Thermophysical properties of stainless steel containing 5 mass%BC in the solid phase

Takai, Toshihide  ; Furukawa, Tomohiro  ; Yamano, Hidemasa   

This paper describes evaluation results of thermophysical properties of stainless steel (SS) containing 5 mass% boron carbide (BC) in its solid phase. First, the authors have synthesized SS-BC samples with emphasis on 5 mass%-BC and SS using a hot press method and then evaluated its homogeneity in several ways such as chemical composition analysis, metallographic structure observation, and micro X-ray diffraction (XRD). This study also evaluated the density, specific heat and thermal conductivity of the SS-BC sample and found that the density becomes lower and the temperature dependence of the density decreased as the temperature rose compared to that of grade type 316L stainless steel (SS316L) used as a reactor material. The specific heat became slightly higher than that of SS316L and showed similar temperature dependence up to 1073 K. Unexpectedly, the thermal conductivity became lower than that of SS316L and showed similar temperature dependence up to 1273 K.