Material specification for ductile cast iron in the United States
The United States currently does not have formal design criteria for qualifying ductile cast iron (DCI) transportation casks. There is also no dedicated material standard for DCI for this particular application. Recognizing the importance of a material standard for this application, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, in a report to the NRC, recommended that steps be taken to develop an ASTM material specification suitable for spent fuel shipping containers. A draft ASTM material specification has been written and is currently in the ASTM approval process. This paper reviews the brief history of the development of the specification, the technical basis for the material properties, the ASTM approval process and the current status of the draft specification. The expected implications of having an adopted ASTM specification on the licensing process are also discussed. The relationship of fracture toughness to composition, microstructure and tensile properties has been evaluated at Sandia National Laboratories. The first main conclusion reached is that static fracture toughness is essentially decoupled from tensile properties such as yield strength, tensile strength and ductility. The significance of this finding is that tensile properties provided for in existing DCI specifications should not be used as an indicator of a material's ability to resist crack initiation. A material specification which includes fracture toughness requirements is needed to address the brittle fracture concerns. Second, static fracture toughness was found to correlate well with material microstructure; specifically, graphite nodule count or nodule spacing.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 5999797
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-87-1708C; CONF-8706210-2; ON: DE87013061
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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42 ENGINEERING
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ALLOYS
CARBIDES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CASKS
CAST IRON
CERTIFICATION
CONTAINERS
CORRELATIONS
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
ENERGY SOURCES
FRACTURE PROPERTIES
FUELS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
IRON CARBIDES
IRON COMPOUNDS
MATERIALS
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MICROSTRUCTURE
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FUELS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTOR MATERIALS
RECOMMENDATIONS
SPECIFICATIONS
SPENT FUELS
STANDARDS
TENSILE PROPERTIES
TESTING
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
TRANSPORT
US NRC
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTES