STATUS OF IN-REACTOR TENSILE STRAINING OF PURE COPPER AT A CONSTANT STRAIN RATE
Annealed tensile samples of pure copper were irradiated in the fission reactor BR-2 in Mol, Belgium at 90 degrees C with a damage rate of 0.00000006 dpa/sec. The tensile specimens were a sheet-type specimen with a 3-mm gage width and a gage length of 7 mm. The first experiment involved two specimens, one of which was irradiated with no load to provide a comparative specimen to the other specimen, which was loaded at a constant strain rate of 0.00000013 1/s. The uniaxial tensile load was applied 4 hrs after the irradiation rig was inserted into the reactor core. This corresponded to a total displacement damage of 0.00086 dpa accumulated before the tensile test was started. The tensile test was considered complete once the load began rapidly falling and reached 100 MPa, at which level the test was stopped and the load quickly reduced to zero to leave the specimen intact. For these test conditions the specimen reached a total plastic strain of approximately 13 percent when the test was stopped, considerably less than that of unirradiated pure copper tested under the same strain rate, which was on the order of 50 percent total elongation. The second experiment involved two samples irradiated under identical irradiation and test conditions, but in this case the tensile load was not applied until a total dose of 0.01 dpa (approximately 50 hours after insertion into the reactor core) was reached. Once the load was applied, the stress immediately climbed to approximately 150 MPa with little plastic strain, followed by a small yield drop and work hardening up to a maximum stress of approximately 200 MPa. As in the first experiment, the tensile test was stopped when the load began decreasing and reached a level of 100 MPa.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 903272
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-39599; AT6020100; TRN: US0703144
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: Fusion Materials: Semiannual Progress Report for Period Ending June 30, 2003, 34:79-84
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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