Creep-fatigue tests of double-end notched bar made of Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel

Shimomura, Kenta; Kato, Shoichi; Wakai, Takashi; Ando, Masanori; Hirose, Yuichi*; Sato, Kenichiro*

Proceedings of 23rd International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-23) (DVD-ROM), 9 Pages, 2015/05

This paper describes experimental and analytical works to confirm that the design standard for SFR components sufficiently covers possible failure mechanisms. Creep-fatigue damage evaluation method in JSME design standard for SFR components has been constructed based on experiments and/or numerical analyses of conventional austenitic stainless steels, such as 304SS. Since the material characteristics of Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel are substantially different from those of austenitic stainless steels, it is required to verify the applicability of the design standards to the SFR components made of Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel. A series of uni-axial creep-fatigue tests were conducted using double-ended notch bar specimens made of Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel under displacement controlled condition with 30 minute holding. The curvature radii of the specimens were 1.6mm, 11.2mm and 40.0mm. The specimen having 1.6mm notch and 11.2mm notch failed from outer surface but the specimen having 40.0mm notch showed obvious internal crack nucleation. In addition, though total duration time of the creep-fatigue test was only 2,000 hours, a lot of creep voids and inter granular crack growth were observed. To clarify the cause of such peculiar failure, some additional experiments were performed, as well as some numerical analyses. We could point out that such a peculiar failure aspect might result from corresponding stress distribution in the cross section. As a result of a series of investigations, possible causes of such peculiar failure could be narrowed down. A future investigation plan was proposed to clarify the most significant cause.