Effect of neutron irradiation on mechanical properties of ferritic steels
Abstract
Effect of neutron radiation exposure was investigated in various ferritic steels with the main emphasis being the effects of thermal neutrons on radiation hardening. Pure iron of varied grain sizes was also used for characterizing the grain size effects on the source hardening before and after neutron irradiation. While many steels are considered in the overall study, the results on 1020, A516 and A588 steels are emphasized. Radiation hardening due to fast neutrons was seen to be sensitive to the composition of the steels with A354 being the least resistant and A490 the least sensitive. Majority of the radiation hardening stems from friction hardening, and source hardening term decreased with exposure to neutron radiation apparently due to the interaction of interstitial impurities with radiation produced defects. Inclusion of thermal neutrons along with fast resulted in further decrease in the source hardening with a slight increase in the friction hardening which revealed a critical grain size below which exposure to total (fast and thermal) neutron spectrum resulted in a slight reduction in the yield stress compared to the exposure to only fast neutrons. This is the first time such a grain size effect is reported and this is shown to bemore »
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 304138
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950201-25
ON: DE99001281; TRN: 99:003057
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG05-92ER75784
- Resource Type:
- Technical Report
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Annual meeting and exhibition of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), Las Vegas, NV (United States), 12-16 Feb 1995; Other Information: PBD: [1995]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 21 NUCLEAR POWER REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; FERRITIC STEELS; RADIATION HARDENING; NEUTRONS; MECHANICAL PROPERTIES; WATER COOLED REACTORS; LMFBR TYPE REACTORS; STEEL-ASTM-A516; GRAIN SIZE; EXPERIMENTAL DATA
Citation Formats
Kass, S.B., and Murty, K.L.. Effect of neutron irradiation on mechanical properties of ferritic steels. United States: N. p., 1995.
Web. doi:10.2172/304138.
Kass, S.B., & Murty, K.L.. Effect of neutron irradiation on mechanical properties of ferritic steels. United States. doi:10.2172/304138.
Kass, S.B., and Murty, K.L.. Sun .
"Effect of neutron irradiation on mechanical properties of ferritic steels". United States.
doi:10.2172/304138. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/304138.
@article{osti_304138,
title = {Effect of neutron irradiation on mechanical properties of ferritic steels},
author = {Kass, S.B. and Murty, K.L.},
abstractNote = {Effect of neutron radiation exposure was investigated in various ferritic steels with the main emphasis being the effects of thermal neutrons on radiation hardening. Pure iron of varied grain sizes was also used for characterizing the grain size effects on the source hardening before and after neutron irradiation. While many steels are considered in the overall study, the results on 1020, A516 and A588 steels are emphasized. Radiation hardening due to fast neutrons was seen to be sensitive to the composition of the steels with A354 being the least resistant and A490 the least sensitive. Majority of the radiation hardening stems from friction hardening, and source hardening term decreased with exposure to neutron radiation apparently due to the interaction of interstitial impurities with radiation produced defects. Inclusion of thermal neutrons along with fast resulted in further decrease in the source hardening with a slight increase in the friction hardening which revealed a critical grain size below which exposure to total (fast and thermal) neutron spectrum resulted in a slight reduction in the yield stress compared to the exposure to only fast neutrons. This is the first time such a grain size effect is reported and this is shown to be consistent with known radiation effects on friction and source hardening terms along with the observation that low energy neutrons have a nonnegligible effect on the mechanical properties of steels. In ferritic steels, however, despite their small grain size, exposure to total neutron spectrum yielded higher strengths than exposure to only fast neutrons. This behavior is consistent with the fact that the source hardening is small in these alloys and radiation effect is due only to friction stress.},
doi = {10.2172/304138},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 1995},
month = {Sun Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 1995}
}
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This report summarizes the data obtained to date in an investigation of the effect of neutron irradiation on the mechanical properties of ferritic steels and irons. (auth)
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EFFECTS OF NEUTRON IRRADIATION ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF FERRITIC STEELS AND IRONS
The effect of fast-neutron irradiation at 50 to 70 deg C on the mechanical properties of some ferritic steels and irons was investigated with particular emphasis on the correlation between the magnitude of irradiation damage and the composition and microstructure. Impact energy transition curves, and tensile-test results are reported for sub-sized specimens; the correlation between results for sub-sized samples and those for full sized samples is given for unirradiated material. U.S. Navy HY65 alloy (a nickel--molybdenum--vanadium- copper low-carbon steel) was examined in three conditions of heat-treatment; normalized and tempered, austempered and tempered, and quenched and tempered. The third condition wasmore »