• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.12 no.10
• /
• pp.776-783
• /
• 2002

Austenitic stainless steel (STS304) has been carburized using glow discharge plasma and its microstructure, wear resistance and corrosion property have been investigated. A repeat boost-diffuse carburizing was used as an effective plasma carburizing method. The effective case depth of the plasma carburized specimens was increased with the carbon concentration at the surface area. The specimens prepared by 3 hours plasma carburizing under $600^{\circ}C$ did not have the standard hardness for the effective case depth, but the specimen prepared by 11 hours plasma carburizing at $500^{\circ}C$ had nearly the same hardness with the specimen plasma carburized for 3 hours at $800^{\circ}C$. The wear resistance increased with temperature but the corrosion properties of the specimens prepared over $600^{\circ}C$ decreased rapidly due to the grain boundary sensitization. However, the specimen plasma carburized for 11 hours at $500^{\circ}C$ had nearly the same wear resistance with the specimen plasma carburized for 3 hours at $800^{\circ}C$ without deterioration of corrosion property. This could be resulted from the fact that the microstructure of the specimen plasma carburized for 11 hours at $500^{\circ}C$ was composed of martensite and austenite, because a partial martensite transformation was occurred only in the specimen plasma carburized for 11 hours at 50$0^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.55-60
• /
• 2012

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of the deformation temperature in high manganese austenitic stainless steel. ${\alpha}$'-martensite was formed with a specific direction by deformation. The volume fraction of the deformation induced martensite was increased by increasing the degree of deformation and decreasing the deformation temperature. With the increase in the deformation, the hardness and tensile strength were increased, while the elongation was rapidly decreased at the initial stage of the deformation, and then gradually decreased. The hardness and tensile strength were increased and the elongation was decreased with adecrease in the deformation temperature. The hardness and tensile strength were strongly controlled by the volume fraction of martensite, but the elongation was controlled by the transformation behavior of the deformation induced martensite.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.38 no.7
• /
• pp.809-815
• /
• 2014

The induction heating bending process, which has been recently applied to nuclear piping, can generate residual stresses due to thermomechanical mechanism during the process. This residual stress is one of the crack driving forces that have important effects on crack initiation and propagation. However, previous studies have focused only on geometric shape variations such as the change in thickness and ovality. Moreover, very few studies are available on the effects of process variables on residual stresses. This study investigated the effects of process variables on the residual stress distributions of induction heating bended austenitic stainless steel (316 series) piping using parametric finite element analysis. The results indicated that the heat generation rate and feed velocity have significant effects on the residual stresses whereas the moment and bending angle have insignificant effects.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.3 no.3 s.8
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 1999

Three-point bending fatigue properties of austenitic 304 stainless steel sheets were investigated at room temperature and LNG temperature($-162^{\circ}C$) in the strain range from 0.43 to $1.7\%$. The fatigue properties at $-162^{\circ}C$ were superior to those at room temperature due to the higher volume fractions of deformation-induced martensite. The cyclic hardening behavior owing to the deformation- induced martensite transformation was detected in both specimens. In room temperature testing, the mean load amplitude increased steadily with cycles, meaning that cumulative plastic incubation strain was required for martensite transformation. On the contrary, in $-162^{\circ}C$ tested specimen, the mean load amplitude increased rapidly within a few cycles due to the rapid transformation of martensite, and slightly decreased after the maximum is reached probably due to dynamic recovery.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.52 no.4
• /
• pp.194-202
• /
• 2019

A systematic investigation was made on the influence of processing parameters such as gas composition and treatment temperature on the surface characteristics of hardened layers of low temperature plasma nitrided 316L Austenitic Stainless Steel. Various nitriding processes were conducted by changing temperature ($370^{\circ}C$ to $430^{\circ}C$) and changing $N_2$ percentage (10% to 25%) for 15 hours in the glow discharge environment of a gas mixture of $N_2$ and $H_2$ in a plasma nitriding system. In this process a constant pressure of 4 Torr was maintained. Increasing nitriding temperature from $370^{\circ}C$ to $430^{\circ}C$, increases the thickness of S phase layer and the surface hardness, and also makes an improvement in corrosion resistance, irrespective of nitrogen percent. On the other hand, increasing nitrogen percent from 10% to 25% at $430^{\circ}C$ decreases corrosion resistance although it increases the surface hardness and the thickness of S phase layer. Therefore, optimized condition was selected as nitriding temperature of $430^{\circ}C$ with 10% nitrogen, as at this condition, the treated sample showed better corrosion resistance. Moreover to further increase the thickness of S phase layer and surface hardness without compromising the corrosion behavior, further research was conducted by fixing the $N_2$ content at 10% with introducing various amount of $CH_4$ content from 0% to 5% in the nitriding atmosphere. The best treatment condition was determined as 10% $N_2$ and 5% $CH_4$ content at $430^{\circ}C$, where the thickness of S phase layer of about $17{\mu}m$ and a surface hardness of $980HV_{0.1}$ were obtained (before treatment $250HV_{0.1}$ hardness). This specimen also showed much higher pitting potential, i.e. better corrosion resistance, than specimens treated at different process conditions and the untreated one.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.39-52
• /
• 1990

The research is to insure the soundness of the stainless steel overlaid weld metal(21/4Cr-IMo steel + SUS 309L) for a pressure vessel application. Detail studies were conducted for the PWHT influence on the micrstructure and intergranular corrosion characteristics of the overlaid weld metal as well as initiation of hydrogen embrittlement crack(or Disbonding) when welded metal are exposed to the hydrogen atmosphere. Hydrogen was experimentally charged to the overlaid weld metal in order to study PWHT effect on the susceptibility of hydrogen embrittlement crack. The results of this research are as follows: 1. At the bond region, austenite grain of the stainless steel side became coarsed and Cr23C6 type carbide was precipitated at the coarsed austenitic grain boundaries. Intergranular Corrosion width(by Straiss test) increased with increasing PWHT temperature and PWHT time.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.250-254
• /
• 2002

Intergranular corrosion of austenitic stainless steels is a conventional and momentous problem during welding and high temperature use. One of the major reasons for such intergranular corrosion is so-called sensitization, i.e., chromium depletion due to chromium carbide precipitation at grain boundaries. Conventional methods for preventing sensitization of austenitic stainless steels include reduction of carbon content in the material, stabilization of carbon atoms as non-chromium carbides by the addition of titanium, niobium or zirconium, local solution-heat-treatment by laser beam, etc. These methods, however, are not without drawbacks. Recent grain boundary structure studies have demonstrated that grain boundary phenomena strongly depend on the crystallographic nature and atomic structure of the grain boundary, and that grain boundaries with coincidence site lattices are immune to intergranular corrosion. The concept of "grain boundary design and control", which involves a desirable grain boundary character distribution, has been developed as grain boundary engineering. The feasibility of grain boundary engineering has been demonstrated mainly by thermomechanical treatments. In the present study, a thermomechanical treatment was tried to improve the resistance to the sensitization by grain boundary engineering. A type 304 austenitic stainless steel was pre-strained and heat-treated, and then sensitized, varying the parameters (pre-strain, temperature, time, etc.) during the thermomechanical treatment. The grain boundary character distribution was examined by orientation imaging microscopy. The intergranular corrosion resistance was evaluated by electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation and ferric sulfate-sulfuric acid tests. The sensitivity to intergranular corrosion was reduced by the thermomechanical treatment and indicated a minimum at a small roll-reduction. The frequency of coincidence-site-lattice boundaries indicated a maximum at a small strain. The ferric sulfate-sulfuric acid test showed much smaller corrosion rate in the thermomechanically-treated specimen than in the base material. An excellent intergranular corrosion resistance was obtained by a small strain annealing at a relatively low temperature for long time. The optimum parameters created a uniform distribution of a high frequency of coincidence site lattice boundaries in the specimen where corrosive random boundaries were isolated. The results suggest that the thermomechanical treatment can introduce low energy segments in the grain boundary network by annealing twins and can arrest the percolation of intergranular corrosion from the surface.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.11
• /
• pp.2552-2564
• /
• 2020

The crevice stress corrosion cracking (SCC) susceptibility of austenitic stainless steels was evaluated in simulated pressurized water reactor (PWR) environments. To simulate the abnormal condition in temporary clamping devices on leaking small bore pipes, crevice bent beam (CBB) tests were performed in the oxygenated as well as hydrogenated conditions. No SCC cracks were found for SS316 in both conditions. SS304 also showed good resistance in the hydrogenated condition. However, all SS304 specimens showed SCC cracks in the oxygenated condition, indicating poor crevice SCC resistance. It was found that residual ferrites were selectively dissolved because of the galvanic corrosion coupled with the neigh-bouring austenite phase, resulting in SCC initiation in SS304. Crack morphologies were mostly transgranular assisted by the damaged δ-ferrite and deformation-induced slip bands.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.2
• /
• pp.709-731
• /
• 2022

Loss of fracture resistance due to thermal aging degradation is a potential limiting factor affecting the long-term (80+ year) viability of nuclear reactors. To evaluate the effects of decades of aging in a practical time frame, accelerated aging must be employed prior to mechanical characterization. In this study, a variety of chemically and microstructurally diverse austenitic stainless steels were aged between 0 and 30,000 h at 290-400 ℃ to simulate 0-80+ years of operation. Over 600 static fracture tests were carried out between room temperature and 400 ℃. The results presented include selected J-R curves of each material as well as K_0.2mm fracture toughness values mapped against aging condition and ferrite content in order to display any trends related to those variables. Results regarding differences in processing, optimal ferrite content under light aging, and the relationship between test temperature and Mo content were observed. Overall, it was found that both the ferrite volume fraction and molybdenum content had significant effects on thermal degradation susceptibility. It was determined that materials with >25 vol% ferrite are unlikely to be viable for 80 years, particularly if they have high Mo contents (>2 wt%), while materials less than 15 vol% ferrite are viable regardless of Mo content.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.48 no.6
• /
• pp.269-274
• /
• 2015

In this experiment, post-nitriding treatment was performed at $400^{\circ}C$ on AISI 316 stainless steel which was plasma carburized previously at $430^{\circ}C$ for 15 hours. Plasma nitriding was implemented on AISI 316 stainless steel at various gas compositions (25% $N_2$, 50% $N_2$ and 75% $N_2$) for 4 hours. Additionally, during post nitriding Ar gas was used with $H_2$ and $N_2$ to observe the improvement of surface properties. After treatment, the behavior of the hybrid layer was investigated by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and micro-hardness testing. Potentiodynamic polarization test was also used to evaluate the corrosion resistance of the samples. Meanwhile, it was found that the surface hardness increased with increasing the nitrogen gas content. Also small percentage of Ar gas was introduced in the post nitriding process which improved the hardness of the hardened layer but reduced the corrosion resistance compared with the carburized sample. The experiment revealed that AISI 316L stainless steel showed better hardness and excellent corrosion resistance compared with the carburized sample, when 75% $N_2$ gas was used during the post nitriding treatment. Also addition of Ar gas during post nitriding treatment degraded the corrosion resistance of the sample compared with the carburized sample.