NAME: Vernica Lpez Estrada ID: 000090428 DATE: 14-10-09 the results of the failure analysis of a circulating pump

from a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is studied. The failed component was the upper shaft made of martensitic stainless steel. Circulating water systems at power plants have two important functions: (1) filtering water before it is pumped to and through the condenser and (2) cooling the condenser. Circulating pumps are vertical centrifugal units. The metallurgical analyses performed include fractography, metallography and energy dispersive spectrometry analysis. Charpy impact, tensile and hardness tests were also performed. The destructive examination carried out revealed that the root cause of the pump shaft failure was an improper thermal treatment of the material that generated a temper embrittlement process. Photographs showing the general appearance of the pieces show cracks which clearly initiated at the external surface. The characteristics of these cracks: shape, beach marks and footprints left by the corrosion products, seem to indicate fatigue processes. In addition, an internal zone with multiple cracking arising from a central line where abundant brown deposits exist, can be seen. This cracking propagates to both sides of the line in the form of semicircles. The different colorations visible in the semicircles point to the different steps in the crack growth. The rest of the fracture surface, which corresponds to the final fracture, shows a different appearance and a grey coloration in general. However, some brown deposits, heterogeneously distributed, are also visible in these areas indicating that they are subsequent to the failure. The fractographic examination performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that all the cracks existing in the different pieces, both the external cracks as well as the internal ones, were of intergranular morphology with the grains, in general, covered with corrosion products. The metallographic study was carried out on samples cut from zones close to the internal cracks, as well as from zones close to the external diameter of the shaft. In the latter case, zones close to the failure area and zones far from the failure and where the external plating exists in the shaft were studied. The metallographic sections were selected from areas where the external plating of the shaft showed a homogeneous appearance, and also from areas where it was broken and cracked. In all cases, the results of the metallographic examination did not show significant differences. The destructive examination of the shaft has shown that the failure was produced by the existence of multiple intergranular cracking, some of it initiated internally in the material, and some initiated at the external surface of the shaft, all with the macroscopic characteristics of fatigue. Damaged areas with grain boundary attack were also detected around the cracks. The fracture surfaces of the cracks were covered with abundant corrosion products, also visible over the final fracture, indicating that most of the corrosion was subsequent to the failure of the shaft.

The destructive examination performed has revealed that the root cause of the pump shaft failure has been an improper thermal treatment of the material that has originated a temper embrittlement process. However, in addition, a hydrogen embrittlement process may have contributed to the failure.

REFERENCES: www.sciencedirect.com: Engineering Failure Analysis : Failure analysis of a river water circulating pump shaft from a Nuclear Power Plant