Hardening of an ODS Ferritic Steel after Helium Implantation and Thermal Annealing

Specimens of an oxide dispersion strengthened（ODS） ferritic steel（15 Cr-4 Al-0.6 Zr-0.1 Ti） are implanted with multiple-energy He ions at room temperature to create a damage plateau of 0.4 dpa for the average（corresponding to an He concentration of about 7000 appm） from the near surface to a depth about 1 um. The specimen is subsequently thermally annealed at 800°C for 1 h in a vacuum so that simple defects can be formed in the as-implanted state that has undergone significant recombination, meanwhile helium bubbles at nano-scale are formed. Hardness of the specimens are tested with the nano-indentation technique. A hardening by 25% is observed. Microstructures of the specimen after irradiation/annealing are investigated with transmission electron microscopy. Helium bubbles are generally located at dislocations and grain boundaries. Using the dispersed barrier strength model, the strength factor of helium bubbles in the ODS ferritic steel is estimated to be between0.1 and 0.26, which is close to that of helium bubbles in austenitic steels.

Synthesis and Characterization of Oxide Dispersion Strengthened Ferritic Steel via a Sol-Gel Route

Nanocrystalline oxide dispersion strengthened （ODS） ferritic steel powders with nominal composition of Fe-14Cr-3W-0.3Ti-0.4Y2O3 are synthesized using sol-gel method and hy- drogen reduction. At low reduction temperature the impurity phase of CrO is detected. At higher reduction temperature the impurity phase is Cr2O3 which eventually disappears with increasing reduction time. A pure ODS ferritic steel phase is obtained after reducing the sol-gel resultant products at 1200℃ for 3 h. The HRTEM and EDS mapping indicate that the Y2O3 particles with a size of about 15 nm are homogenously dispersed in the alloy matrix. The bulk ODS ferritic steel samples prepared from such powders exhibit good mechanical performance with an ultimate tensile stress of 960 MPa.

Small-angle neutron scattering study on the stability of oxide nanoparticles in long-term thermally aged 9Cr-oxide dispersion strengthened steel

A 9 Cr-oxide dispersion strengthened(ODS)steel was thermally aged at 873 K for up to 5000 h.The size distribution and chemical composition of the dispersed oxide nanoparticles were analyzed by small-angle neutron scattering under a magnetic field.Combined with transmission electron microscopy,Vickers micro-hardness tests and electron backscattered diffraction measurements,all the results showed that the thermal treatment had little or no effect on the size distributions and volume fractions of the oxide nanoparticles in the ferromagnetic matrix,which suggested excellent thermal stability of the 9 Cr-ODS steel.

Irradiation Damage of Oxide Dispersion Strengthened Ferritic Steel after Recrystallization

The evolution of secondary defects and the characteristics of the void swelling of electrons irradiated Oxide Dispersion Strengthened Ferritic Steels (ODS steels) after recrystallization were studied. It was found that recrystallization increases the void swelling of ODS steel as compared with solution and injected He+ + D+ states.There are two size ranges of voids formed in recrystallized ODS steel during irradiation, and bubbles can be preferential sites for the void formation. Polycrystal with low density of defects is formed, and sites where point defects disappear by irradiation decrease. This is the main reason for the increase of void swelling of ODS steel after recrystallization.

Current state and prospect on the development of advanced nuclear fuel system materials:A review

The intricate balance between reactor economics and safety necessitates the emergence of new and advanced nuclear systems and,very importantly,advanced materials,which can overcome current shortcomings and bring about more economic nuclear systems with designed-in inherent safety features.These advances will achieve greater safety and better nuclear reactor economics by reaching longer reactor lives with higher levels neutron irradiation,and by providing higher operation temperatures and resistance to more aggressive corrosive environments.This paper provides a review of the current state of research and development on innovative nuclear fuel materials design and development which have the potential of benefiting simultaneously reactor economics and safety.Our discussion focuses on three areas of research:Accident-tolerant Fuels(ATFs),Oxidation Dispersion Strengthened(ODS)steels and High Entropy Alloys(HEAs).The paper also gives a prospective description of future research activities on these materials.

Development of oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic steels with and without aluminum

Pure Fe, Cr, AI, Ti elemental powders and prealloyed Y203 powder were processed by high energy mechanical milling. The compositions of the mixed powders are designed as Fe-18Cr-0.2Ti-0.35Y2O3 and Fe-18Cr-5Al-0.2Ti-0.35Y2O3 in weight percent. The asmilled powders were consolidated by hot extrusion at 1423 K. The dispersed oxide particles were identified to be titania ＋ yttria for Al-free oxide dispersion strengthened （ODS） steel and alumina ＋ yttria for Al-added ODS steel, respectively. The ultimate tensile strength of Al-free ODS steel was higher than that of Al-added ODS steel over the temperature range of 298-973 K, because of the difference in number density and size of thermally stable oxide particles dispersed in both steel matrices. The strength in the longitudinal direction was lower than that in the transverse direction, probably due to anisotropy of the microstructure with elongated grains in the hot-extrusion direction for the 18%Cr-ODS steels with and without 5% Al.

A review of friction stir welding of steels： Tool, material flow, microstructure, and properties

Considerable progress has been achieved in friction stir welding （FSW） of steels in every aspect of tool fab- rication, microstructure control and properties evaluation in the past two decades. With the development of reliable welding tools and precise control systems, FSW of steels has reached a new level of technical maturity. High-quality, long welds can be produced in many engineering steels. Compared to traditional fusion welding, FSW exhibits unique advantages producing joints with better properties. As a result of active control of the welding temperature and/or cooling rate, FSW has the capability of fabricating steel joints with excellent toughness and strength. For example, unfavorable phase transformations that usu- ally occur during traditional welding can be avoided and favorable phase fractions in advanced steels can be maintained in the weld zone thus avoiding the typical property degradations associated with fusion welding. If phase transformations do occur during FSW of thick steels, optimization of microstructure and properties can be attained by controlling the heat input and post-weld cooling rate.

Hot rolling and annealing effects on the microstructure and mechanical properties of ODS austenitic steel fabricated by electron beam selective melting

The grain morphology, nano-oxide particles and mechanical properties of oxide dispersion strengthened （ODS）-316L austenitic steel synthesized by electron beam selective melting （EBSM） technique with different post-working processes, were explored in this study. The ODS-316L austenitic steel with superfine nano-sized oxide particles of 30-40 nm exhibits good tensile strength （412 MPa） and large total elongation （about 51%） due to the pinning effect of uniform distributed oxide particles on dislocations. After hot rolling, the specimen exhibits a higher tensile strength of 482 MPa, but the elongation decreases to 31.8% owing to the introduction of high-density dislocations. The subsequent heat treatment eliminates the grain defects induced by hot rolling and increases the randomly orientated grains, which further improves the strength and ductility of EBSM ODS-316L steel.

Oxide dispersion strengthened stainless steel 316L with superior strength and ductility by selective laser melting

Dense oxide dispersion strengthened(ODS) 316 L steels with different amount of Y2O3 additions were succe s s fully fabricated by selective laser melting(SLM) even though part of the added Y2O3 got lost during the process.The microstructure was characterized in details and the mechanical properties were tested at room temperature,250℃ and 400℃,respectively.The effect of the scanning speed on agglomeration of nanoparticles during SLM process was discussed.Superior properties,e.g.,yield strength of 574 MPa and elongation of 91%,were achieved at room temperature in SLM ODS 316 L with additional 1% of Y2 O3.At elevated temperature s,the strength kept high but the elongations dropped dra matically.It was observed that nano-voids nucleated throughout the whole gauge section at the sites where nanoinclusions located.The growth and coalescence of these voids were suppre s sed by the formation of an element segregation network before necking,which relieved local stress concentration and thus delayed necking.This unusual necking behavior was studied and compared to the previous theory.It appeared that the strong convection presented in the melt pool can evenly redistribute the short-time milled coarse Y2O3 precursor powder during SLM process.These findings can not only solve the problems encountered during the fabrication of ODS components but also replenish the strengthening mechanism of SLM 316 L thus pave a way for further improving of mechanical properties.

Impact of friction stir welding on recrystallization of oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic steel

Oxide dispersion strengthened （ODS） steels can be used as the structural materials in the future fusion reactors and the fuel cladding materials in the advanced fission reactors. However, the weldability of ODS steels is a severe problem. In the present study, defect-free joints of the 15Cr-ODS ferritic steel were achieved by friction stir welding at different rotation speeds. The recrystallization, hardness and tensile properties are highly related with the rotation speed of the stir tool. The higher rotation speed results in coarser grains in the top SZ, while the grain size exhibits more complicated relation with the rotation speed in the SZ center. The joint welded at 250 rpm exhibits a maximum tensile strength of 974 MPa that reaches about 84% of that of the base metal.