Document Type

Grant

Publication Date

7-6-2005

Publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Publisher Location

Las Vegas (Nev.)

First page number:

1

Last page number:

3

Abstract

This proposal is intended to study the effect of Si content not only on the corrosion resistance but also on the radiation-induced embrittlement of martensitic stainless steels. The susceptibility of these alloys with different Si content to stress corrosion cracking, general corrosion and localized corrosion will be evaluated in the molten LBE and aqueous environments of different pH values using state-of-the-art testing techniques. Testing in the aqueous media is intended to develop baseline data for comparison purpose. Radiation-induced embrittlement of these alloys will initially be studied by irradiating the test specimens with bremmstrahlung gamma radiation from 20-40 MeV electron beams at ISU. These gammas induce (γ, n) reactions in the giant dipole energy region. The principal radiation damage from these irradiations, in turn, stems from the recoiling residual nucleus (with average kinetic energy of approximately 20,000 eV) after the neutrons are emitted. The high penetrability of gammas, whose range is of order one meter in steel, ensures that the resulting damage will be uniform over the volume of the sample. The induced activity of these specimens will have very short half-lives (typically minutes) due the systematics of (slightly) proton-rich nuclei. The resulting radiation-induced hardening can subsequently be evaluated by proper experimental techniques.

Accomplishments:

● Machining of tensile and polarization specimens of T91 grade steel with different silicon content are in progress. Tensile, stress corrosion cracking and polarization experiments will be initiated soon.

● A fixture to hold Charpy V-notch specimens for impact testing will be installed in the existing instrumented impact tester in July 2005. This type of testing will enable the determination of impact energy and ductile-to-brittle transition temperature.

● All three graduate students have been trained in high-temperature tensile testing using the MTS machine. They also got trained in using the newly-installed Instron testing equipment to perform tensile and fracture-mechanics related experiments.

● Literature review on relevant topics is ongoing.

Keywords

Corrosion and anti-corrosives; Eutectic alloys; Lead-bismuth alloys; Martensitic stainless steel; Nuclear reactors — Materials — Testing; Silicon; Steel – Embrittlement; Stress corrosion

Controlled Subject

Corrosion and anti-corrosives--Testing; Eutectic alloys; Nuclear reactors--Materials--Testing

Disciplines

Materials Science and Engineering | Metallurgy | Nuclear Engineering | Oil, Gas, and Energy

File Format

pdf

File Size

145 KB

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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