TY - JOUR
T1 - Influence of different chemical elements on irradiation-induced hardening embrittlement of RPV steels
AU - Lambrecht, Marlies
AU - Malerba, Lorenzo
AU - Al Mazouzi, Abderrahim
A2 - Terentyev, Dmitry
N1 - Score = 10
PY - 2008/9/1
Y1 - 2008/9/1
N2 - Fe-Cu binary alloys are often used to mimic the behaviour of reactor pressure vessel steels. Their study allows identifying some of the defects responsible for irradiation-induced hardening. But recently the influence of manganese and nickel in low-Cu steels has been found to be important as well. In contrast with existing models found in the literature, which predict that hardening saturates after a certain dose, Fe alloys containing nickel and manganese irradiated in a material test reactor (BR2) show a continuous increase of hardening, up to doses equivalent to about 40 years of operation. Considerations based on positron annihilation spectroscopy analyses suggest that the main objects causing hardening in Cu-free alloys are most probably self-interstitial clusters decorated with manganese. In low-Cu reactor pressure vessel steels and in Fe-CuMnNi alloys, the main effect is still due to Cu-rich precipitates at low doses, but the role of manganese-related features becomes pre-dominant at higher doses.
AB - Fe-Cu binary alloys are often used to mimic the behaviour of reactor pressure vessel steels. Their study allows identifying some of the defects responsible for irradiation-induced hardening. But recently the influence of manganese and nickel in low-Cu steels has been found to be important as well. In contrast with existing models found in the literature, which predict that hardening saturates after a certain dose, Fe alloys containing nickel and manganese irradiated in a material test reactor (BR2) show a continuous increase of hardening, up to doses equivalent to about 40 years of operation. Considerations based on positron annihilation spectroscopy analyses suggest that the main objects causing hardening in Cu-free alloys are most probably self-interstitial clusters decorated with manganese. In low-Cu reactor pressure vessel steels and in Fe-CuMnNi alloys, the main effect is still due to Cu-rich precipitates at low doses, but the role of manganese-related features becomes pre-dominant at higher doses.
KW - hardening
KW - positron annihilation spectroscopy
KW - model alloys
UR - http://ecm.sckcen.be/OTCS/llisapi.dll/open/ezp_93311
UR - http://knowledgecentre.sckcen.be/so2/bibref/5413
U2 - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2008.06-030
DO - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2008.06-030
M3 - Article
SN - 0022-3115
VL - 378
SP - 282
EP - 290
JO - Journal of Nuclear Materials
JF - Journal of Nuclear Materials
IS - 3
ER -