Embrittlement Phenomenon of China Low Activation Martensitic Steel in Liquid Pb-Bi

doi:10.11900/0412.1961.2016.00576

Acta Metall Sin

2017, Vol. 53

Issue (5): 513-523 DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2016.00576

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Embrittlement Phenomenon of China Low Activation Martensitic Steel in Liquid Pb-Bi

Xu YANG^1,²,Bo LIAO¹,Jian LIU²,Wei YAN²,Yiyin SHAN²,Furen XIAO¹,Ke YANG²(

)

1 College of Materials Science and Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
2 Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016,China

Cite this article:

Xu YANG, Bo LIAO, Jian LIU, Wei YAN, Yiyin SHAN, Furen XIAO, Ke YANG. Embrittlement Phenomenon of China Low Activation Martensitic Steel in Liquid Pb-Bi. Acta Metall Sin, 2017, 53(5): 513-523.

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Abstract

China low activation martensitic (CLAM) steel has been considered as the primary candidate structural material for application in fusion systems because of its good thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion ratio. In this work, the tensile behavior of the CLAM steel in liquid lead-bismuth eutectic was investigated to assess the compatibility of CLAM steel with liquid metal. The CLAM steel was tempered before test. The tensile tests were performed in liquid lead-bismuth eutectic and argon gas respectively at different temperatures ranging from 200 ℃ to 500 ℃ under different strain rates. All the specimens ruptured in ductile manner in argon gas environment, exhibiting obvious necking and dimples on the fracture surface. For those tested in liquid lead-bismuth eutectic, the specimens behaved ductile fracture when the test temperature was below 250 ℃, but fractured in brittle cleavage manner in the temperature range of 300~450 ℃. The embrittlement mainly occurred after necking, showing typical river pattern on the fracture surface with slight necking trace, and obvious cracking points were observed to initiate at the fracture edge and propagated towards the center of the specimen, namely, the appearance of the ductility trough that shows significant degradation in total elongation while no noticeable differences in strength compared with the tested specimens in argon gas environment. Furthermore, the brittle fracture disappeared and total elongation recovered when the tensile tests were performed out of the embrittlement temperature range. In slower strain rate tensile (SSRT) tests, the temperature range of the ductility trough greatly expanded and brittle fracture occurred at temperatures below 250 ℃. The results indicate that CLAM steel is susceptible to embrittlement in liquid lead-bismuth eutectic. This is because the contact of the liquid metal with the cracking tip leads to a decrease of the interfacial energy, which further reduces the critical cleavage stress and facilitates the brittle fracture. Both temperature and strain rate are evidenced in this work to have an effect on the embrittlement of CLAM steel.

Key words: CLAM steel liquid metal embrittlement Pb-Bi eutectic temperature strain rate

Received: 27 December 2016

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	Xu YANG
	Bo LIAO
	Jian LIU
	Wei YAN
	Yiyin SHAN
	Furen XIAO
	Ke YANG

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https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2016.00576 OR https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2017/V53/I5/513

Fig.1 Schematic of tensile set-up in static lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE)

Fig.2 Tensile curves of China low activation martensitic (CLAM) steel in Ar and LBE under tensile strain rate of 0.15 mm/min at 250 ℃ (a), 300 ℃ (b), 400 ℃ (c) and 500 ℃ (d)

Fig.3 Tensile curves of CLAM steel in Ar and LBE under tensile strain rate of 0.015 mm/min at 200 ℃ (a), 250 ℃ (b), 450 ℃ (c) and 500 ℃ (d)

Fig.4 Variations of strength of CLAM steel in Ar and LBE under different tensile rates of 0.15 mm/min (a) and 0.015 mm/min (b) (σ_s—yield strength, σ_b—ultimate tensile strength)

Fig.5 Variations of total elongation of CLAM steel in Ar and LBE under different tensile rates of 0.15 mm/min (a) and 0.015 mm/min (b) (δ— total elongation)

Fig.6 Macro (a, c, e, g) and micro (b, d, f, h) tensile fracture SEM images of CLAM steel in Ar under strain rate of 0.15 mm/min at 250 ℃ (a, b), 300 ℃ (c, d), 400 ℃ (e, f) and 500 ℃ (g, h)

Fig.7 Macro (a, c, e, g) and micro (b, d, f, h) tensile fracture SEM images of CLAM steel in LBE under strain rate of 0.15 mm/min at 250 ℃ (a, b), 300 ℃ (c, d), 400 ℃ (e, f) and 500 ℃ (g, h)

Fig.8 Macro (a, c, e, g) and micro (b, d, f, h) tensile fracture SEM images of CLAM steel in Ar under strain rate of 0.015 mm/min at 200 ℃ (a, b), 250 ℃ (c, d), 450 ℃ (e, f) and 500 ℃ (g, h)

Fig.9 Macro (a, c, e, g) and micro (b, d, f, h) tensile fracture SEM images of CLAM steel in LBE under strain rate of 0.015 mm/min at 200 ℃ (a, b), 250 ℃ (c, d), 450 ℃ (e, f) and 500 ℃ (g, h)

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