Investigation of thermal aging damage mechanism of the Cast Duplex Stainless Steel

Besides the macro-mechanical properties for thermal aging effect published in “Thermal aging effect on Z3CN20.09M Cast Duplex Stainless Steel” (Nuclear Engineering and Design 239(2009) 2217-2223), the thermal aging damage mechanism is investigated in this paper through nano-indentation tests and micro-structures evolution examination. Numerical simulations were carried out with GTN continuum damage model to investigate the different crack propagation process for aging. The nano-indentation hardness values increase with aging time for both phases while the hardness values of the ferrite phase are much higher and increase much more. The nano-indentation energy indicating the toughness decreases for both phases with aging time. TEM results show that the Cr-enriched α′ phase precipitates in the ferrite phase which is considered as the critical reason making the dislocation slip difficult and causing the increase of the strength and reduction of the toughness. The crack initiates from the ferrite phase instead of the austenite phase from the SEM observation and FEA simulation results, which reflects the change of the fracture mechanism for thermal aging.