Effects of Thermal Aging on the Fracture Characteristic in the Dissimilar Welds

CF8M과 SA508 용접재의 열화에 따른 파괴특성 평가

In a primary reactor cooling system(RCS), a dissimilar weld zone exists between cast stainless steel(CF8M) in a pipe and low-alloy steel(SA508 cl.3) in a nozzle. Thermal aging is observed in CF8M as the RCS is exposed for a long period of time to a reactor operating temperature between 290 and $330^{\circ}C$, while no effect is observed in SA508 cl.3. The specimens are prepared by an artificially accelerated aging technique maintained for 300, 1800 and 3600 hrs at $430^{\circ}C$, respectively. The specimens for elastic-plastic fracture toughness tests are prepared one type, which notch is created in the heat affected zone(HAZ) of CF8M. And, the specimens for fatigue crack growth tests are prepared in three classes, which notches are created at the center of deposited zone, the HAZ of CF8M, and the HAZ of SA508 cl.3. From the experiments, the J-integral values with the increase of aging time decrease, and the differences of the fatigue crack growth behaviors are relatively small in the three classes specimens.