The intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC) of alloy 600 (UNS N06600) in high temperature water depends upon the microstructure and particularly upon the grain boundary composition and the intergranular carbide distribution. However, has been found that the presence of dissolved hydrogen in pure water increases the susceptibility to IGSCC and accelerates the crack growth rate. In this work, the role of heat treatment and microstructure produced was investigated. In order to analyze the susceptibility of alloy 600 to IGSCC induced in steam generators. The samples were heat treated and quenched in range of 600-1100C and compared with the mill annealed treatment at 930C and the microstructure was characterized using SEM-EDX and TEM. The resistance to the susceptibility to intergranular attack corrosion (IGA) in boiling acid solution in concern to the weight loss was investigated. The crack growth was measured using the potential drop technique in modified wedge opening displacement (M-WOL) samples immersed in an instrumented vessel at temperature between 200 to 350C, in pure water saturated with H2 at 200 kPa. It was found that the microstructure produced by heat treatment produced a strong increase in precipitation carbides in grain boundaries and transgranular precipitation compared with the as-received condition, due to the effect of temperature and time. The results of crack growth showed that the samples in the mill-annealed-condition and asreceived condition, show a profile of transgranular crack growth. The sample quenched at 800C shows
a wide precipitation of M23C6 carbides, preferentially at grain boundaries with a few transgranular precipitates.
Key Words: Intergranular Stress Corrosion Cracking, Intergranular Attack Corrosion, Alloy 600, Carbides precipitation.