THERMAL AGING PERFORMANCE OF DOMESTIC CAST AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEELS IN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

摘要

The domestic cast austenitic stainless steels (CASS) used for PWR main coolant lines face thermal aging phenomenon during long-term service at reactor operating temperatures in the range of 280-320°C. The accelerated thermal aging experiment of CASS at an elevated temperature of 400°C was carried out. The decrease regularity of absorbed energy of CASS at room temperature was obtained by Charpy impact test, and the variation trend of impacted specimen's fracture surfaces of CASS at different aging time was observed by scanning electron microscope. The experimental results show that: after 15,000 hours of accelerated thermal aging, the domestic CASS gradually reaches a thermal aging saturation, and its absorbed energy suffers a dramatic loss, dropping to almost 41-45% of the initial value, but still meets the assessment indicators for unaged state required by design specifications.