Fabrication and performance evaluation of CICC jacket based on modified N50 austenitic steel for CFETR magnet

Abstract

The hot deformation behavior of modified N50 austenitic stainless steel in the temperature range 950∼1250 °C and strain rate range of 0.01–50/s was studied by uniaxial compression experiment. The processing map and the constitutive equation for the finite element simulation were established, and the recrystallization mechanism was discussed. The results indicated that the dominant deformation mode DDRX (discontinuous dynamic recrystallization) increased with the rise of deformation temperature while the CDRX (continuous dynamic recrystallization) was on the contrary. There is a decrease in global recrystallization with increasing strain rate, up to a threshold 1/s beyond which the global recrystallization began significantly promotion owing to not only the adiabatic heat and higher stored energy, but also quick Post-DRX mechanism induced by delay quenching. The reasonable hot working interval was determined by a hot working map, then the most suitable hot extrusion parameters (1180°C-100 mm/s) were further obtained with the help of finite element simulation, and ultimately, the industrial hot extrusion trials of N50 pipes with Post-DRX features were further completed. The tensile performance of final jacket pipes was far beyond the current mainstream low-temperature austenitic structural steel and met the requirements of the new generation of superconducting coil jacket materials.

Keywords

• Modified N50 steel
• Post-dynamic recrystallization
• Constitutive equation
• Hot processing map
• Finite element simulation
• Hot extrusion