MAPPING FLOW LOCALIZATION PROCESSES IN DEFORMATION OF IRRADIATED REACTOR STRUCTURAL ALLOYS - FINAL REPORT. Nuclear Energy Research Initiative Program No. MSF99-0072. Period: August 1999 through September 2002. (ORNL/TM-2003/63)

摘要

Metals that can sustain plastic deformation homogeneously throughout their bulk tend to be tough and malleable. Often, however, if a metal has been hardened it will no longer deform uniformly. Instead, the deformation occurs in narrow bands on a microscopic scale wherein stresses and strains become concentrated in localized zones. This strain localization degrades the mechanical properties of the metal by causing premature plastic instability failure or by inducing the formation of cracks. Irradiation with neutrons hardens a metal and makes it more prone to deformation by strain localization. Although this has been known since the earliest days of radiation damage studies, a full measure of the connection between neutron irradiation hardening and strain localization is wanting, particularly in commercial alloys used in the construction of nuclear reactors. Therefore, the goal of this project is to systematically map the extent of involvement of strain localization processes in plastic deformation of three reactor alloys that have been neutron irradiated. The deformation processes are to be identified and related to changes in the tensile properties of the alloys as functions of neutron fluence (dose) and degree of plastic strain. The intent is to define the role of strain localization in radiation embrittlement phenomena. The three test materials are a tempered bainitic A533B steel, representing reactor pressure vessel steel, an annealed 316 stainless steel and annealed Zircaloy-4 representing reactor internal components. These three alloys cover the range of crystal structures usually encountered in structural alloys, i.e. body-centered cubic (bcc), face-centered cubic (fcc), and close-packed hexagonal (cph), respectively. The experiments were conducted in three Phases, corresponding to the three years duration of the project. Phases 1 and 2 addressed irradiations and tensile tests made at near-ambient temperatures, and covered a wide range of neutron fluences. Phase 3 was aimed at a higher irradiation and test temperature of about 288 C, pertinent to the operating temperature of commercial reactor pressure vessel steels. Phase 3 explored a narrower fluence range than Phases 1 and 2, and it included an investigation of the strain rate dependence of deformation.