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Title: Report on FY15 Alloy 617 SMT Creep-Fatigue Test Results

Abstract

For the temperature range of 990-950C, Alloy 617 is a candidate IHX structural material for high temperature gas reactors (HTGRs) because of its high temperature creep properties. Also, its superior strength over a broad temperature range also offers advantages for certain component applications. In order for the designers to be able to use Alloy 617 for these high temperature components, Alloy 617 has to be approved for use in Section III (the nuclear section) of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. A plan has been developed to propose a Code Case for use of Alloy 617 at elevated temperature in Section III of the ASME Code by September 2015. There has not been a new high temperature material approved for use in Section III for almost 20 years. The Alloy 617 Code Case effort would lead the way to establish a path for Code qualification of new high temperature materials of interest to other advanced SMRs. Creep-fatigue at elevated temperatures is the most damaging structural failure mode. In the past 40 years significant efforts have been devoted to the elevated temperature Code rule development in Section III, Subsection NH* of the ASME Boiler andmore » Pressure Vessel Code, to ascertain conservative structural designs to prevent creep-fatigue failure. The current Subsection NH creep-fatigue procedure was established by the steps of (1) analytically obtaining a detailed stress-strain history, (2) comparing the stress and strain components to cyclic test results deconstructed into stress and strain quantities, and (3) recombining the results to obtain a damage function in the form of the so-called creep-fatigue damage-diagram. The deconstruction and recombination present difficulties in evaluation of test data and determination of cyclic damage in design. The uncertainties in these steps lead to the use of overly conservative design factors in the current creep-fatigue procedure. In addition, and of major significance to the viability of the Alloy 617 Code Case, the use of the current elastic analysis based rules in Subsection NH for the evaluation of strain limits (a precursor for the creep-fatigue rules) and the creep-fatigue rules themselves have been deemed inappropriate for Alloy 617 at temperatures above 650C (Corum and Brass, 1991). The rationale for this exclusion is that at higher temperatures it is not feasible to decouple plasticity and creep, which is the basis for the current simplified rules. This temperature, 650C, is well below the temperature range of interest for this material for the High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR) as well as the VHTR. The only current alternative is, thus, a full inelastic analysis which requires sophisticated material models which have not yet been formulated and verified. To address the prohibition on the use of current methods at very high temperatures, proposed Code rules have been developed which are based on the use of elastic-perfectly plastic (E-PP) analysis methods and which are expected to be applicable to very high temperatures. To provide data to implement the proposed rules and to verify their application, a series of tests have been initiated. One test concept, the Simplified Model Test (SMT), takes into account the stress and strain redistribution in real structures by including representative follow-up characteristics in the test specimen. The correlation parameter between test and design is the elastically calculated strain, and the dependent test variable is the observed cycles to failure. Although the initial priority for the SMT approach is to generate data to support validation of the E-PP Code Case for evaluation of creep-fatigue damage, the broader goal of the SMT approach is to develop a methodology for evaluation of creep fatigue damage which is simpler to implement than the current complex rules and applicable to the full temperature range from ambient conditions to the very high temperature creep regime of 900-950C. Also, guidance has been received from ASME Code committees that the proposed EPP methodology for evaluation of creep-fatigue damage should be extended to the other Subsection NH materials to the extent feasible. Thus, the scope of testing has been expanded to include SS304H and SS316H. This report describes the SMT approach and the development of testing capability to conduct SMT experiments on Alloy 617 and 304H and 316H and stainless steels. These SMT specimen data are also representative of component loading conditions and have been used as part of the verification of the proposed elastic-perfectly plastic Code Cases. Results from the SMT tests on both Alloy 617 and SS316H were compared to the predictions from the EPP Creep-Fatigue Code Case. Two different comparisons were made; one based on design life equal to the test duration and the other with an acceptable design life determined from the EPP Code Case procedure. The latter approach permits the determination of...« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1223079
Report Number(s):
ORNL/TM-2015/300
RC0416000; NERC015
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Citation Formats

Wang, Yanli, Jetter, Robert I., Baird, Seth T., Pu, Chao, and Sham, Sam. Report on FY15 Alloy 617 SMT Creep-Fatigue Test Results. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.2172/1223079.
Wang, Yanli, Jetter, Robert I., Baird, Seth T., Pu, Chao, & Sham, Sam. Report on FY15 Alloy 617 SMT Creep-Fatigue Test Results. United States. doi:10.2172/1223079.
Wang, Yanli, Jetter, Robert I., Baird, Seth T., Pu, Chao, and Sham, Sam. Mon . "Report on FY15 Alloy 617 SMT Creep-Fatigue Test Results". United States. doi:10.2172/1223079. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1223079.
@article{osti_1223079,
title = {Report on FY15 Alloy 617 SMT Creep-Fatigue Test Results},
author = {Wang, Yanli and Jetter, Robert I. and Baird, Seth T. and Pu, Chao and Sham, Sam},
abstractNote = {For the temperature range of 990-950C, Alloy 617 is a candidate IHX structural material for high temperature gas reactors (HTGRs) because of its high temperature creep properties. Also, its superior strength over a broad temperature range also offers advantages for certain component applications. In order for the designers to be able to use Alloy 617 for these high temperature components, Alloy 617 has to be approved for use in Section III (the nuclear section) of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. A plan has been developed to propose a Code Case for use of Alloy 617 at elevated temperature in Section III of the ASME Code by September 2015. There has not been a new high temperature material approved for use in Section III for almost 20 years. The Alloy 617 Code Case effort would lead the way to establish a path for Code qualification of new high temperature materials of interest to other advanced SMRs. Creep-fatigue at elevated temperatures is the most damaging structural failure mode. In the past 40 years significant efforts have been devoted to the elevated temperature Code rule development in Section III, Subsection NH* of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, to ascertain conservative structural designs to prevent creep-fatigue failure. The current Subsection NH creep-fatigue procedure was established by the steps of (1) analytically obtaining a detailed stress-strain history, (2) comparing the stress and strain components to cyclic test results deconstructed into stress and strain quantities, and (3) recombining the results to obtain a damage function in the form of the so-called creep-fatigue damage-diagram. The deconstruction and recombination present difficulties in evaluation of test data and determination of cyclic damage in design. The uncertainties in these steps lead to the use of overly conservative design factors in the current creep-fatigue procedure. In addition, and of major significance to the viability of the Alloy 617 Code Case, the use of the current elastic analysis based rules in Subsection NH for the evaluation of strain limits (a precursor for the creep-fatigue rules) and the creep-fatigue rules themselves have been deemed inappropriate for Alloy 617 at temperatures above 650C (Corum and Brass, 1991). The rationale for this exclusion is that at higher temperatures it is not feasible to decouple plasticity and creep, which is the basis for the current simplified rules. This temperature, 650C, is well below the temperature range of interest for this material for the High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR) as well as the VHTR. The only current alternative is, thus, a full inelastic analysis which requires sophisticated material models which have not yet been formulated and verified. To address the prohibition on the use of current methods at very high temperatures, proposed Code rules have been developed which are based on the use of elastic-perfectly plastic (E-PP) analysis methods and which are expected to be applicable to very high temperatures. To provide data to implement the proposed rules and to verify their application, a series of tests have been initiated. One test concept, the Simplified Model Test (SMT), takes into account the stress and strain redistribution in real structures by including representative follow-up characteristics in the test specimen. The correlation parameter between test and design is the elastically calculated strain, and the dependent test variable is the observed cycles to failure. Although the initial priority for the SMT approach is to generate data to support validation of the E-PP Code Case for evaluation of creep-fatigue damage, the broader goal of the SMT approach is to develop a methodology for evaluation of creep fatigue damage which is simpler to implement than the current complex rules and applicable to the full temperature range from ambient conditions to the very high temperature creep regime of 900-950C. Also, guidance has been received from ASME Code committees that the proposed EPP methodology for evaluation of creep-fatigue damage should be extended to the other Subsection NH materials to the extent feasible. Thus, the scope of testing has been expanded to include SS304H and SS316H. This report describes the SMT approach and the development of testing capability to conduct SMT experiments on Alloy 617 and 304H and 316H and stainless steels. These SMT specimen data are also representative of component loading conditions and have been used as part of the verification of the proposed elastic-perfectly plastic Code Cases. Results from the SMT tests on both Alloy 617 and SS316H were compared to the predictions from the EPP Creep-Fatigue Code Case. Two different comparisons were made; one based on design life equal to the test duration and the other with an acceptable design life determined from the EPP Code Case procedure. The latter approach permits the determination of...},
doi = {10.2172/1223079},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

Technical Report:

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  • Alloy 617 is the primary candidate material for the heat exchanger of a very high temperature gas cooled reactor intended to operate up to 950°C. While this alloy is currently qualified in the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code for non-nuclear construction, it is not currently allowed for use in nuclear designs. A draft Code Case to qualify Alloy 617 for nuclear pressure boundary applications was submitted in 1992, but was withdrawn prior to approval. Prior to withdrawal of the draft, comments were received indicating that there was insufficient knowledge of the creep and creep-fatigue behavior of Alloy 617 welds.more » In this report the results of recent experiments and analysis of the creep-rupture behavior of Alloy 617 welds prepared using the gas tungsten arc process with Alloy 617 filler wire. Low cycle fatigue and creep-fatigue properties of weldments are also discussed. The experiments cover a range of temperatures from 750 to 1000°C to support development of a new Code Case to qualify the material for elevated temperature nuclear design. Properties of the welded material are compared to results of extensive characterization of solution annealed plate base metal.« less
  • The research built upon a prior investigation to develop a unified constitutive model for design-­by-­analysis of the intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) for a very high temperature reactor (VHTR) design of next generation nuclear plants (NGNPs). Model development requires a set of failure data from complex mechanical experiments to characterize the material behavior. Therefore uniaxial and multiaxial creep-­fatigue and creep-­ratcheting tests were conducted on the nickel-­base Alloy 617 at 850 and 950°C. The time dependence of material behavior, and the interaction of time dependent behavior (e.g., creep) with ratcheting, which is an increase in the cyclic mean strain under load-­controlled cycling,more » are major concerns for NGNP design. This research project aimed at characterizing the microstructure evolution mechanisms activated in Alloy 617 by mechanical loading and dwell times at elevated temperature. The acoustic harmonic generation method was researched for microstructural characterization. It is a nonlinear acoustics method with excellent potential for nondestructive evaluation, and even online continuous monitoring once high temperature sensors become available. It is unique because it has the ability to quantitatively characterize microstructural features well before macroscale defects (e.g., cracks) form. The nonlinear acoustics beta parameter was shown to correlate with microstructural evolution using a systematic approach to handle the complexity of multiaxial creep-­fatigue and creep-­ratcheting deformation. Mechanical testing was conducted to provide a full spectrum of data for: thermal aging, tensile creep, uniaxial fatigue, uniaxial creep-­fatigue, uniaxial creep-ratcheting, multiaxial creep-fatigue, and multiaxial creep-­ratcheting. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Optical Microscopy were conducted to correlate the beta parameter with individual microstructure mechanisms. We researched application of the harmonic generation method to tubular mechanical test specimens and pipes for nondestructive evaluation. Tubular specimens and pipes act as waveguides, thus we applied the acoustic harmonic generation method to guided waves in both plates and shells. Magnetostrictive transducers were used to generate and receive guided wave modes in the shell sample and the received signals were processed to show the sensitivity of higher harmonic generation to microstructure evolution. Modeling was initiated to correlate higher harmonic generation with the microstructure that will lead to development of a life prediction model that is informed by the nonlinear acoustics measurements.« less
  • Alloy 617 is the leading candidate material for an
  • Alloy 617 is the leading candidate material for an