<p>Nuclear technology, as a high quality, clean and reliable energy supply, is attracting broad interest from countries across the world. Austenitic stainless steel F321(F321SS) is widely utilized in key components of nuclear power plant due to its excellent corrosion resistance and high temperature mechanical properties. Irradiation can easily lead to the degradation behaviors of materials, such as irradiation hardening, irradiation embrittlement and high-temperature He embrittlement, etc. Understanding such degradation is important for extending the lifespan of existing nuclear reactors and predicting the evolution of material materials under irradiation. Ion irradiation is most commonly used to model neutron-induced damage since the irradiation conditions (temperature, flux, spectrum, etc can be regulated more accurately and flexibly. In this paper, the self-ion irradiation experiments of F321SS at different temperatures and doses were carried out, and the nanoindentation experiments under different conditions were further carried out. Irradiation hardening is observed in all specimens and strongly depending on irradiation temperature and damage dose. Irradiation hardening increases with doses and saturates for at least 1dpa when the temperature below 300℃, but at 450℃ and 560℃, nano-hardness reaches the peak at ~0.5dpa and then declines; moreover, the hardness of all specimens increases, reaches a peak, and decreases with irradiation temperature.</p>

Nanoindentation Test of F321 Austenitic Stainless Steel Under Fe-Ion Irradiation

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICONE/ICONE28/volume/85246

2021 28th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE28)

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