Mechanical properties and kinetics of thermally aged Z3CN20.09M cast duplex stainless steel

Cast stainless steels used in nuclear power plants suffer from fracture toughness losses owing to thermal aging after long-term service at temperatures ranging from 280–320°C. To study the thermal aging embrittlement of Z3 CN20.09 M duplex stainless steel produced in China, accelerated thermal aging experiments were carried out at 350, 380, and 400°C for up to 10000 h. Microhardness and Charpy impact energies were measured at different aging times. The microhardness of ferrite increased drastically over the initial aging time of 2000 h at 380 and 400°C and then slowly reached HV0.01 560. In contrast to this observed change in microhardness, Charpy impact energies sharply decreased after initial aging and then gradually reached a minimum value. Taking the microhardness of the ferrite phase as the parameter describing the thermal kinetics of the stainless steel samples, the activation energy of thermal aging was calculated to be 51 kJ/mol. Correlations between the thermal aging parameter, P, and ferrite microhardness and between P and Charpy impact energy were also analyzed. The results showed that the activation energy calculated from the ferrite microhardness is much more reasonable than that obtained using other parameters, such as chemical composition and impact energy.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-B4C composite at elevated temperature strengthened with in situ Al2O3 network

This study evaluated the mechanical properties and thermal properties of Al-12 vol%B4 C composite at elevated temperature strengthened with in situ Al2 O3 network.The composite was fabricated using powder metallurgy(PM)with raw materials of fine atomized aluminum powders,and the associated microstructures were observed.At 350℃,the composite had ultimate tensile strength of UTS=137 MPa,yield strength of YS0.2=118 MPa,and elongation ofε=4%.Besides,the mechanical properties of the composite remained unchanged at 350℃after the long holding periods up to 1000 h.The excellent mechanical properties and thermal stability at 350℃were secured by in situ am-Al2O3 network that strengthened the grain boundaries.The interfacial debonding and brittle cracking of B4 C particles were the main fracture mechanisms of the composite.In addition,the influence of sintering temperature and rolling deformation on the microstructures and mechanical properties was studied.

Magnetic Properties of Thermally Aged Fe-Cu Alloys with Pre-deformation

Magnetic properties of thermally aged Fe-Cu alloys with pre deformation have been evaluated to improve the understanding of using magnetic technology for the nondestructive evaluation （NDE） of irradiation embrittlement in reactor pressure vessel （RPV） steels. Fe-Cu alloys with and without pre-deformation were thermally aged at 500 ℃ and the changes in microstructure, mechanical properties and magnetic properties were determined. It is found that the strain-induced dislocations recover and the Cu-rich particles precipitate during the aging process, and the magnet- ic properties variation depends on the combined influence of these two factors. From the point of view of NDE, a fully tempered or annealed microstructure is favorable before RPV is put into service. These results improve the un- derstanding of magnetic property evolution in actual RPV steels and help to develop NDE theory for irradiation embrittlement.

Improvement in irradiation resistance of FeCu alloy by pre-deformation through introduction of dense point defect sinks

The irradiation resistance of pre-deformed FeCu alloy was studied using a 3 MeV Fe ion irradiation experiment at room temperature in comparison with that of the as-received sample.Nanoindentation and atom probe tomography(APT) were used to characterize the mechanical properties and solute distribution.The stress-strain curve obtained by nanoindentation shows that the yield strength(σ0.2) of the pre-deformed sample is unexpectedly reduced with an increase in the irradiation dose to five displacements per atom(dpa).We suggest that it results both from the decrease in the dislocation density and the suppression of defects during irradiation.APT shows that the nucleation of the Cu cluster is suppressed;however,its growth is promoted in the pre-deformed sample,resulting in the formation of sparse and coarse clusters at 1 dpa irradiation.These coarse Cu clusters were then unexpectedly refined to finer grains with an increase in the irradiation dose to 5 dpa.Theoretically,the improvement in the resistance to irradiation in the pre-deformed sample is attributed to the dense point-defect sinks,that is,the dislocations and grain boundaries introduced by pre-deformation.In addition,the contributions of the dislocations and grain boundaries to the sink strength are estimated for both the as-received and pre-deformed samples.The results indicate that dislocations,rather than grain boundaries,play a major role after deformation.