• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 1991

Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) pressure vessels are made of forged low alloy steel plates internally clad with an austenitic stainless steel by welding to improve anti-corrosion properties. They display a characteristic behavior of dissimilar metal weld interface during post weld heat treatment (PWHT) and service at high temperature and pressure. In this Study, Metallugical structure of weld interface of SA 508 Class 3 forged steel clad with 309L, Austenitic stainless steel after PWHT was investigated. To estimate the width of the carburized/decarburized bands quantitatively, a model for carbon diffusion was proposed and a theoretical equation was derived.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.125-130
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• 2008

Conventional plasma carburizing or nitriding for austenitic stainless steels results in a degradation of corrosion resistance. However, a low temperature plasma surface treatment can improve surface hardness without deteriorating the corrosion resistance. The 2-step low temperature plasma processes (the combined carburizing and post nitriding) offers the increase of both surface hardness and thickness of hardened layer and corrosion resistance than the individually processed low temperature nitriding and low temperature carburizing techniques. In the present paper, attempts have been made to investigate the influence of the introduction of Ar gas (0~20%) in nitriding atmosphere during low temperature plasma nitriding at $370^{\circ}C$ after low temperature plasma carburizing at $470^{\circ}C$. All treated specimens exhibited the increase of the surface hardness with increasing Ar level in the atmosphere and the surface hardness value reached up to 1050 HV0.1, greater than 750 $HV_{0.1}$ in the carburized state. The expanded austenite phase (${\gamma}_N$) was observed on the most of the treated surfaces. The thickness of the ${\gamma}_N$ layer reached about $7{\mu}m$ for the specimen treated in the nitriding atmosphere containing 20% Ar. In case of 10% Ar containing atmosphere, the corrosion resistance was significantly enhanced than untreated austenitic stainless steels, whilst 20% Ar level in the atmosphere caused to form CrN in the N-enriched layer (${\gamma}_N$), which led to the degradation of corrosion resistance compared with untreated austenitic stainless steels.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 1999.08a
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• pp.366-372
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• 1999

The deformation behavior of commercial stainless steels under hot rolling conditions was investigated by means of hot compression tests performed in the temperature range 800$^{\circ}C$ to 1200$^{\circ}C$. The measured flow stress-strain curves were analyzed by using a simple flow stress model. It was found that the reference strength of stainless steels are much higher than that of carbon steel and that nitrogen and molybdenum alloying greatly increases flow stress of austenitic stainless steel. Ferritic and duplex stainless steel showed comparatively low flow stresses. The flow stress model, which correlates the flow stress with temperature and strain rate, was applied to predict roll forces during hot-plate rolling of stainless steels.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.193-205
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• 2011

Because of its rustproof property, stainless steel is widely used in kitchen appliances, building materials, electronics, chemical plants and automobile exhausts. In addition, the utilization of stainless steel for fuel cell application is growing. As the demand for this material increases, it is necessary to study the basic properties of stainless steel such as corrosion resistance, heat transfer, formability, cutting or shearing ability and weldability. In this article, the mechanical properties, formability and press forming performance of stainless steel are reviewed. Since temperature and strain rate affect the press forming performance of STS304(austenitic) stainless steel, the influence of these parameters on the plastic behavior should be investigated. Moreover, measures for the prevention of ridging of STS430(ferritic) and delayed fracture of STS430, which respectively appear during and after press forming, should be considered. Recently, stainless steel sheets with a thickness lower than 0.2 mm have been widely used in applications for mobile phone, digital camera and fuel cell separator. Therefore, there is a growing interest of studying the grain size effect and plasticity at the crystal scale in order to understand the anisotropic behavior and micro forming ability of thin sheets. This review paper was written with the objective of helping engineers and researchers to understand the forming characteristics of stainless steel and to establish standards in plastic forming techniques.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.183-192
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• 2018

Stainless steel can be classified into three categories depending on the microstructure as austenitic stainless steel, ferritic stainless steel and martensitic stainless steel. Generally, stainless steel is extremely resistant to corrosion as the name implies. However, under specific environments, susceptibility to localized corrosion such as pitting, intergranular corrosion and stress corrosion cracking increases. This paper reviewed the state of arts on intergranular corrosion mechanisms, countermeasures on intergranular corrosion and intergranular corrosion test methods. Intergranular corrosion is mostly related with chromium depletion at the grain boundary and sometimes with segregation of electroactive elements in solution annealed stainless steel. Countermeasures on intergranular corrosion include avoiding chromium depletion by heat treatment and the addition of alloying elements. Sensitization evaluation of stainless steel was performed either through acid immersion test or electrochemical test. The methods were standardized in (Japanese Industrial Standards). Even though are useful in evaluating the degree of sensitization for industrial purpose but do not provide detailed information about sensitization mechanism, cause and chromium profile.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.244-254
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• 2022

For tensile tests, Vickers hardness tests and microstructure tests, plate-type and box-type specimens of austenitic 316L stainless steels were produced by a conventional machining (CM) process as well as two additive manufacturing processes such as direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) and direct metal tooling (DMT). The specimens were irradiated up to a fast neutron fluence of 3.3 × 10⁹ n/cm² at a neutron irradiation facility. Mechanical performance of the unirradiated and irradiated specimens were investigated at room temperature and 300 ℃, respectively. The tensile strengths of the DMLS, DMT and CM 316L specimens are in descending order but the elongations are in reverse order, regardless of irradiation and temperature. The ratio of Vickers hardness to ultimate tensile strength was derived to be between 3.21 and 4.01. The additive manufacturing processes exhibit suitable mechanical performance, comparing the tensile strengths and elongations of the conventional machining process.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.203-210
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• 2020

The corrosion behavior of super austenitic stainless steel was studied by examining the characteristics of the sigma phase formed in the steel. A range of experimental and analytical methods was employed, including potentiodynamic polarization tests, critical pitting temperature tests, transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. Three steel samples with different sigma phase levels were obtained by intentionally adjusting the manufacturing process. The results showed that the corrosion resistance of the samples was strongly dependent upon the size and distribution of the sigma phase precipitated in the samples. The larger the size of the sigma phase, the higher the Mo content in the sigma phase and the higher the depletion level of Mo at the interface between the matrix/sigma phase, the more samples with a coarse-sized sigma phase were susceptible to localized pitting corrosion at the interface. These results suggest that various manufacturing processes, such as welding and the post-heat treatment of the steel, should be optimized so that both the size and fraction of the sigma phase precipitated in the steel are small to improve the resistance to localized corrosion.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.19-30
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• 2017

Austenitic Stainless Steels (ASSs) are widely used as structural materials in the pressurized water reactors (PWRs) because of their superior mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. However, it is well known that ASSs are susceptible to the environmental assisted cracking (EAC) such as environmental assisted fatigue (EAF) during the long term operation. There have been extensive tests and researches to understand the extent and the mechanisms of environmental effects. In this paper, the world-wide EAF test results of ASSs are introduced including those of Korean test programs. The suggested EAF mechanisms of ASSs are also discussed. Finally, the areas of further research to resolve the issue of EAF are suggested.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.281-285
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• 2008

Ferritic stainless steel is used for parts of exhaust system of commercial vehicle, because it has such advantages as low price and high corrosion resistant compared with austenite stainless steel. Even though ferritic stainless steel has these merits, to manufacture multi-layer bellows with complex geometry, austenite stainless steel is being used in the industry, because of it's high ductility. However, recently, the mechanical property of the ferritic stainless is getting improved and alternating austenitic stainless steel. In this paper, the possibility of mass production of bellows made of ferritic stainless steel like MH1 and 443CT is studied. Tensile test and ridging test are carried out to observe mechanical properties of STS304, MH1 and 443CT. Forming analysis using FEM is performed to investigate plastic strain during forming process. Prototype bellows has been made using STS304, MH1 and 443CT, respectively, and fatigue tests are carried out to evaluate fatigue life of bellows.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.60-65
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• 2011

A low temperature plasma carburizing process was performed on AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel to achieve an enhancement of the surface hardness without degradation of its corrosion resistance. Attempts were made to investigate the influence of the processing temperatures on the surface hardened layer during low temperature plasma carburizing in order to obtain the optimum processing conditions. The expanded austenite (${\gamma}_c$) phase, which contains a high saturation of carbon (S phase), was formed on all of the treated surfaces. Precipitates of chromium carbides were detected in the hardened layer (C-enriched layer) only for the specimen treated at $550^{\circ}C$. The hardened layer thickness of ${\gamma}_c$ increased up to about $65{\mu}m$ with increasing treatment temperature. The surface hardness reached about 900 $HK_{0.05}$, which is about 4 times higher than that of the untreated sample (250 $HK_{0.05}$). A minor loss in corrosion resistance was observed for the specimens treated at temperatures of $300^{\circ}C{\sim}450^{\circ}C$ compared with untreated austenitic stainless steel. In particular, the precipitation of chromium carbides at $550^{\circ}C$ led to a significant decrease in the corrosion resistance. A diamond-like carbon (DLC) film coating was applied to improve the wear and friction properties of the S phase layer. The DLC film showed a low and stable friction coefficient value of about 0.1 compared with that of the carburized surface (about 0.45). The hardness and corrosion resistance of the S phase layer were further improved by the application of such a DLC film.