Evaluation of Radiation Embrittlement by Charpy Impact Tests with Miniaturized Specimens

Kurishita, Hiroaki*; Yamamoto, Takuya*; Narui, Minoru*; Yoshitake, Tsunemitsu ; Akasaka, Naoaki

Radiation embrittlement in high-strength ferritic/martensitic steels of 2WFK and 63WFS and oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) martensitic steel of H-35 that were irradiated in the experimental fast reactor JOYO is evaluated by instrumented Charpy impact tests for miniaturized (1.5 x 1.5 x 20 mm) and half-sized Charpy V-notch (CVN) specimens. Effects of thermal aging and microstructural evolution during irradiation on radiation embrittlement are described. Next, in order to clarify the specimen size effects on the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) in Charpy impact testing, a method to evaluate the plastic constraint loss for differently sized CVN specimens that may be responsible for the size effects is proposed and applied to 2 WFK. In the method, the constraint factor, a, that is an index of the plastic constraint is defined as a = s*/sy*. Here, s* is the critical cleavage fracture stress which is a material constant and sy* is the uniaxial yield stress at the DBTT at the strain rate generated in the Charpy impact test. The procedures for evaluating each of s* and sy* are described and the result of s* and sy*, thus the value of a, is presented for various types of miniaturized and full-sized CVN specimens of 2 WFK. It is shown that there is the following relationship between a and the specimen size factor, (A*/b2). a=a0-k(A*/b2)0.4 Here, A* is the critical area for cleavage fracture and b is the ligament size. a0 and k are constants depending on a /W (a is the notch depth and W is the specimen width). a increases with increasing a /W.