Micro mechanical testing of candidate structural alloys for Gen-IV nuclear reactors

A. Prasitthipayong; D. Frazer; A. Kareer; M.D. Abad; A. Garner; B. Joni; T. Ungar; G. Ribarik; M. Preuss; L. Balogh; S.J. Tumey; A.M. Minor; P. Hosemann

Nuclear Materials and Energy (Aug 2018)

Micro mechanical testing of candidate structural alloys for Gen-IV nuclear reactors

A. Prasitthipayong,
D. Frazer,
A. Kareer,
M.D. Abad,
A. Garner,
B. Joni,
T. Ungar,
G. Ribarik,
M. Preuss,
L. Balogh,
S.J. Tumey,
A.M. Minor,
P. Hosemann

Affiliations

A. Prasitthipayong: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Corresponding author.
D. Frazer: Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
A. Kareer: Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks road, Oxford OX1 3PH, UK
M.D. Abad: Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
A. Garner: Materials Performance Center, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
B. Joni: Department of Materials Physics, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, PO Box 32, Budapest H-1518, Hungary
T. Ungar: Materials Performance Center, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK; Department of Materials Physics, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, PO Box 32, Budapest H-1518, Hungary
G. Ribarik: Department of Materials Physics, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, PO Box 32, Budapest H-1518, Hungary
M. Preuss: Materials Performance Center, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
L. Balogh: Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada
S.J. Tumey: Center of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
A.M. Minor: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; National Center for Electron Microscopy, The Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
P. Hosemann: Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 16
pp. 34 – 45

Abstract

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Ion irradiation is often used to simulate the effects of neutron irradiation due to reduced activation of materials and vastly increased dose rates. However, the low penetration depth of ions requires the development of small-scale mechanical testing techniques, such as nanoindentation and microcompression, in order to measure mechanical properties of the irradiated material. In this study, several candidate structural alloys for Gen-IV reactors (800H, T91, nanocrystalline T91 and 14YWT) were irradiated with 70 MeV Fe9+ ions at 452 °C to an average damage of 20.68 dpa. Both the nanoindentation and microcompression techniques revealed significant irradiation hardening and an increase in yield stress after irradiation in austenitic 800H and ferritic-martensitic T91 alloys. Ion irradiation was observed to have minimal effect on the mechanical properties of nanocrystalline T91 and oxide dispersion strengthened 14YWT. These observations are further supported by line broadening analysis of X-ray diffraction measurements, which show a significantly smaller increase in dislocation density in the 14YWT and nanocrystalline T91 alloys after irradiation. In addition, good agreement was observed between cross-sectional nanoindentation and the damage profile from SRIM calculations.

Published in Nuclear Materials and Energy

ISSN: 2352-1791 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering: Nuclear engineering. Atomic power
Website: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/nuclear-materials-and-energy/

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