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Title: High-temperature nanoindentation creep studies on castable and sintered nanostructured low-activation ferritic-martensitic alloys

Journal Article · · Journal of Nuclear Materials

In this article, we present the creep characteristics of two reduced activation ferritic-martensitic steels of identical starting compositions formed by different fabrication routes: a nanostructured ferritic alloy commonly referred to as a castable nanostructured alloy (CNA) and a sintered nanostructured alloy (SNA) variant. Through a series of nanoindentation experiments spanning a temperature range of 25 °C to 650 °C, with a maximum load of 100 mN, we find creep behaviors in the cast and sintered materials to be remarkably similar. The creep stress exponent (n) for CNA and SNA were found to be in the range of 8–35 and the activation volume was ∼14–42b3, underscoring a dominance of dislocation-mediated mechanisms in both alloys. Notably, we observed a decline in the creep stress exponent with increasing temperature, attributable to the heightened influence of thermally activated dislocations. This phenomenon suggests a potential transition in the deformation mechanism towards a thermally activated dislocation climb process, significantly impacting the observed creep behavior.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Research Foundation for the State University of New York d/b/a RFSUNY - Stony Brook University
Sponsoring Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory; Fusion Energy Science; Office of Science; U.S. Department of Energy; US Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; SC0012704; SC0018322; SC0018332
OSTI ID:
2547066
Journal Information:
Journal of Nuclear Materials, Journal Name: Journal of Nuclear Materials Vol. 611; ISSN 0022-3115
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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