Award Date

2009

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Advisor 1

Brendan O’Toole, Committee Chair

Advisor 2

Ajit K. Roy, Committee Co-Chair

First Committee Member

WooSoon Yim

Second Committee Member

Anthony E. Hechanova

Third Committee Member

Daniel Cook

Graduate Faculty Representative

Edward S. Neumann

Number of Pages

176

Abstract

Nickel base Alloy 617 has been identified to be a suitable structural material for heat exchanger applications in both hydrogen and electricity generation using nuclear heat. A maximum operating temperature of 950°C has been specified by department of energy (DOE) for both applications to achieve a maximum possible efficiency. Therefore, an extensive investigation has been pursued to evaluate time-dependent-deformation (Creep) of this alloy as functions of temperature and applied load. The results indicate that this alloy exhibited severe creep deformation, characterized by development of an instantaneous tertiary creep region at 850 and 950°C under applied stresses corresponding to its 35% yield strength (YS) values at these temperatures. However, this alloy satisfied the deformation acceptance criteria at 5, 10, 25 and 35 percent of its YS values when loaded at 750°C. The results of crack growth studies indicate that this alloy showed an enhanced cracking susceptibility when tested within a temperature range of 100 to 200°C at the lowest loading ratio of 0.1. The fracture toughness of this alloy in terms of J IC was not significantly influenced by variation in temperature. The results of stress-corrosion-cracking study suggest that the rate of crack growth was gradually reduced with longer testing duration due to a relaxation of load with time. Microscopic evaluations of tested specimens were performed using numerous conventional techniques.

Keywords

Austenitic Nickel-based Alloy 617; Crack growth; Creep deformation; Fracture toughness; Heat exchanger applications; High temperature applications; Hydrogen generation; Microstructural characteristics; Nickel alloys; Nickel-base superalloys; Nuclear energy

Disciplines

Materials Science and Engineering | Mechanical Engineering | Metallurgy

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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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