High temperature mechanical properties and microstructure in 9Cr or 12Cr oxide dispersion strengthened steels

Mitsuhara, Masatoshi*; Kurino, Koichi*; Yano, Yasuhide; Otsuka, Satoshi; Toyama, Takeshi*; Onuma, Masato*; Nakashima, Hideharu*

Tetsu To Hagane, 109(3), p.189 - 200, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.2355/tetsutohagane.TETSU-2022-080

Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) ferritic steel, a candidate material for fast reactor fuel cladding, has low thermal expansion, good thermal conductivity, and excellent resistance to irradiation damage and high temperature strength. The origin of the excellent high-temperature strength lies in the dispersion of fine oxides. In this study, creep tests at 700 or 750C, which are close to the operating temperatures of fast reactors, and high-temperature tensile tests at 900 to 1350 C, which simulate accident conditions, were conducted on 9Cr ODS ferritic steels, M11 and MP23, and 12Cr ODS ferritic steel, F14, to confirm the growth behavior of oxides. In the M11 and F14 creep test samples, there was little oxide growth or decrease in number density from the initial state, indicating that dispersion strengthening by oxides was effective during deformation. After creep deformation of F14, the development of dislocation substructures such as dislocation walls and subgrain boundaries was hardly observed, and mobile dislocations were homogeneously distributed in the grains. The dislocation density increased with increasing stress during the creep test. In the high-temperature ring tensile tests of MP23 and F14, the strength of both steels decreased at higher temperatures. In MP23, elongation decreased with increasing test temperature from 900 to 1100 C, but increased at 1200 C, decreased drastically at 1250 C, and increased again at 1300 C. In F14, elongation decreased with increasing temperature. It was inferred that the formation of the -ferrite phase was responsible for this complex change in mechanical properties of MP23 from 1200 to 1300 C.

Damage evaluations for BWR lower head in severe accident based on multi-physics simulations

Katsuyama, Jinya; Yamaguchi, Yoshihito; Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Furuta, Takuya; Kaji, Yoshiyuki

Proceedings of ASME 2022 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2022) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2022/07

Evaluation of tensile and creep properties on 9Cr-ODS steel claddings

Yano, Yasuhide; Hashidate, Ryuta; Tanno, Takashi; Imagawa, Yuya; Kato, Shoichi; Onizawa, Takashi; Ito, Chikara; Uwaba, Tomoyuki; Otsuka, Satoshi; Kaito, Takeji

JAEA-Data/Code 2021-015, 64 Pages, 2022/01

JAEA-Data-Code-2021-015.pdf:2.6MB

From a view point of practical application of fast breeder reactor cycles, which takes advantage of safety and economic efficiency and makes a contribution of volume reduction and mitigation of degree of harmfulness of high-level radioactive waste, it is necessary to develop fuel cladding materials for fast reactors (FRs) in order to achieve high-burnup. Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steel have been studied for use as potential fuel cladding materials in FRs owing to their excellent resistance to swelling and their high-temperature strength in Japan Atomic Energy Agency. It is very important to establish the materials strength standard in order to apply ODS steels as a fuel cladding. Therefore, it is necessary to acquire the mechanical properties such as tensile, creep rupture strength tests and so on. In this study, tensile and creep rupture strengths of 9Cr-ODS steel claddings were evaluated using by acquired these data. Because of the phase transformation temperature of 9Cr-ODS steel, temperature range for the evaluation was divided into two ones at AC1 transformation temperature of 850C.

Study on creep damage assessment method for Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel by sampling creep testing with thin plate specimen

Kanayama, Hideyuki*; Hiyoshi, Noritake*; Ogawa, Fumio*; Kawabata, Mie*; Ito, Takamoto*; Wakai, Takashi

Zairyo, 68(5), p.421 - 428, 2019/05

This study presents creep damage assessment method for Mod. 9Cr-1Mo steel by sampling creep testing with thin plate specimen. Tensile creep rupture tests were performed using three different sizes of specimen under two different test environments to verify the creep testing with the thin plate specimen. Time to rupture of Mod. 9Cr-1Mo steel using three different sizes were almost same. In addition, there was no effect of environment on time to rupture. Pre-damaged thin plate specimens were machined from a bulk specimen's gage section that pre-damage test was performed with. Pre-damage based on life fraction rule were 8%, 16% and 25%. No effect of the process of machining pre-damaged specimen on time to rupture was confirmed by verification tests in same test condition as pre-damage test. Stress acceleration creep rupture tests were performed to estimate creep damage assessment. Creep damage assessment by stress acceleration creep rupture tests was sufficiently accurate estimate. Creep damage assessments by Vickers hardness and lath width were compared with the assessment by stress acceleration creep rupture tests to study applicability of these methods.

Room-temperature creep tests under constant load on a TRIP-aided multi-microstructure steel

Tsuchida, Noriyuki*; Nagahisa, N.*; Harjo, S.

Materials Science & Engineering A, 700, p.631 - 636, 2017/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2017.06.049

Influence of cyclic softening on high temperature material properties in Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel

Onizawa, Takashi; Nagae, Yuji; Kato, Shoichi; Wakai, Takashi

Zairyo, 66(2), p.122 - 129, 2017/02

https://doi.org/10.2472/jsms.66.122

The applicability of Modified 9Cr-1Mo steel (ASME Grade 91 steel) as the main structural material in advanced loop-type sodium cooled fast reactor has been explored to enhance the safety, the credibility and the economic competitiveness of fast reactor plants. It is well-known that the steel exhibits cyclic softening behavior. Decrease of tensile and creep strength in softened materials has been already reported by other researchers. This paper discusses the relationship between cyclic softening conditions and high temperature material properties. Grade 91 steel was softened by repeat of plastic strain. The softening behavior could be evaluated by the index of the softening rate. Decrease of tensile and creep strength in softened materials can be evaluated by the softening rate and it depends on the cyclic softening conditions.

Study on crystalline rock aiming at evaluation method of long-term behavior of rock mass; FY2014 (Contract research)

Fukui, Katsunori*; Hashiba, Kimihiro*; Sato, Toshinori; Kuwabara, Kazumichi; Takayama, Yusuke

JAEA-Research 2015-015, 61 Pages, 2015/11

JAEA-Research-2015-015.pdf:5.52MB

With respect to high-level radioactive waste disposal, knowledge of the long-term mechanical stability of shafts and galleries excavated in rock is required, not only during construction and operation but also over a period of thousands of years after closure. On the other hand, it is known that rock and the rock mass surrounding the disposal gallery shows time dependent behavior such as creep or the stress-relaxation. It becomes the issue in the stability evaluation of the disposal gallery to grasp the behavior. About this issue, we pushed forward research development. In the fiscal year of 2014, the creep test was continuously conducted and the total testing time exceeded 17 years. The testing equipment and procedure were examined to investigate the deformation, failure and time-dependency of rock under wet conditions and between room temperature and 100C. The long-term strength of rock under triaxial stress state was researched with the aid of laboratory testing results and in situ stress measurement.

Development of failure evaluation method for BWR lower head in severe accident, 2; Applicability evaluation of the FEM using uni-axial material data for multi-axial deformation analysis

Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kato, Hitoshi; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Yoshida, Hiroyuki

Proceedings of 23rd International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-23) (DVD-ROM), 5 Pages, 2015/05

For the evaluation of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) lower head rupture probably occurred during the severe accident in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants, JAEA is conducting the thermal-hydraulics / mechanical coupling analysis. In the mechanical analysis based on the finite element method (FEM), material property data previously obtained from uni-axial material tests are applied. The lower head of BWR such as Fukushima NPP, has complicated structure compared to PWR, with control rod guide tubes, stub tubes, etc., therefore the mechanical analyses need to treat multi-axial deformation of the materials. To perform such mechanical analysis, the applicability of the analytical model using uni-axial data for multi-axial deformation analysis must be validated. In this study, the internal pressure creep tests were performed because which can realize the multi-axial deformation condition. In addition, mechanical analyses were conducted and the analytical results were compared with the experimental data.

Study on crystalline rock aiming at evaluation method of long-term behavior of rock mass; FY2013 (Contract research)

Fukui, Katsunori*; Hashiba, Kimihiro*; Sato, Toshinori; Sanada, Hiroyuki; Kuwabara, Kazumichi

JAEA-Research 2014-020, 50 Pages, 2014/11

JAEA-Research-2014-020.pdf:2.8MB

On the radioactive waste disposal, the long-term mechanical stability of shafts and galleries excavated in rock is required. Therefore, it is very important to understand the time-dependent behavior of rock mass for evaluating long-term mechanical stability. The purpose of this study is determining the mechanisms of time-dependent behavior of rock mass by precise testing, observation and measurement in order to develop methods for evaluating long-term mechanical stability of a rock mass. This report describes the results of the activities in fiscal year 2013. In Chapter 1, we described the overview and background of this study. In Chapter 2, the results of a long-term creep test on Tage tuff, started in fiscal year 1997 are described. In Chapter 3, the result of organization and analysis for time-dependent behavior of crystalline rock was described. In Chapter 4, for the drafting of in-situ test plan, examination of the numerical analysis technique of rock mass was carried out.

JNC-JAERI united research report; A Study on degradation of structural materials under irradiation environment in nuclear reactors (Joint research)

Hoshiya, Taiji*; Ueno, Fumiyoshi; Takaya, Shigeru*; Nagae, Yuji*; Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Miwa, Yukio; Aoto, Kazumi*; Tsukada, Takashi; Abe, Yasuhiro*; Nakamura, Yasuo*; et al.

JAERI-Research 2004-016, 53 Pages, 2004/10

JAERI-Research-2004-016.pdf:22.07MB

Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) and Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) have started a JNC-JAERI united research program cooperatively in 2003, which has been aimed for efficient progress and synergistic effect on the research activities of both Institutes in order to lead the facing task of unification between JNC and JAERI. This study has been chosen one of the united research themes, and the purpose of it is to clarify damage mechanism of structural materials under irradiation, and then to develop the methods for damage evaluation and detection in earlier stage of progressing process of damage. In fiscal year 2003, magnetic flux density distribution (JNC) and micro-corrosion (JAERI) measurement apparatus were newly developed and equipped in Hot Facilities in two Institutes, respectively. These apparatus were designed and produced in consideration of radiation resistance and remote-controlled operation to equip in hot cells. We will start the study on neutron irradiation damage by employing the two apparatus as the next step.