Plastic and elastic strains in short and long cracks in Alloy 600 studied by polychromatic X-ray microdiffraction and electron backscatter diffraction

The microscopic strain distributions were studied for stress corrosion cracks produced electrochemically in C-rings of Alloy 600 (0.65 Ni, 0.16 Cr, 0.08 Fe). The strain data were obtained using polychromatic X-ray microdiffraction (PXM) and (in part) by electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD). PXM was used to measure plastic and elastic strain distributions around the tip of a short crack, along with the changes to the direction and shape of the diffraction spots (ellipticity). For a sample with a short (30 μm) crack, the misorientation map showed a well-defined region of plastic deformation along the grain boundary in advance of the crack tip, extending to the next triple point. For the large crack sample, plastic and elastic stains as well as crystalline order could be measured in high detail with respect to the crack path. However, no correlation between these could be obtained, except for a notable degradation of crystalline order near the crack mouth. A comparable EBSD misorientation map shows strong correlation between misorientation and the crack edges; this may in part reflect the role of sharp edges in the more surface-sensitive approach.