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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

SELF-WELDING OF REACTOR STRUCTURAL MATERIALS UNDER SODIUM AT HIGH TEMPERATURES (in German)

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:4110303
With the purpose of investigating the self-welding tendency of structural materials in the light of the sodium cooled fast breeder reactor to be built, static load tests in sodium were carried out on these materials. Besides austenitic materials also a stabilized ferritic steel and a nickel base alloy as well as several hard facing and hard metal alloys were used in the tests. The test temperatures were 580 and 700 deg C, the compressive load ranged up to 5 kp/mm2, and the tests lasted for 168 hours. The oxygen content of the cold-trapped sodium was nearly 20 ppm. The results show a more or less pronounced tendency of all the materials to weld together. While the austenitic and ferritic steels showed a marked tendency to weld together at 700 deg C, the behavior of the hard facing and the hard metal alloys is not uniform. The nickel base alloy, which up to now has been investigated in one experiment only, does not weld together - with one exception. Micrographs made of some different material combinations seem to indicate that the welding was caused by recrystallization after previous strong deformation of the contact region (auth)
Research Organization:
Kernforschungszentrum, Karlsruhe (West Germany). Institut fuer Reaktorentwicklung
NSA Number:
NSA-24-039631
OSTI ID:
4110303
Report Number(s):
NP--18289
Country of Publication:
Germany
Language:
German