Creep fatigue behavior of SUS 304 Stainless steel tested in sodium at 550C

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Since stainless steels like SUS 304 and SUS 316 tend to be carburized in sodiun, the grain boundary near surface may be degraded due to carbides precipitation. In order to clarify the effect of the grain boundary degradation upon creep fatigue strength, long term creep fatigue tests of SUS304 stainless steel were performed in carburized sodium, 0btained results are summarized as follows: (1)Creep fatigue life in carburized sodium was nearly equal to that in air, in spite of the fact that severe carburization and carbides precipitation on grain boundary were observed on tested specimen surface. (2)Creep fatigue life calculated using usual linear damage summation rule showed good agreement with experimental results, (3)It was revealed that crack initiation life in carburized sodium was almost the same as that in air, although crack initiated on degraded grain boundary in carburized sodium. (4)The above fact supplies an evidence to justify the concept that creep fatigue crack initiation life in sodium is longer than 1/20 of failure life obtained using small specimens in air, which is basic assumption of our creep fatigue evaluation method. It is conjectured from this study that FBR grade SUS316 stainless steel will show almost the same creep fatigue life as that in air, however, a few creep fatigue tests of FBR grade SUS316 in carburized sudium will be necessary to clarify this conjecture.