic generation with Rayleigh waves are taken intermittently to relate cumulative damage prior to macroscopic cracking to nonlinear wave propagation. Experimental results showing changes in second harmonic generation due to stress corrosion damage are presented.