Fracture properties of a neutron-irradiated stainless steel submerged arc weld cladding overlay

摘要

The ability of stainless steel cladding to increase the resistance of an operating nuclear reactor pressure vessel to extension of surface flaws depends greatly on the properties of the irradiated cladding. Therefore, weld overlay cladding irradiated at temperatures and fluences relevant to power reactor operation was examined. The cladding was applied to a pressure vessel steel plate by the submerged arc, single-wire, oscillating-electrode method. Three layers of cladding provided a thickness adequate for fabrication of test specimens. The first layer was type 309, and the upper two layers were type 308 stainless steel. The type 309 was diluted considerably by excessive melting of the base plate. Specimens were taken from near the base plate-cladding interface and also from the upper layers. Charpy V-notch and tensile specimens were irradiated at 288/sup 0/C to a fluence of 2 x 10/sup 23/ neutrons/m/sup 2/ (>1 MeV). 10 refs., 16 figs., 4 tabs.