Experimental study on hollow structural component by explosive welding

A large thin-walled hollow structural component with sealed channels is required for the vacuum chamber of a thermonuclear experimental reactor, with inconel625 as its fabrication material. This hollow structural component is rarely manufactured by normal machining method, and its manufacture is also problematic in the field of explosive welding. With this in mind, we developed an adjusted explosive welding technology which involves a two-step design, setting and annealing technology. The joints were evaluated using optical microscope and scanning electron microscope, and a mechanical experiment was conducted, involving micro-hardness test, cold helium leak test and hydraulic pressure test. The results showed that a metallurgical bonding was realized by the ribs and slabs, and the shearing strength of the bonding interface exceeded that of the parent metal. Hence, the hollow structural component has a good comprehensive mechanical performance and sealing property.     

Uncertainty Analyses of Neutron Cross Sections for 235U in the Resonance Region

The helium embrittlement behavior of 316FR austenitic stainless steel was investigated by a tensile test at 750°C using miniature tensile specimens, which were helium-implanted below 100°C up to 5, 30, and 100 appm using a cyclotron accelerator, and were post-implantation-annealed at 750°C for 10 and 100 h. The helium-implanted specimens showed a fully intergranular fracture regardless of the helium concentration and annealing time. No microstructural changes in the as-implanted specimen up to 30 appm and formation of a small number of helium bubbles due to the post-implantation annealing were observed. The gradual release of the helium during the tensile test started after the yielding, and a sharp peak of the helium release was detected in the final fracture phase. The total number of helium atoms released was strongly dependent on the implanted helium concentration, rather than on the annealing time.     

Weldability of neutron irradiated austenitic stainless steels

Degradation of weldability in neutron irradiated austenitic stainless steel is an important issue to be addressed in the planning of proactive maintenance of light water reactor core internals. In this work, samples selected from reactor internal components which had been irradiated to fluence from 8.5 × 10²² to 1.4 × 10²⁶ n/m² (E > 1 MeV) corresponding to helium content from 0.11 to 103 appm, respectively, were subjected to tungsten inert gas arc (TIG) welding with heat input ranged 0.6–16 kJ/cm. The weld defects were characterized by penetrant test and cross-sectional metallography. The integrity of the weld was better when there were less helium and at lower heat input. Tensile properties of weld joint containing 0.6 appm of helium fulfilled the requirement for unirradiated base metal. Repeated thermal cycles were found to be very hazardous. The results showed the combination of material helium content and weld heat input where materials can be welded with little concern to invite cracking. Also, the importance of using properly selected welding procedures to minimize thermal cycling was recognized.     

Evaluation of local deformation behavior accompanying fatigue damage in F82H welded joint specimens by using digital image correlation

By using digital image correlation, the deformation behaviors of local domains of F82H joint specimens welded using tungsten inert gas (TIG) and electron beam (EB) welding were evaluated during tensile and fatigue testing. In the tensile test specimens, the tensile strength decreased in the TIG-welded joints, and ductility decreased in both the EB- and TIG-welded joints. Because axial strain increased in the tempered heat-affected zone (HAZ) and led to the fracture of the TIG-welded joint, the strength was considered to have decreased because of welding. In fatigue testing, the number of cycles to fracture for the welded joint decreased to less than 40–60% of that for the base metal. For both fracture specimens, the largest value of shear strain was observed in the region approximately between the fine-grained HAZ and tempered HAZ; this shear strain ultimately led to fracture. Cavities and macrocracks were observed in the fine-grained HAZ and tempered HAZ in the cross sections of the fracture specimens, and geometrical damage possibly resulted in the reduction of fatigue lifetime.     

Effect of the ITER FW Manufacturing Process on the Microstructure and Properties of a CuCrZr Alloy

The first wall(FW) is one of the core components in ITER. As the heat sink material,the CuCrZr alloy shall be properly jointed with beryllium and stainless steel. At present, the grains of CuCrZr are prone to coarsen seriously in the thermal cycle process of FW manufacturing, which has become a critical issue for ITER parties. To investigate the mirostructure and mechanical properties of the optimized CuCrZr alloy in the first wall fabricating thermal cycle, simulative experiments have been done in this study. The alloy ingot was forged and hot rolled into plates,and then solid solution annealed, cold rolled and aged for strengthening. Several heat treatments were done to the CuCrZr samples, and the changes of microstructure, micro-hardness and tensile strength were investigated. The results indicated that the original elongated grains had changed into equiaxed ones, and the vickers hardness had declined to about 60 after experiencing the process of CuCrZr/316L(N) bi-metallic plate manufacturing, either by hot isostatic pressing at a higher temperature or by explosion welding followed by solution annealing. Joining Be/CuCrZr by hot isostatic pressing acts as an aging process for CuCrZr, so after the simulated heat treatment,the hardness of the alloy increased to about 110 HV and the tensile yield strength at 250?C rose to about 170 MPa. Meanwhile, the average grain size was controlled below 200 μm.     

焊后热处理对16MND5钢焊接组织结构与残余应力的影响

16MND5钢广泛应用于核岛承压容器构件,其焊接接头不可避免地会引入高的残余应力,而焊后热处理可有效消减焊接残余应力以克服应力腐蚀裂纹的影响。本工作利用轮廓法和中子衍射技术研究了焊后热处理对16MND5钢焊接残余应力的影响。结果表明,轮廓法与中子衍射测试结果在趋势和数值上取得了较好的一致性,焊后热处理使焊接态的残余应力峰值从约420 MPa降低至约210 MPa。同时,利用金相法和SEM研究了焊后热处理对焊缝区域组织结构的影响。结果表明,焊后热处理主要表现为贝氏体和少量自回火马氏体的焊缝中心组织转变为回火贝氏体和回火马氏体,热处理后的焊缝区晶粒明显长大。     

Compatibility of ferritic-martensitic steel T91 welds with liquid lead-bismuth eutectic: Comparison between TIG and EB welds

The 9 wt.% chromium ferritic-martensitic steel T91 is being considered as candidate structural material for a future experimental accelerator driven system (XT-ADS). This material and its welded connections would need to be used in contact with liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE), under high irradiation doses. Both unirradiated tungsten inert gas (TIG) and electron beam (EB) welds of T91 have been examined by means of metallography, scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Vickers hardness measurements and tensile testing in both gas and liquid lead-bismuth environment. The TIG weld was commercially produced and post weld heat treated by a certified welding company while the post weld heat treatment of the experimental EB weld was optimized in terms of the Vickers hardness profile across the welded joint. The mechanical properties of the T91 TIG and EB welds in contact with LBE have been examined using slow strain rate tensile testing (SSRT) in LBE at 350 °C. All welds showed good mechanical behaviour in gas environment but total elongation was strongly reduced due to liquid metal embrittlement (LME) when tested in liquid lead-bismuth eutectic environment. The reduction in total elongation due to LME was larger for the commercially TIG welded joint than for the EB welded joint.     

The Laser Welding with Hot Wire of 316LN Thick Plate Applied on ITER Correction Coil Case

ITER correction coil (CC) cases have characteristics of small cross section, large dimensions, and complex structure. The cases are made of heavy thick (20 mm), high strength and high toughness austenitic stainless steel 316LN. The multi-pass laser welding with hot wire technology is used for the case closure welding, due to its low heat input and deformation. In order to evaluate the reliability of this welding technology, 20 mm welding samples with the same groove structure and welding depth as the cases were welded. High purity argon was used as the shielding gas to prevent oxidation because of the narrowness and depth of the weld. In this paper investigation of, microstructure characteristics and mechanical properties of welded joints using optimized welding parameters are presented. The results show that the base metal, fusion metal, and heat affected zone (HAZ) are all have fully austenitic microstructure, and that the grain size of fusion metal was finer than that of the base metal. The welding resulted in an increase of hardness in the fusion metal and HAZ. It was confirmed that the tensile strength of fusion metal was higher than that of base metal and the impact toughness value is higher than industry standard requirement. Thus, this welding process was determined to be reliable for manufacture of the ITER CC cases manufacture.     

Fracture toughness of narrow-gap welded joints in the nuclear pressure vessel steel 22 NiMoCr 37

The mechanical testing of narrow-gap welded joints in 100 and 200 mm thick sections of the steel 22 NiMoCr 37 has revealed that the weld metal, and not the heat affected zone (HAZ) or the weld metal-parent metal boundary. is the critical region. This modified gas-shielded welding process operates with a very low heat input of the order of 6.500 J cm⁻¹ pass⁻¹ and the combination of small diameter welding wires and high welding speeds contributes to the excellent joint properties in the as-welded condition.To investigate the effect of preheating and post-welding heat treatment on the mechanical properties of narrow-gap welds, tensile, notch impact, flat bend and fracture toughness test specimens were extracted from joints welded with the following conditions: (1) no preheating: no post-weld heat treatment; (2) no preheating: soaking at 300°C: (3) no preheating: stress-relief heat treatment at 600°C; (4) preheating 200–250°C; no post-weld heat treatment; (5) preheating 200–250°C; soaking at 300°C; (6) preheating 200–250°C; stress relief heat treatment at 600°C. Tensile testing at room temperature and at 250°C of round specimens oriented across the seam revealed the ultimate fracture to be always located in the base material remote from the welded zone. Although pores or slag inclusions had an influence on bend-test results of specimens in the as-welded condition, the results generally show failure free bends to 180°C with no evidence of cracking in the HAZ or at the fusion boundary.Using sharp-notched impact bend specimens with the notch located in the centre of the seam as well as in and across the HAZ, absorbed energy-test temperature curves have been determined for each welding condition. In comparison with the base material impact toughness, the weld exhibits superior toughness in the temperature range − 60 – 0°C, but yielded lower values at room temperature. After stress relieving at 600°C, the impact toughness of the weld reduced significantly, apparently due to precipitations occurring in the weld-metal microstructure. Test results from welded specimens with the no notch in the HAZ show this region to have superior notch impact toughness to the base material.Crack opening displacement (COD) specimens 45 × 90 × 380 mm with the fatigue crack located in the weld metal and in the HAZ were tested at 0 and 20°C using both the recommendation in BS DD 19: 1972 as well as acoustic emission measurements for the determination of COD values. For this method of fracture toughness testing it has been shown that the occurrence of a critical event must be clearly defined as corresponding to stable crack growth or alternatively to unstable crack propagation.     

Properties of DU-10 wt% Mo alloys subjected to various post-rolling heat treatments

Studies were completed to obtain mechanical properties of depleted uranium-molybdenum (U-Mo) alloys subjected to different post-processing treatments using microhardness, quasi-static tensile tests, and scanning electron microscopy failure analysis. U-Mo alloy foils are currently under investigation for potential fuel conversion of high power research reactors to low enriched uranium fuel. Although mechanical properties take on a secondary effect during irradiation, an understanding of the alloy behavior during fabrication and the effects of irradiation on the integrity of the fuel are essential. In general, the microhardness was insensitive to annealing temperature but decreased with annealing duration. Yield strength, Young's modulus, and ultimate tensile strength were affected in varying manners with both increasing annealing temperature and duration, and subjecting the alloy to rolling. The failure mode was insensitive to annealing conditions, but was significantly controlled by the impurity concentration of the alloy, especially carbon. Values obtained from literature are also provided with reasonable agreement based on extrapolation of annealing duration, even though processing conditions and applications were quite different in some instances.     

Determination of fracture mechanics properties of welded joints and comparison with the failure behaviour of wide plates

Fracture behaviour of different welded joints of 15 MnNi 6 3 and 20 MnMoNi 5 5 steel is studied by testing Charpy-V impact, fracture mechanics specimens as well as wide plate specimens of different sizes. The influence of welding conditions and stress relief heat treatment on the failure behaviour of the heat affected zones is examined. Fracture mechanics test data are used in order to predict failure loads of the wide plates by the R6-procedure and by FE-calculations.     

Mechanical properties and microstructure of helium-implanted beryllium

0.2 mm thick specimens of beryllium have been homogeneously implanted with helium. Implantation temperatures ranged from 100 to 600 °C, and final helium concentrations from 30 to 800 appm. Tensile tests at temperatures between 20 and 600 °C were carried out with testing temperature both equal to and lower than the implantation temperatures. For practicality all conditions of helium-implanted specimens, ductility decreased and yield and ultimate tensile strength increased as compared to the unimplanted specimens. The amount of embrittlement and strengthening, however, depended sensitively on implantation dose, implantation temperature, and tensile test temperature. The formation of helium bubbles, dislocation loops, and dislocation networks and the fracture modes were observed by transmission and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Two ranges of embrittlement can be distinguished. They are attributed to different mechanisms: matrix strengthening is the dominant mechanism at low temperatures, and loss of grain boundary cohesion at high temperatures. It is concluded that in both temperature regimes the embrittlement is dominated by helium and not by the displacement defects introduced by its implantation.     

Remove Welding Residual Stress for CFETR Vacuum Vessel by Trailing Ultrasonic Impact Treatment

The China fusion engineering test reactor (CFETR) vacuum vessel is welded by narrow gap TIG (NG-TIG) welding, and the welding residual stress of the CFETR vacuum vessel can be redistributed by trailing welding ultrasonic impact treatment. In order to investigate the feasibility of the residual stress removing scheme, and to obtain the optimal trailing ultrasonic impact treatment technological parameters in the process of removing welding residual stress, a welding model that similar to vacuum vessel welding seam is established by using ABAQUS software, a NG-TIG welding heat source subroutine which is written in FORTRAN language used to simulate NG-TIG welding. According to the welding simulation results, a trailing welding ultrasonic impact treatment model is established, and the effects of the impact pin number, the impact method, the impact pin diameter and the impact frequency on welding residual stress are studied. The results show that the longitudinal residual stress in welding seam and its adjacent area and the lateral residual stress in the whole region have been obviously decreased by different trailing welding ultrasonic impact processes, and have made the tensile stress in the welding seam and its adjacent area has been changed into compressive stress, which can provide theoretical guidance and reference for actual production.     

The influence of the microstructure evolution on the surface morphology in the annealing process of helium-implanted spinel

Single-crystalline spinel (MgAl₂O₄) specimens were implanted with helium ions of 100 keV at three successively increasing fluences of (0.5, 2.0 and 8.0) × 10¹⁶ ions/cm² at room temperature. The specimens were subsequently annealed in vacuum at different temperatures ranging from 500 to 1100 °C. Different techniques, including Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal desorption spectrometry (TDS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate the specimens. It was found that the absorbance peak in the FTIR due to the stretching vibration of the Al-O bond shifts to smaller wave numbers with increasing fluence, shifting back to larger wave numbers with an increase of annealing temperature. The absorbance peak shift has a linear relationship with the fluence increase in the as-implanted state, while it does not have a linear relationship with the fluence increase after the annealing process. Surface deformation occurred in the specimens implanted with fluences of 2.0 and 8.0 × 10¹⁶ ions/cm² in the annealing process. The phenomena described above can be attributed to differences in defect formation in the specimens.     

The influence of helium on the high temperature mechanical properties of an austenitic stainless steel

Foil specimens of D1N 1.4970 austenitic stainless steel were cyclotron implanted to uniform helium concentrations up to 150 ppm. Subsequently, tensile and creep tests at different stress levels and temperatures between 600 and 800°C were performed and compared with the results from He-free control specimens. Whereas the latter exhibit transgranular ductile fracture, the implanted material breaks by intergranular failure with a corresponding reduction of the elongation to fracture values by factors between 3 and 6. These results and the TEM and SEM investigations of the microstructure are discussed by means of an embrittlement model which is based on the stress assisted nucleation and growth of helium filled grain boundary cavities.     

Temperature effects on the static and dynamic fracture behaviors of low-silicon CA-15 tempered stainless steel castings

In this research we studied the effect of testing temperature on both static and dynamic fracturing behaviors of low-silicon CA-15 martensitic stainless steel (MSS) castings after austenitizing and tempering treatments. The results showed that the material’s microstructure was influenced by heat treatment and various testing temperatures would cause different fracturing mechanisms. In static tensile tests, the 573-673 K tempered specimens occurred secondary strengthening at 423 K and 298 K testing temperatures. However, there is a contrast of weakening occurred at 123 K for the same type of tempered samples. The phenomenon was mainly triggered by local cracking at the ferrite/martensitic interface and incoherent precipitate site in the materials because of the existence of shrinkage stress under subzero temperature. In the dynamic strain-rate tests, impact embrittlement occurred in the 573-673 K tempered samples as a result of the tempered martensite embrittlement (TME) phenomenon. The ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) of the tempered material was obviously lower than that of the as-cast material. Also, optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were performed to correlate the properties attained to the microstructural observation.     

Effect of injection temperature, 5% pre-strain and long time aging on the high-temperature mechanical properties of helium injected 316 stainless steel

The helium embrittlement of 316 stainless steel, helium injected to concentrations of 3 ~ 10 at ppm at 573 ± 50 or 1073 ± 20 K, was measured by tensile tests at 1023 K and was completely suppressed by the 5% pre-straining. This improved effect was lost by a post-injection again of 1000 h at 1123 K or 3000 h at 1023 K. It was concluded from the TEM observations that in the solution treated material helium bubbles were concentrated on the grain boundaries and caused embrittlement, but in the 5% pre-strained material helium bubbles nucleated on the dislocations and grew large enough to be unable to be dragged to the grain boundaries by the dislocations during the tensile test. The embrittlement after the long time aging was due to the gathering of the large helium bubbles at the σ-phase boundaries by a sweepout mechanism due to dislocation climb during the long time thermal recovery process.     

2219铝合金搅拌摩擦焊和钨极保护焊焊接件残余应力的中子衍射研究

利用中子衍射法对2219铝合金搅拌摩擦焊（FSW）和钨极保护焊（TIG）焊接件开展了三维残余应力测量,并对残余应力分布规律进行了分析。结果表明：焊接件的纵向残余应力数值较大;FSW焊接件残余应力整体较TIG焊接件的小;FSW和TIG焊接件的残余拉应力最大值分别为101 MPa和174 MPa,FSW焊接件残余拉应力最大值较TIG焊接件的小;FSW残余拉应力最大值处于轴肩边缘,且前进侧峰值大于后退侧峰值;TIG焊接件残余拉应力最大值处于焊缝边缘。通过中子衍射实验获得的焊接件残余应力分布,将可用于焊接工艺的优化与焊接件的寿命预测。     

Reduction method for residual stress of welded joint using harmonic vibrational load

Welding is widely used for construction of many structures. Since welding is a process using locally given heat, residual stress is generated near the bead. Tensile residual stress degrades fatigue strength. Some reduction methods of residual stress have been presented and, for example, heat treatment and shot peening are practically used. However, those methods need special tools and are time consuming. In this paper, a new method for reduction of residual stress using harmonic vibrational load during welding is proposed. The proposed method is examined experimentally for some conditions. Two thin plates are supported on the supporting device and butt-welded using an automatic CO₂ gas shielded arc welding machine. Residual stress in the direction of the bead is measured by using a paralleled beam X-ray diffractometer with scintillation counter after removing quenched scale chemically. First, the welding of rolled steel for general structure for some excitation frequencies is examined. Specimens are welded along the groove on both sides. For all frequencies, tensile residual stress near the bead is significantly reduced. Second, welding of the specimen made of high tensile strength steel is examined. In this case, tensile residual stress near the bead is also reduced. Finally, the proposed method is examined by an analytical method. An analytical model which consists of mass and preloaded springs with elasto-plastic characteristic is used. Reduction of residual stress is demonstrated using this model.     

Studies on A-TIG welding of Low Activation Ferritic/Martensitic (LAFM) steel

Low Activation Ferritic–Martensitic steels (LAFM) are chosen as the candidate material for structural components in fusion reactors. The structural components are generally fabricated by welding processes. Activated Tungsten Inert Gas (A-TIG) welding is an emerging process for welding of thicker components. In the present work, attempt was made to develop A-TIG welding technology for LAFM steel plates of 10 mm thick. Activated flux was developed for LAFM steel by carrying out various bead-on-plate TIG welds without flux and with flux. The optimum flux was identified as one which gave maximum depth of penetration at minimum heat input values. With the optimized flux composition, LAFM steel plate of 10 mm thickness was welded in square butt weld joint configuration using double side welding technique. Optical and Scanning Electron Microscopy was used for characterizing the microstructures. Microhardness measurements were made across the weld cross section for as welded and post weld heat treated samples. Tensile and impact toughness properties were determined. The mechanical properties values obtained in A-TIG weld joint were comparable to that obtained in weld joints of LAFM steel made by Electron beam welding process.