Nondestructive investigation of neutron irradiation generated structural changes of reactor steel material by magnetic hysteresis method

Gábor Vértesy, Antal Gasparics, Inge Uytdenhouwen, Ildikó Szenthe, Ferenc Gillemot, Rachid Chaouadi

    Research outputpeer-review

    Abstract

    The neutron irradiation embrittlement of four dierent types of nuclear pressure vessel materials (three base metals and one weld material) were investigated by a magnetic nondestructive testing method, magnetic adaptive testing (MAT). The method is based on the measurement of minor magnetic hysteresis loops on Charpy specimens irradiated by neutrons in the BR2 reactor. Due to the neutron irradiation, the structure of the material was modified. The Charpy impact method is suitable for destructive characterization of material embrittlement. The results of Charpy impact test measurements at SCK CEN Belgian Nuclear Research Centre were compared with the nondestructively measured magnetic parameters. A definite correlation was found between magnetic descriptors and the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT), regardless of the type of material or irradiation condition. The results suggest that this “calibration curve“ can be used to estimate the DBTT from non-destructive measurements.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number642
    Pages (from-to)1-11
    Number of pages11
    JournalMetals
    Volume10
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 15 May 2020

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