Low-cycle fatigue behaviors of 316L austenitic stainless steel in high temperature water: Effects of pre-soaking, dissolved oxygen, and boric acid & lithium hydroxide

Abstract

Latest studies found that for 316LN austenitic stainless steel (ASS), its LCF life decreased noticeably in high temperature water containing a great amount of dissolved oxygen (DO) (2 ppm DO), compared with that in the water containing 50 or 100 ppb DO. This finding is different from previous studies about ASSs. This study confirmed that the 316L had similar behavior to 316LN. The LCF life of 316L in water containing 1000 ppb DO water was considerably shorter than that in the water containing 50 ppb DO. Addition of boric acid & lithium hydroxide and pre-soaking did not display noticeable effects on the LCF life of this material in the water with 1000 ppb DO, indicating the discrepancy between the latest studies and previous studies was not caused by the boric acid & lithium hydroxide and pre-soaking. This study also confirmed that similar to 316LN, when a certain amount of DO was added into the water, the amount of hydrogen absorbed into the material decreased significantly compared with that when the DO was less than 5 ppb.

Keywords

• Corrosion fatigue
• Stainless steels
• Water chemistry
• Nuclear materials