Nitrogen Enhanced 316LN Austenitic Stainless Steel for Sodium Cooled Fast Reactors

2013 ◽  
Vol 794 ◽  
pp. 670-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammana Jayakumar ◽  
A.K. Bhaduri ◽  
M.D. Mathew ◽  
Shaju K. Albert ◽  
U. Kamachi Mudali
Keyword(s):  
Stainless Steel ◽  
Austenitic Stainless Steel ◽  
Weld Metal ◽  
Nitrogen Content ◽  
Low Cycle Fatigue ◽  
Hot Cracking ◽  
Cycle Fatigue ◽  
Fast Reactors ◽  
Delta Ferrite ◽  
316Ln Ss

For the future sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs), which are envisaged with a design life of 60 years, nitrogen-enhanced 316LN austenitic stainless steel (SS) with improved high-temperature properties is being developed. To optimize the enhanced nitrogen content in 316LN SS, the effect of nitrogen on its tensile, creep and low cycle fatigue behavior has been investigated. For different heats of 316LN SS containing 0.07-0.22 wt% nitrogen, the tensile and creep properties increased with increase in nitrogen content, while low cycle fatigue properties peaked at 0.14 wt% nitrogen. Finally, based on the evaluation of the hot cracking susceptibility of the different heats of 316LN SS with varying nitrogen content, using the Varestraint and Gleeble hot-ductility tests, the nitrogen content for the nitrogen-enhanced 316LN SS has been optimized at a level of 0.14 wt%. The 0.14 wt% nitrogen content in this optimised composition shifts the solidification mode of the weld metal to fully austenitic region, including that due to dilution of nitrogen from the base metal, thereby increasing its hot cracking susceptibility. This necessitated development and qualification of welding electrodes for obtaining weld metal with 0.14 wt% nitrogen by optimising the weld metal chemistry so as to obtain the requisite delta ferrite content, tensile properties, and very importantly impact toughness both in the as-welded and aged conditions. Studies on localised corrosion behaviour of nitrogen-enhanced 316LN SS indicated the beneficial effect of nitrogen addition to sensitization, pitting, intergranular corrosion, stress corrosion cracking and corrosion fatigue.

Effects of Surface Finish and Loading Conditions on the Low Cycle Fatigue Behavior of Austenitic Stainless Steel in PWR Environment for Various Strain Amplitude Levels

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Alain Le Duff ◽  
Andre´ Lefranc¸ois ◽  
Jean Philippe Vernot
Keyword(s):  
Stainless Steel ◽  
Austenitic Stainless Steel ◽  
Strain Amplitude ◽  
Surface Finish ◽  
Low Cycle Fatigue ◽  
Fatigue Behavior ◽  
Complex Loading ◽  
Loading Conditions ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Cycle Fatigue

In February/March 2007, The NRC issued Regulatory Guide “RG1.207” and Argonne National Laboratory issued NUREG/CR-6909 that is now applicable in the US for evaluations of PWR environmental effects in fatigue analyses of new reactor components. In order to assess the conservativeness of the application of this NUREG report, Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) tests were performed by AREVA NP on austenitic stainless steel specimens in a PWR environment. The selected material exhibits in air environment a fatigue behavior consistent with the ANL reference “air” mean curve, as published in NUREG/CR-6909. LCF tests in a PWR environment were performed at various strain amplitude levels (± 0.6% or ± 0.3%) for two loading conditions corresponding to a simple or to a complex strain rate history. The simple loading condition is a fully reverse triangle signal (for comparison purposes with tests performed by other laboratories with the same loading conditions) and the complex signal simulates the strain variation for an actual typical PWR thermal transient. In addition, two various surface finish conditions were tested: polished and ground. This paper presents the comparisons of penalty factors, as observed experimentally, with penalty factors evaluated using ANL formulations (considering the strain integral method for complex loading), and on the other, the comparison of the actual fatigue life of the specimen with the fatigue life predicted through the NUREG report application. For the two strain amplitudes of ± 0.6% and ± 0.3%, LCF tests results obtained on austenitic stainless steel specimens in PWR environment with triangle waveforms at constant low strain rates give “Fen” penalty factors close to those estimated using the ANL formulation (NUREG/6909). However, for the lower strain amplitude level and a triangle loading signal, the ANL formulation is pessimistic compared to the AREVA NP test results obtained for polished specimens. Finally, it was observed that constant amplitude LCF test results obtained on ground specimens under complex loading simulating an actual sequence of a cold and hot thermal shock exhibits lower combined environmental and surface finish effects when compared to the penalty factors estimated on the basis of the ANL formulations. It appears that the application of the NUREG/CR-6909 in conjunction with the Fen model proposed by ANL for austenitic stainless steel provides excessive margins, whereas the current ASME approach seems sufficient to cover significant environmental effects for representative loadings and surface finish conditions of reactor components.

scholarly journals Low Cycle Fatigue Behaviour of Austenitic Stainless Steel at Cyrogenic Temperature

1982 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshinori NAKAMURA ◽  
Masatake TOMINAGA ◽  
Hirokazu MURASE ◽  
Yukio NISHIYAMA
Keyword(s):  
Stainless Steel ◽  
Austenitic Stainless Steel ◽  
Low Cycle Fatigue ◽  
Fatigue Behaviour ◽  
Cycle Fatigue

Effect of Surface Finish and Loading Conditions on the Low Cycle Fatigue Life of Stainless Steel Welded Piping in PWR Environment

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuichi Fukuta ◽  
Yuichiro Nomura ◽  
Seiji Asada
Keyword(s):  
Stainless Steel ◽  
Fatigue Life ◽  
Austenitic Stainless Steel ◽  
Surface Finish ◽  
Loading Condition ◽  
Low Cycle Fatigue ◽  
Complex Loading ◽  
Fatigue Tests ◽  
Cycle Fatigue ◽  
Effect Of Surface

NUREG/CR-6909 of USA and JSME of Japan proposed new rules for evaluating environmental effects in fatigue analyses of reactors components. These rules were established from a lot of fatigue data with polished specimens under simple loading condition. The effects of surface finish or complex loading condition were reported in some papers, but these data were obtained with the simple shaped specimens. In order to evaluate the effects of surface finish and loading condition and to confirm the applicability of the proposed rules to actual components, Low Cycle Fatigue tests are performed in PWR environment with the specimens cut from 316 austenitic stainless steel welded piping. The pipes are machined to have three levels of surface finish condition and the load pattern simulating the thermal stress is applied to specimens. In this study, the effect of surface finish on fatigue life is included to be small for 316 austenitic stainless steel welded piping. Considering the insensitive region in the current evaluation rule, predicted accuracy is increased and possibility of improving the current rule is indicated.

Damage Assessment on Low Cycle Fatigue Properties of Cyclic Pre-Strained Austenitic Stainless Steel

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nao Fujimura ◽  
Hiroyuki Oguma ◽  
Takashi Nakamura
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Stainless Steel ◽  
Austenitic Stainless Steel ◽  
Fatigue Damage ◽  
Low Cycle Fatigue ◽  
Strain Ratio ◽  
Fatigue Properties ◽  
Cycle Fatigue ◽  
Damage Law ◽  
Number Of Cycles

The effects of cyclic pre-strain on low cycle fatigue properties of austenitic stainless steel were investigated, and the fatigue damage was assessed based on several parameters such as the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of diffracted X-ray profile and surface roughness of specimens. The strain-controlled tests were conducted under strain ratio Rε = −1 and various constant total strain ranges. Also the change in remnant fatigue lives were investigated when the cyclic pre-strain were applied to the specimens under the different number of cycles which were determined with reference to the usage factor UFpre ranged from 0.2 to 0.8. As a result, the remnant fatigue life of the pre-strained samples became shorter than that of the sample without pre-strain as the UFpre increased. The relationship between the pre-strain damage expressed in UFpre and the remnant fatigue damage in UFpost was roughly described by the cumulative linear damage law: UFpre + UFpost = 1. Namely, the cyclic pre-strain affected the remnant fatigue lives. In order to evaluate the effects of cyclic pre-strain on fatigue lives more precisely, the damage in the cyclic pre-straining processes was estimated by using FWHM and surface roughness. The FWHM of the specimens with pre-strain once decreased with increase in UFpre, and then increased after showing a minimum value. The surface roughness of specimens increased linearly with an increase of the number of pre-straining cycles. These results suggested that the damage due to pre-strain can be assessed by means of FWHM and surface roughness of specimens.

A Perspective on Fatigue Damage by Decoupling LCF and HCF Loads in a Type 316LN Stainless Steel

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aritra Sarkar ◽  
A. Nagesha ◽  
R. Sandhya ◽  
M.D. Mathew
Keyword(s):  
Stainless Steel ◽  
Austenitic Stainless Steel ◽  
Fatigue Damage ◽  
Strain Amplitude ◽  
High Cycle Fatigue ◽  
Low Cycle Fatigue ◽  
Applied Strain ◽  
Cycle Fatigue ◽  
316Ln Stainless Steel ◽  
Type 316Ln Stainless Steel

AbstractPrior low cycle fatigue (LCF) deformation in a 316LN austenitic stainless steel reduced the remnant high cycle fatigue (HCF) life as a function of the amount of LCF exposure and the applied strain amplitude. A critical LCF pre-damage was found necessary for an effective LCF-HCF interaction to take place.

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