Change in mechanical properties by high-cycle loading up to Gigacycle for 316L stainless steel

Naoe, Takashi   ; Harjo, S.   ; Kawasaki, Takuro   ; Xiong, Z.*; Futakawa, Masatoshi  

At the J-PARC, a mercury target vessel made of 316L SS suffers proton and neutron radiation environment. The target vessel also suffers cyclic impact stress caused by the proton beam-induced pressure waves. The vessel suffers higher than 4.510 cyclic loading during the expected service life of 5000 h. We have investigated fatigue strength 316L SS up to gigacycle in the previous studies. The cyclic hardening and softening behavior were observed. In this study, to evaluate the cyclic hardening/softening behavior, the dislocation densities of specimens were measured using the neutron diffraction method at the MLF BL-19. The result showed that the dislocation density of a 316L SS was increased with increasing the number of loading cycles. By contrast, in the case of cold-rolled 316L SS, annihilation and re-accumulation of dislocation by cyclic loading were observed. In the workshop, result of neutron diffraction measurement will be introduced with the progress of fatigue test.