Influence of Steel Melting Processes on Tensile Properties of 14Cr-15Ni-Ti Stainless Steel

Abstract

A titanium-modified 14Cr-15Ni-2Mo austenitic stainless steel, known as alloy D9, has been chosen as the material for the fuel cladding and hexagonal wrapper of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor presently under construction at Kalpakkam. The alloy is generally produced by double vacuum melting process consisting of Vacuum Induction Melting (VIM) followed by Vacuum Arc Remelting (VAR). An alternate route consisting of vacuum induction melting followed by electro slag refining (ESR) has been employed to produce the alloy with lower inclusion content Tensile studies were carried out at various temperatures between ambient and 1023 K at an interval of 50 K and strain rate of 1.2 × 10–3 s–1 on the steels in 20% coldworked condition. Tensile properties of both VAR grade and ESR grade material were found to be similar. The influence of the secondary processing routes on the mechanical properties of alloy D9 is studied.

Keywords

• austenitic stainless steel
• var
• esr
• inclusion
• strength ratio