Low cycle fatigue of Eurofer 97

We have investigated the low cycle fatigue and creep-fatigue properties of Eurofer 97 and observed the associated microstructural changes. The as received structure is composed of equiaxed subgrains and a few martensite laths with a high dislocation density. Fatigue tests have been carried out in air or in high vacuum, from room temperature to 550 °C, under total strain control. It has been found that the influence of the test temperature on the fatigue endurance is not significant. The softening behaviour as a function of the imposed strain amplitude and temperature has been analysed in detail. The softening rate is independent of the imposed strain but strongly enhanced at the highest test temperature. Creep-fatigue tests were run, imposing a 500 s dwell at the maximum tensile strain of the loading cycle, at a total strain range of 0.5%, 0.8% and 1.4%, and at 150, 300 and 550 °C. The influence of the hold time is important only at the highest test temperature, under low applied strains. It was found that at the beginning of life, at the highest temperature, the softening rate with hold times is much stronger as compared to the softening rate without hold times. The amount of stress relaxed during the dwell is independent of the applied strain, at the end of life. The effect of fatigue with and without hold times up to medium temperatures on the microstructure was to lower the dislocation density and to decompose the laths and large grains into a homogeneous structure of submicron grains. At the highest test temperature, an increase of the subgrain size and carbide coarsening were observed.     

Creep-fatigue crack propagation behavior in a surface cracked plate

A series of experiments were performed in order to clarify the surface crack growth behavior under creep-fatigue condition. Type 304 stainless steel was tested at 550°C and 650°C. Specimens were plates with a surface notch. Loading patterns were axial fatigue, bending fatigue, axial creep-fatigue and bending creep-fatigue. As results were obtained: (1) the beach mark method was available to measure the changes of the crack front shape after the test; (2) the electrical potential method was available to measure the changes of the crack front shape in real time; (3) the crack front shape was affected by the loading mode; and (4) ΔJ and ΔJ_c calculated from the proposed simplified method could characterize the surface crack growth rate.     

Effect of nonproportional loading on creep-fatigue properties of 304 stainless steel at low strain ranges near the elastic region

The effect of nonproportional strain path on fatigue/creep-fatigue properties was investigated with 304 stainless steel at 550°C under strain controlled biaxial conditions. The fatigue/creep-fatigue life reduction due to nonproportional strain path occurred even at the lowest strain range investigated, that is, 0.2% for fatigue loading and 0.3% for creep-fatigue loading. The Mises-type path-dependent equivalent strain range was employed in order to evaluate the fatigue/creep-fatigue strength under nonproportional loading conditions. Stress relaxation behavior under nonproportional loading was examined. It was shown that stress relaxes proportionally toward the origin of stress plane even under nonproportional loading. Fatigue damage and creep damage were calculated based on the linear damage summation rule. Life prediction was shown to be possible within an accuracy of a factor of about 2 for nonproportional loading along with other waveforms including pure axial loading, pure torsional loading and combined proportional loading.     

High temperature deformation and damage behavior of RAFM steels under low cycle fatigue loading: Experiments and modeling

Structural materials of fusion reactors are subjected to complex creep-fatigue loading and high irradiation doses. Correct modeling of their deterioration is a precondition of a sufficiently reliable lifetime prediction procedure. In the continuum mechanics approach selected for lifetime prediction of RAFM steels under creep-fatigue conditions, the inelastic strain rate modified (ISRM) damage model is coupled with a modified viscoplastic deformation model taking into account the complex non-saturating cyclic softening of RAFM steels. The resulting coupled model is a powerful prediction tool, which can be applied to arbitrary creep-fatigue loading provided that the material, temperature and possibly irradiation dose-dependent parameters of the model have been determined. Therefore, a fitting procedure has been developed for the parameters identification on the base of deformation and lifetime data from strain-controlled low cycle fatigue (LCF) tests without and with hold time as well as creep tests. The coupled deformation-damage model has been applied to F82H mod and EUROFER 97 in the reference (unirradiated) state under isothermal cyclic loading at 450, 550 and 650 °C. The comparisons between model and experiment show that the observed lifetimes in the LCF tests could be fairly well calculated even for the tests with hold time, which were not considered for the identification of the damage model parameters.     

Effects of nitrogen on low-cycle fatigue properties of type 304L austenitic stainless steels tested with and without tensile strain hold

A quantitative analysis of the effects of nitrogen on high temperature low-cycle fatigue without and with tensile strain hold at 600 °C has been conducted for type 304L stainless steels. For better understanding of the role of nitrogen on grain boundary precipitation, the grain boundary segregation of nitrogen was analyzed by Auger electron spectroscopy. The nitrogen addition is found to give relatively better resistance to creep-fatigue than continuous low-cycle fatigue. This in turn improves the fatigue life. This is due to the retardation of the precipitation of carbides at the grain boundary and reduction in the density of grain boundary cavitation sites which are the main factor of grain boundary damage under creep-fatigue test.     

A review of creep-fatigue life prediction methods: identification and extrapolation to long term and low strain cyclic loading

Eight creep-fatigue interaction models are identified on a set of LCF experimental data.The material is 316 L type stainless steel, the temperature is 600°C. The general agreement between tests and predictions is good in the experimental range.Tentative extrapolations are made toward low strain and long dwell.Opposite trends are then pointed out on stress dependent and strain range dependent models.The final results are still encouraging and general rules are given concerning the long term life prediction.     

Effect of temperature on graphite oxidation behavior

The temperature dependence of oxidation behavior for the graphite IG-11, used in the HTR-10, was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis in the temperature range of 400–1200 °C. The oxidant was dry air (water content <2 ppm) with a flow rate of 20 ml/min. The oxidation time was 4 h. The oxidation results exhibited three regimes: in the 400–600 °C range, the activation energy was 158.56 kJ/mol and oxidation was controlled by chemical reaction; in the 600–800 °C range, the activation energy was 72.01 kJ/mol and oxidation kinetics were controlled by in-pore diffusion; when the temperature was over 800 °C, the activation energy was very low and oxidation was controlled by the boundary layer. Due to CO production, the oxidation rate increased at high temperatures. The effect of burn-off on activation energy was also investigated. In the 600–800 °C range, the activation energy decreased with burn-off. Results of low temperature tests were very dispersible because the oxidation behavior at low temperatures is sensitive to inhomogeneous distribution of any impurity, and some impurities can catalyse graphite oxidation.     

Effects of hold time and neutron irradiation on the low-cycle fatigue behaviour of type 316-CL and their consideration in a damage model

The creep fatigue behaviour of AISI type 316 L(N) plate material has been investigated in the temperature range of 450–750 °C by performing axial strain controlled tests with GRIM specimens. The creep and creep fatigue behaviour of austenitic stainless steel material is known to be prone to neutron irradiation-induced embrittlement. Therefore, the irradiation behaviour was studied by performing irradiation experiments in the High Flux Reactor (HFR) of Petten at 550 °C. A newly developed damage model for time-dependent damage was applied to describe the failure behaviour of AISI 316 L(N) in the cyclic tests performed.     

Behavior of zirconium fuel cladding under fast pressurization rates

Rapid pressurization test was carried out to evaluate the mechanical behavior of the zirconium cladding under a fast strain rate as well as a biaxial stress state for simulating an out-of-pile reactivity initiated accident (RIA) behavior. Influence of temperature, hydrogen content and alloying elements have been addressed in the conducted mechanical tests. The results showed that pressurization rates of 5.4 GPa/s at room temperature and 3.1 GPa/s at 350 °C were achieved. The corresponding time to failure was similar to expected power transient duration during a RIA. Maximum hoop stress of Zircaloy-4 at room temperature and 350 °C increased, respectively by 24.3 and 16.8% when compared to the conventional burst test results. Failure mode switched from a ductile ballooning to a brittle failure which leads to an axial split of the cladding when the hydrogen was added at a nominal value of 600 ppm. When the test temperature increased, its effect was diminished. Addition of an alloying element influenced the mechanical property differently. Niobium acted beneficially against hydrogen embrittlement in that it increased the ductility of the metal matrix.     

The effects of heat treatments on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the Ti–2.19Al–2.35Zr alloy

Ti–2.19Al–2.35Zr alloy is one of the candidate materials for the steam generator tubing of an integrated reactor, System Modular Integrated Advanced ReacTor (SMART) being developed in Korea. In this study, the effects of heat treatments on the mechanical properties of Ti–2.19Al–2.35Zr alloy were evaluated. Mechanical tests were implemented to examine the effects of an annealing, cooling rate and re-annealing temperature/time on the mechanical properties of the alloy. The annealing temperatures ranged from 600 to 1050 °C and the cooling rates were controlled by introducing a water-quenching (WQ), air-cooling (AC), and furnace-cooling (FC). As for the re-annealing heat treatment, after a β water quenching, the re-annealing temperature was selected as 800 °C for the α-phase heat treatment and 940 °C for the α + β-phase heat treatment with various time intervals (1, 10 and 24 h). The results showed that an increase of the annealing temperature to above the β-region temperature induced an increase of the tensile strength and a decrease of the elongation in the 25 and 300 °C tests. A decrease of the cooling rates from water-quenching to a furnace-cooling revealed a decrease of the tensile strength and an increase of the elongation. Also an increase of the re-annealing time with different phase regimes exhibited a decrease of the strength and an increase of the elongation. These tendencies were more dominant in the 300 °C test rather than the room temperature test from the characteristics of the microstructures which were affected by the heat treatments.     

Temperature effect on IG-11 graphite wear performance

IG-11 graphite, used in the 10 MW high temperature gas-cooled test reactor (HTR-10), was tested under different temperatures on an SRV standard wear performance tester. The experiment temperatures were room temperature, 100, 200, 300 and 400 °C. According to the reactor structure, the experiments were designed to test graphite–graphite and graphite–stainless steel wear. The wear debris was collected, and the worn surfaces and debris were observed under scanning electronic microscope (SEM). It was found that there were different wear mechanisms at different temperatures. The main wear mechanism at room temperature was abrasive wear; at 200 °C, it was fatigue wear; at 400 °C, adhesive wear was observed. This difference was mainly due to the change of stress distribution at the contact area. The distribution of wear debris was also analyzed by EDX particle analysis software.     

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.     

Development of simplified evaluation method for creep-fatigue crack propagation

In the design assessment of fast reactor plant components, prevention of crack initiation from defect-free structures is a main concern. However, existence of initial defects such as weld defects cannot be entirely excluded and this potential cracks are to be evaluated to determine if initiated cracks do not lead to component failure instantly. Therefore, evaluation of structural integrity in the presence of crack-like defects is also important to complement the formal design assessment. The authors have been developing a guideline for assessing long-term structural integrity of fast reactor components using detailed inelastic analysis and nonlinear fracture mechanics. This guideline consists of two parts, evaluation of defect-free structures and flaw evaluation. In the latter, creep-fatigue is considered to be one of the most essential driving force for crack propagation at high operating temperature exceeding 500 °C. The uses of J-integral-type parameters (fatigue J-integral range and creep J-integral) are recommended to describe creep-fatigue crack propagation behavior in the guideline. This paper gives an outline of the simplified evaluation method for creep-fatigue crack propagation.     

A comparison between Japanese and French A16 defect assessment procedures for creep-fatigue crack growth

This paper presents the results of a benchmark on creep-fatigue crack growth evaluation for a plate subjected to cyclic bending loads with a 1 h dwell. The simplified creep-fatigue crack growth evaluation methods of JNC in Japan and A16 procedures proposed by CEA in France are presented. The methods, based on the reference stress approach, are compared each other. They are found to differ in the expression used for the reference stress solution used to estimate the creep strain. It is also pointed out that in contrast to the A16 procedures, the JNC method takes heterogeneous creep strain distribution into account for small scale yielding condition. The predictions obtained by the methods are also compared to the experimental data. It is found that the methods exhibit conservatisms which are significantly reduced when integrating the creep curve continuously without initialisation during the experiment [Proceeding of SMiRT 14(G13/2), Creep-Fatigue Crack Growth on CT25 Specimens in 316L(N) stainless steel at 650 °C].     

Characterization of creep-fatigue in ferritic 9Cr-1Mo-V-Nb steel using ultrasonic velocity

The microstructural evolution of ferritic 9Cr-1Mo-V-Nb steel, subjected to creep-fatigue at 550 °C, was evaluated nondestructively by measuring the ultrasonic velocity. The ultrasonic velocity was strongly depended on the microstructural changes during creep-fatigue. The variation in the ultrasonic velocity with the fatigue life fraction exhibited three regions. In the first region (within 0.2 N_f), a significant increase in the velocity was observed, followed by a slight increase between the fatigue life fractions of 0.2 N_f and 0.8 N_f and a decrease in the final region. The change of the ultrasonic velocity during creep-fatigue was interpreted in relation to the microstructural properties. This study proposes an ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation method of quantifying the level of damage and microstructural change during the creep-fatigue of ferritic 9Cr-1Mo-V-Nb steel.     

Estimation of crack growth in the creep range during plastic cyclic loading

Crack growth investigations were performed on the creep-resistant steel 13 CrMo 4 4 in the fatigue and the creep fatigue regime, especially regarding the influence of creep damage on crack growth. To this effect, 2% creep strain was applied to the material at a temperature of 560°C. The crack propagation rate was determined as a function of the specimen shape, temperature, test frequency and hold times. In the case of compact tension (CT-)specimens, creep pretreatment does not affect crack growth. For center-cracked tension (CCT-)specimens, however, the creep pretreatment results in a considerable increase in the crack propagation rate. Hold times of 90 minutes at maximum loading cause an increase in da/dN due to further cavity nucleation. The hold time at which cavity nucleation might occur is evaluated. The dependency on frequency of crack growth may be evaluated by means of a linear superposition of creep and fatigue crack growth. The transition frequency above which pure fatigue crack growth occurs is calculated and the regimes of fatigue, creep and creep—fatigue interaction with environmental influences are characterized.     

Fracture mechanics analysis of iodine-induced crack growth in Zircaloy-4 tubing between 500 and 700°C

Low ductility failure of zircaloy tubing due to iodine-induced stress corrosion cracking (SCC) can occur up to about 700°C. The time-to-failure behavior of Zircaloy-4 cladding tubes containing iodine has been described by the elastic-plastic fracture mechanics model CEPFRAME for the temperature region 500 to 700°C. The model includes an empirically-determined computation method for the incubation period of crack formation, as a portion of the time-to-failure, as well as an elastic-plastic model for describing crack growth due to iodine-induced SCC. The total life time of the cladding tube is obtained by adding the crack initiation and crack propagation periods. The incubation period is a temperature-dependent function of both the depth of surface damage (both fabrication pits and machined notches) and the applied load, and is 40 to 90% of the time-to-failure. The elastic-plastic crack growth model is a modified version of the stress intensity K_I-concept of linear-elastic fracture mechanics. The extensions of this concept take into account a plastic strain zone ahead of the crack tip, which effectively increases the crack depth, and in addition, a dynamic correction factor for the crack geometry which is essentially a function of the effective crack depth. Unstable crack growth is predicted to occur when the residual cross section reaches plastic instability.Model results show good agreement with experimental data of tube burst tests at 500, 600, and 700°C. The crack growth velocity at all three temperatures is a power function of stress intensity ahead of the crack tip; the exponent is 4.9. The model can estimate time-to-failure of as-received cladding tubes containing iodine within a factor of 2. Application of the model to temperatures below 500°C is possible in principle. Due to the increasing scatter in experimental data, the structural transformation of the cladding by recrystallization, and the growing importance of creep strain, CEPFRAME has an upper temperature limit of approximately 650°C. The model is suitable for use in computer codes describing LWR fuel rod behavior during reactor transients and accidents.     

Corrosion characteristics of reduced activation ferritic steel, JLF-1 (8.92Cr–2W) in molten salts Flibe and Flinak

Static corrosion tests were performed in molten salts, LiF–BeF₂ (Flibe) and LiF–NaF–KF (Flinak), at 500 °C and 600 °C for 1000 h. The purpose is to investigate the corrosion characteristics of reduced activation ferritic steels, JLF-1 (8.92Cr–2W) in the fluids. The concentration of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in the fluids was measured by slurry pH titration method before and after the exposure. The HF concentration determined the fluoridation potential. The corrosion was mainly caused by dissolution of Fe and Cr into the fluids due to fluoridation and/or electrochemical corrosion. Carbon on the surface might be dissolved into the fluids due to the corrosion, and this resulted to the decrease of carbide on the surface. The corrosion depth of the JLF-1 specimen, which was obtained from the weight losses, was 0.637 μm in Flibe at 600 °C and 6.73 μm in Flinak at 600 °C.     

Clarification of strain limits considering the ratcheting fatigue strength of 316FR steel

The effect of ratcheting on fatigue strength was investigated in order to rationalize the strain limit as a design criterion of commercialized fast reactor systems. Ratcheting fatigue tests were conducted at 550 °C. Duration of the ratchet straining was set for a certain number of strain cycles taking the loading condition of fast reactors into account, and the number of cycles for strain accumulation was defined as the ratchet-expired cycle. Fatigue lives decrease as the accumulated strain by ratcheting increases. Mean stress increased during the ratcheting cycle and its maximum value depended on the accumulated strain and the ratchet-expired cycle. Fatigue life reduction was negligible when the maximum mean stress was less than 25 MPa, corresponding to an accumulated strain of 2.2%. Accumulated strain is limited to 2% in the present design guidelines and this strain limit is considered effective to avoid reducing fatigue life by ratcheting. Microcrack growth behaviors were also investigated in these tests in order to discuss the life reduction mechanisms in ratcheting conditions.     

Comparison of crack initiation life estimation procedures under creep-fatigue conditions

This paper describes the application of “high temperature structural integrity assessment procedures” developed in the UK and Japan to creep-fatigue crack initiation in welded Type 316 features tests. The components were subjected to both fatigue and creep-fatigue loading at 630 °C. The loadings are representative of those on the upper seal gimbal joint in an advanced gas cooled reactor (AGR), except that the tests were isothermal and the imposed dwell times were reduced. It is demonstrated that application of the procedures gives accurate predictions of the observed crack initiation in the weldment, based on two different advanced inelastic constitutive models (BE and CRIEPI models) and best estimate materials data. Application of simplified assessment methods based on elastic analysis is shown to be conservative. Where appropriate, contrasts between the UK and the Japanese assessment procedures and inelastic modelling techniques have been highlighted.