Tritium and decay helium effects on the fracture toughness properties of types 316L, 304L and 21Cr-6Ni-9Mn stainless steels
J-integral fracture mechanics techniques and electron microscopy observations were used to investigate the effects of tritium and its radioactive decay product, {sup 3}He, on Types 316L, 304L and 21Cr-6Ni-9Mn stainless steels. Tritium-exposed-and-aged steels had lower fracture-toughness values and shallower sloped crack-growth-resistance curves than unexposed steels. Both fracture-toughness parameters decreased with increasing concentrations of {sup 3}He. The fracture-toughness reductions were accompanied by a change in fracture mode from microvoid-nucleation-and-growth processes in control samples to grain-and-twin-boundary fracture in tritium-charged-and-aged samples. Type 316L stainless steel had the highest fracture-toughness values and Type 21Cr-6Ni-9Mn had the lowest. Samples containing {sup 3}He but degassed of tritium had fracture toughness properties that were similar to uncharged samples. The results indicate that helium bubbles enhance the embrittlement effects of hydrogen by affecting the deformation properties and by increasing localized hydrogen concentrations through trapping effects.
- Research Organization:
- Westinghouse Savannah River Co., Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC09-89SR18035
- OSTI ID:
- 10188201
- Report Number(s):
- SRTC-MTS-94-3036; CONF-940945-2; ON: DE95001248; TRN: 94:009302
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 5. international conference on hydrogen effects on material behavior,Moran, WY (United States),11-15 Sep 1994; Other Information: PBD: [1994]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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