Influence of interaction between multiple cracks on stress corrosion crack propagation

The interaction between multiple cracks has a major influence on crack growth behaviours. This influence is particularly significant in stress corrosion cracking (SCC) because of the relatively large number of cracks initiated due to environmental effects. In the SCC experiments using alloy 600 in high-temperature environments, many cracks were observed on the surface of fractured specimens. In this study, the interaction between multiple cracks was evaluated using a crack growth simulation. Some improvements were made to the simulation to reduce the calculation loads, which made it possible to conduct the simulation for many cases. Through the simulation, the relationships between the interaction and relative position, relative length, etc. of cracks were examined. The influence of the interaction between multiple cracks on the experimental results is then discussed.