Microscopic damage mechanism of SA508 Gr3 steel in ultra-high temperature creep

The lower head of reactor pressure vessel （RPV） will endure a great temperature gradient above the phase transition temperature, and the creep and fracture will be the primary failure mode for the RPV material in such a situation. The interrupted creep tests were performed on a typical RPV material, SA508 Gr3 steel, at 800 ℃. The microstructure of different creep stages was examined by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the microscopic damage is mainly induced by creep cavities and coarse second-phase particles. Furthermore, the volume fractions of creep cavities and coarse second-phase particles show a linear relationship with the extended creep time. The second-phase particles are determined to be MoC in the second creep stage and Mo2C in the third creep stage, according to the results of selected-area electron diffraction pattern. Combined with energy-dispersive spectrum analysis, the segregation of precipitates caused by the migration of atoms is finally unveiled, which leads to the coarsening of the particles.

Calculation of Mass Concrete Temperature and Creep Stress under the Influence of Local Air Heat Transfer

Temperature-induced cracking during the construction of mass concrete is a significant concern.Numerical simulations of concrete temperature have primarily assumed that the concrete is placed in an open environment.The problem of heat transfer between the air and concrete has been simplified to the concrete’s heat dissipation boundary.However,in the case of tubular concrete structures,where air inlet and outlet are relatively limited,the internal air temperature does not dissipate promptly to the external environment as it rises.To accurately simulate the temperature and creep stress in tubular concrete structures with enclosed air spaces during construction,we establish an air–concrete coupled heat transfer model according to the principles of conjugate heat transfer,and the accuracy of the model is verified through experiments.Furthermore,we conduct a case study to analyze the impact of airflow within the ship lock corridor on concrete temperature and creep stress.The results demonstrate that enhancing airflow within the corridor can significantly reduce the maximum concrete temperature.Compared with cases in which airflow within the corridor is neglected,the maximum concrete temperature and maximum tensile stress can be reduced by 12.5℃ and 0.7 MPa,respectively,under a wind speed of 4 m/s.The results of the traditional calculation method are relatively close to those obtained at a wind speed of 1 m/s.However,the temperature reduction process in the traditional method is faster,and the method yields greater tensile stress values for the corridor location.

“Low Creep Ultra-high Temperature Corundum Mullite Kiln Furnature” Developed by Sinosteel LIRR Rewarded as “National New Product”

Recently, ＂ Low Creep Ultra-high Temperature Corundum Mullite Kiln Fumature＂ developed by Sinosteel L1RR was listed in The National New Product Program in 2012 of The Ministry of Science and Technology of China.

DIRECTIONALLY SOLIDIFIED MICROSTRUCTURE OF AN ULTRA-HIGH TEMPERATURE Nb-Si-Ti-Hf-Cr-Al ALLOY

The directionally solidified samples of an ultra-high temperature Nb-Si-Ti-Hf-Cr-Al alloy have been prepared with the use of an electron beam floating zone melting (EBFZM) furnace, and their microstructural characteristics have been analyzed. All the primary dendrites of Nb solid solution (Nbss), eutectic colonies of Nba, plus (Nb, Ti)3 Si/(Nb, Ti)5 Si3 and chains of (Nb, Ti)3 Si/(Nb, Ti)5 Si3 plates align along the growth direction of the samples. With increasing of the withdrawing rate, the microstructure is refined, and the amounts of Nbss+ (Nb, Ti)3 Si/(Nb, Ti)5 Si3 eutectic colonies and (Nb, Ti)3 Si/(Nb, Ti)5 Si3 plates increase. There appear nodes in the (Nb, Ti)3 Si/(Nb, Ti)5 Si3 plates.

Elevated temperature endurance and creep properties of extruded 2D70 Al alloy rods

The elevated temperature performances of 2D70 Al alloy hot extrusion rods after two-stage homogenization and intensive deformation were studied by measuring the elevated temperature enduring strength and the creep ultimate strength. The fracture morphology of some selected samples after testing at different elevated temperatures was observed by scanning electron microscopy （SEM）. The results indicate that, as the test temperature increases, the elevated temperature enduring strength of 2D70 Al alloy decreases gradually. In a comparison between 150 C and 240 C, the notch enduring strength drops from 375 to 185 MPa and the smooth enduring strength drops from 337 to 130 MPa. Enduring strength is not sensitive to the notch. The notch sensitivity ratio （NSR） coefficient is in the range of 1.119 to 1.423 from 150 C to 240 C. The creep test results show that, as the test temperature increases from 150 C to 240 C, the creep ultimate strength of 2D70 Al alloy rods drops gradually from 312 to 117 MPa.

Effect of carbon on high temperature compressive and creep properties of β-stabilized TiA l alloy

Carbon is an important alloying element in improving high temperature mechanical properties of various metallic materials.The effects of carbon on high temperature mechanical properties of aβ-stabilized Ti?45Al?3Fe?2Mo(molar fraction,%)alloy were studied through compressive and creep tests.The results show that the carbon addition(0.5%,molar fraction)obviously enhances the high temperature compressive strength and creep resistance of theβ-stabilized Ti?45Al?3Fe?2Mo alloy.A lot of nano-scaled Ti3AlC carbides precipitate in theβ-stabilized alloy and these carbides pin the dislocations,and greatly increase the high temperature properties.At the same time,the carbon addition decreases the amount of?phase,refines the lamellar spacing,and causes solution strengthening,which also contribute to the improvement of the high temperature properties.

Experimental determination of mechanical properties and short-time creep of AISI 304 stainless steel at elevated temperatures

The high temperature properties of AISI 304 stainless steel were studied. Basic data about the employed experimental equipment, testing procedures, and specimen geometry were given. The experimental setup was used to obtain stress-strain diagrams from tensile tests at room temperature as well as several elevated temperatures. Furthermore, the specimens were subjected to short-time creep tests at various temperatures. Stress levels for creep testing were established as a percentage of yield stress. The results indicate that at lowered temperatures and lower stress levels, AISI 304 stainless steel can be used as a sufficiently creep resistant material.

Creep behavior and mechanical properties of Al-Li-S4 alloy at different aging temperatures

Creep age forming techniques have been widely used in aerospace industries. In this study, we investigated the effect of aging temperature(143 °C-163 °C) on the creep behavior of Al-Li-S4 aluminum alloy and their mechanical properties at room temperature. The mechanical properties were tested by tensile testing, and the microstructural evolution at different aging temperatures was examined by transmission electron microscopy. Results show that the creep strains and the room-temperature mechanical properties after creep aging increase with the aging temperature. As the aging temperature increases, the creep strain increases from 0.018% at 143 °C to 0.058% at 153 °C, and then to 0.094% at 163 °C. Within 25 h aging, the number of creep steps increases and the duration time of the same steps is shortened with the growth of aging temperatures. Therefore, the increase in aging temperatures accelerates the progress of the entire creep. Two main strengthening precipitates θ′(Al2 Cu) and T1(Al2 Cu Li) phases were characterized. This work indicates that the creep strain and mechanical properties of Al-Li-S4 alloys can be improved by controlling aging temperatures.

Interaction of fatigue and creep of GH33 under multi-axial stress at high temperature

Low-cycle fatigue experiments of tension-compression, torsion andtension-torsion with holding time were performed. The interaction law of creep and fatigue undermultiaxial stress at high temperature was investigated, and the micro-mechanism of equilibriumdiagrams was analyzed. A united equation of fatigue life under multiaxial stress was proposed.

Temperature-controlled triaxial compression/creep test device for thermodynamic properties of soft sedimentary rock and corresponding theoretical prediction

In deep geological disposal of high-level nuclear waste,one of the most important subjects is to estimate long-term stability and strength of host rock under high temperature conditions caused by radioactive decay of the waste.In this paper,some experimental researches on the thermo-mechanical characteristics of soft sedimentary rock have been presented.For this reason,a new temperature-controlled triaxial compression and creep test device,operated automatically by a computer-controlled system,whose control software has been developed by the authors,was developed to conduct the thermo-mechanical tests in different thermal loading paths,including an isothermal path.The new device is proved to be able to conduct typical thermo-mechanical element tests for soft rock.The test device and the related testing method were introduced in detail.Finally,some test results have been simulated with a thermo-elasto-viscoplastic model that was also developed by the authors.

Creep testing and viscous behavior research on carbon constructional quality steel under high temperature

Creep tests under at a certain temperature and different stress levels were performed on two carbon constructional quality steels at a certain stress level and different temperatures,and their creep curves at high temperature were obtained based on analyzing the testing data.Taking 45 steel at a certain temperature and stress as the example,the integral creep constitutive equation and the differential stress-strain constitutive relationship were established based on the relevant rheological model,and the integral core function was also obtained.Simultaneously,the viscous coefficients denoting the viscous behavior in visco-plastic constitutive equation were determined by taking use of the creep testing data.Then the viscous coefficients of three carbon steels(20 steel,35 steel and 45 steel) were compared and analyzed.The results show that the viscosity is different due to different materials at the same temperature and stress.

Effect of the precipitation state on high temperature tensile and creep behaviors of Mg-15Gd alloy

Due to the effective precipitation strengthening effect of the β phase, Mg-Gd alloys exhibit excellent room temperature mechanical behaviors. However, when served at high temperatures, the metastable β phase will transform to other phases, resulting in severe performance degradation. In this study, we investigated the effect of precipitation state achieved by different heat treatments on high temperature tensile and creep behaviors of the Mg-15Gd alloy by comparing the properties of the as-cast, solid-solutioned(T4) and peak-aged(T6) alloys. The results showed that the tensile mechanical properties of the T6 alloy were always highest from room temperature to 300 ℃, in spite of an abnormal strength increase with temperature existed in the T4 alloy. For tensile creep properties, the T6 alloy exhibited the lowest steady creep rate below 235 ℃ while the T4 alloy possessed the best properties above 260 ℃. Microstructure characterization revealed that the transition was caused by the stress-promoted precipitation of β phase in the T4 alloy and rapid phase transformation in the T6 alloy at high temperatures. At 260 ℃, the calculated stress exponent n was 3.1 and 2.8 for the T4 and T6 alloys, respectively, suggesting the creep deformation mechanism was dislocation slip, which was further confirmed by the microstructure after creeping. Our findings can provide new insights into the heat treatment process of Mg-Gd alloys served at high temperatures.

The temperature-dependent fracture strength model for ultra-high temperature ceramics

Breaking down the entire structure of a material implies severing all the bonds between its atoms either by applying work or by heat transfer. Because bond-breaking is indifferent to either means, there is a kind of equivalence between heat energy and strain energy. Based on this equivalence, we assume the existence of a constant maximum storage of energy that includes both the strain energy and the corresponding equivalent heat energy. A temperaturedependent fracture strength model is then developed for ultrahigh temperature ceramics （UHTCs）. Model predictions for UHTCs, HfB2, TiC and ZrB2, are presented and compared with the experimental results. These predictions are found to be largely consistent with experimental results.

Effect of Ca on microstructure and high temperature creep properties of AM60-1Ce alloy

A series of AM60-1Ce-xCa(x=0, 0.5, 1.5, 2.5) magnesium alloys were prepared by gravity casting method and analyzed by means of XRD, DSC and SEM. The effects of Ca on normal temperature mechanical properties and high temperature creep behavior of alloys were characterized by tensile and constant creep test.Microstructure analysis indicated that Ca was preferentially combined with Al in the alloy to form the high melting point Al_2Ca phase at the grain boundary. The addition of Ca can refine the crystal grains and reduces the content of β-Mg_(17)Al_(12) phase. With the increase of Ca content in the alloy, Al_2Ca phases at the grain boundary gradually changed to the network of lamellar structure, and replaced the β-Mg_(17)Al_(12) phase as the main strengthening phase gradually. The creep resistance of the alloy continuously increases because the high-temperature stable phase Al_2Ca firmly nailed at grain boundaries impedes the sliding of grain boundaries. However, when the addition of Ca was more than 1.5%, mechanical properties of the alloy started to decrease, which was probably due to the large amount of irregularly shaped Al_2Ca phases at the grain boundary. Experimental results show that the optimal addition amount of Ca is 1.5 wt.%.

SIMULATION OF TEMPERATURE FIELD IN ULTRA-HIGH FREQUENCY INDUCTION HEATING AND VERIFICATION

An experimental and numerical study on the temperature field induced in the ultra-high frequency induction heating is carried out.With an aim of predicting the thermal history of the workpiece,the influence factors of temperature field,such as the induction frequency,the dimension of coil and the gap between coil and workpiece,are investigated considering temperature-dependent material properties by using FLUX 2Dsoftware.The temperature field characteristic in ultra-high induction heating is obtained and discussed.The numerical values are compared with the experimental results.A good agreement between them is observed with 7.9% errors.

Study on the high-temperature properties of heat-resistant steel 309S

The properties of heat-resistant steel 309S at elevated properties were investigated.The results revealed a rapid decrease in the short-time tensile strength at elevated temperatures.At 1 000 ℃,the yield strength and tensile strength are 14% and 7% of their respective values at room temperature,respectively.The creep rupture strength was inferred in terms of the relationship between stress and duration time at high temperatures.After 1 000 h,the creep rupture strength is 37.98 MPa at 800 ℃,12.63 MPa at 900 ℃,and 7.27 MPa at 1 000 ℃.The fractures occurring at these high temperatures were intergranular in nature.Under the experimental condition,the fatigue limit stress is 25 MPa.The number of fatigue cycles and crack growth time decrease with increasing stress.Fracture morphology analysis shows that the fatigue cracks initiate on the surface of the sample and propagate through transgranular expansion.

A multi-scale algorithm for dislocation creep at elevated temperatures

Dislocation creep at elevated temperatures plays an important role for plastic deformation in crystalline metals.When using traditional discrete dislocation dynamics(DDD)to capture this process,we often need to update the forces on N dislocations involving~N 2 interactions.In this letter,we introduce a multi-scale algorithm to speed up the calculations by dividing a sample of interest into sub-domain grids:dislocations within a characteristic area interact following the conventional way,but their interaction with dislocations in other grids are simplified by lumping all dislocations in another grid as a super one.Such a multi-scale algorithm lowers the computational load to~N 1.5.We employed this algorithm to model dislocation creep in Al-Mg alloy.The simulation leads to a power-law creep rate in consistent with experimental observations.The stress exponent of the power-law creep is a resultant of dislocations climb for~5 and viscous dislocations glide for~3.

Fabrication and Thermal Structural Characteristics of Ultra-high Temperature Ceramic Struts in Scramjets

ZrB_2-SiC based ultra-high temperature ceramic（UHTC） struts were firstly proposed and fabricated with the potential application in the combustor of scramjets for fuel injection and flame-holding for their machinability and excellent oxidation/ablation resistance in the extreme harsh environment. The struts were machined with electrospark wire-electrode cutting techniques to form UHTC into the desired shape, and with laser drilling to drill tiny holes providing the channels for fuel injection. The integrated thermal-structural characteristic of the struts was evaluated in high-temperature combustion environment by the propane-oxygen free jet facility, subject to the heat flux of 1.5 MW/m^2 lasting for 300 seconds, and the struts maintained integrity during and after the first experiment. The experiments were repeated for verifying the reusability of the struts. Fracture occurred during the second repeated experiment with the crack propagating through the hole. Finite element analysis（FEA） was carried out to study the thermal stress distribution in the UHTC strut. The simulation results show a high thermal stress concentration occurs at the hole which is the crack initiation position. The phenomenon is in good agreement with the experimental results. The study shows that the thermal stress concentration is a practical key issue in the applications of the reusable UHTC strut for fuel injection structure in scramjets.

THE CREEP-DAMAGE MODELING CORRELATED TO TEMPERATURE FOR COMPOSITE SOLID

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CREEP BEHAVIORS OF Pt-RE ALLOYS AT HIGH TEMPERATURES

The creep behaviors of Pt-RE alloys have been studied at 1200℃ and 1400℃.The results show that asmall amount of RE elements improves the creep behaviors of platinum greatly.The creep behaviors of PtGd0.5,PtLa0.5 and PtLa0.3 Gd0.2,are best among all the alloys studied.As far as the creep behaviors are concerned,the traditional heat-resistance alloy PtGd10 can be replaced by PtGd0.5.Particularly,the properities of PtGd0.5are near to those of PtRb10.For most of the Pt-RE alloys,long-time,static,super high-temperature treatment inair is of no advantage to the creep rupture life.The mechanisms of the effects of rare-earths on high-temperaturecreep properties of platinum are discussed.