Investigation of the hardening of neutron irradiated and thermally aged iron-copper alloys, on the basis of mechanical and magnetic relaxation phenomena

Boris Minov, Lorenzo Malerba

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    Abstract

    The life-time of RPV depends on its resistance against brittle fracture which is influenced by neutron irradiation induced damage during operation. The informations about microscopic properties of irradiation induced defect - in particular Cu-precipitates, their possible interaction with other defects and the full correlation with macroscopic mechanical properties are not yet established. The present work takes a place in an extensive study of the hardening (the main reason for embrittlement) which occurs in RPV steels due to the copper-precipitation. The effect of Cu-precipitation in the dislocation dynamics is studied by relaxation techniques. The results are related to the temperature dependent internal friction and magnetic after-effect spectra of pure Fe and Fe-Cu alloys, with a variety of Cu-precipitation stages, obtained by both thermal aging and neutron irradiation. These results are correlated with the results of the mechanical tests on the same samples.
    Original languageEnglish
    Awarding Institution
    • Universiteit Gent
    Supervisors/Advisors
    • Konstantinovic, Milan, Supervisor
    • Dupré, Luc, Supervisor, External person
    Place of PublicationGent, Belgium
    Publisher
    Print ISBNs978-90-8578-500-2
    StatePublished - Apr 2012

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