Gigacycle fatigue strength evaluation of welded 316L stainless steels for mercury target vessel

Naoe, Takashi   ; McClintock, D.*

Mercury target vessel for the pulsed spallation neutron source suffers two kinds of cyclic stress during operation. One is the thermal stress due to the internal heating and swings by proton beam trip. The other is the impulsive stress by the pressure waves generated by the proton beam injection. The total number of loading cycles for the former is , and the later is for 2 years operation in the J-PARC mercury target vessel. The target vessel is made of 316L stainless steels and assembled by electron beam welding (EBW) and gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). However, fatigue data of welded 316L stainless steels up to gigacycle is insufficient. Ultrasonic fatigue test, applying load cycle by utilizing ultrasonic resonance, for the welded metals were performed to investigate the effect of welding on gigacycle fatigue behavior. Fatigue strength of EBW and EB+GTAW specimens including weld bead effect will be discussed.