• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.80-99
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• 2023

This paper presents the results of investigating the change in welding residual stresses of the core shroud, which is one of subcomponents in reactor vessel internals, performing finite element analysis. First, the welding residual stresses of the core shroud were calculated by applying the heat conduction based lumped pass technique and finite element elastic-plastic stress analysis. Second, the temperature distribution of the core shroud during the normal operation was calculated by performing finite element temperature analysis considering gamma heating. Third, through the finite element viscoelastic-plastic stress analysis using the calculated temperature distribution and setting the calculated residual stresses as the initial stress state, the variation of the welding residual stresses was derived according to repeating the normal operation. In the viscoelastic-plastic stress analysis, the effects of neutron irradiation on mechanical properties during the cyclic normal operations were considered by using the previously developed user subroutines for the irradiation agings such as irradiation hardening/embrittlement, irradiation-induced creep, and void swelling. Finally, the effect of neutron irradiation on the welding residual stresses was analysed for each irradiation aging. As a result, it is found that as the normal operation is repeated, the welding residual stresses decrease and show insignificant magnitudes after the 10^th refueling cycle. In addition, the irradiation-induced creep/void swelling has significant mitigation effect on the residual stresses whereas the irradiation hardening/embrittlement has no effect on those.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.2071-2078
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• 2024

The precipitation of solutes is a major cause of irradiation hardening and embrittlement limiting the service life of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels. Impurities play a significant role in the formation of precipitation in RPV materials. In this study, the effects of carbon on cluster formation and irradiation hardening were investigated in an RPV alloy Fe-1.35Mn-0.75Ni using C and Fe ions irradiation at 290 ℃. Nanoindentation results showed that C ion irradiation led to less hardening below 1.0 dpa, with hardening continuing to increase gradually at higher doses, while it was saturated under Fe ion irradiation. Atom probe tomography revealed a broad size distribution of Ni-Mn clusters under Fe ion irradiation, contrasting a narrower size distribution of small Ni-Mn clusters under C ion irradiation. Further analysis indicated the influence of carbon on the cluster formation, with solute-precipitated defects dominating under C ion irradiation but interstitial clusters dominating under Fe ion irradiation. Simulations suggested that carbon significantly affected solute nucleation, with defect clusters displaying smaller size and higher density as carbon concentration increased. The higher hardening at doses above 1.0 dpa was attributed to a substantial increase in the number density of defect clusters when carbon was present in the matrix.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.188-195
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• 2002

To investigate the degradation of mechanical properties induced mainly by neutron irradiation, the tensile tests were conducted from room temperature to 300\\`c using the irradiated and the unirradiated Zr-2.5Nb pressure tube materials. The irradiated longitudinal and transverse specimens were collected from the coolant inlet, middle, and outlet parts of M-11 tube which had been operated in Wolsung CANDU Unit-1 and exposed to different operating temperatures and irradiation fluences. The different tensile behavior was characterized not by the fluences of irradiation but by the tensile loading direction. The transverse specimen showed the higher strength and lower elongation than those of the longitudinal one. It was believed that these phenomena resulted from the microstructure anisotropy caused by the extrusion process. The increased strength hardening and decreased elongation embrittlement of the irradiated material were compard to those of the unirradiated one. While the tensile strength of the inlet was higher than that of the outlet, the elongation of the inlet was lower than that of outlet. Considering the operation condition, it was proposed that the operating temperature could be a more effective parameter than the irradiation fluence for long-time life. Through the TEM observation, it was found that while the a-type dislocation density was increased, the c-type dislocation was not changed in the irradiated. The fact that the higher dislocation density was sequentially distributed over the inlet, the middle, and the outlet parts was consistent with the distribution of the tensile strength.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.7
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• pp.619-638
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• 2006

Low temperature irradiation can significantly harden metallic materials and often lead to strain localization and ductility loss in deformation. This paper provides a review on the radiation effects on the deformation of metallic materials, focusing on microscopic and macroscopic strain localization phenomena. The types of microscopic strain localization often observed in irradiated materials are dislocation channeling and deformation twinning, in which dislocation glides are evenly distributed and well confined in the narrow bands, usually a fraction of a micron wide. Dislocation channeling is a common strain localization mechanism observed virtually in all irradiated metallic materials with ductility, while deformation twinning is an alternative localization mechanism occurring only in low stacking fault energy(SFE) materials. In some high stacking fault energy materials where cross slip is easy, curved and widening channels can be formed depending on dose and stress state. Irradiation also prompts macroscopic strain localization (or plastic instability). It is shown that the plastic instability stress and true fracture stress are nearly independent of irradiation dose if there is no radiation-induced phase change or embrittlement. A newly proposed plastic Instability criterion is that the metals after irradiation show necking at yield when the yield stress exceeds the dose-independent plastic instability stress. There is no evident relationship between the microscopic and macroscopic strain localizations; which is explained by the long-range back-stress hardening. It is proposed that the microscopic strain localization is a generalized phenomenon occurring at high stress.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.405-410
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• 2006

Microstructural features and their related mechanical property changes in the 309L cladding and the heat affected zone (HAZ) of SA508 cl.3 steel were investigated through the use of TEM, tensile and small punch (SP) tests. The specimens were irradiated at 563 K up to the neutron fluences of $5.79{\times}10^{19}n/cm^2$ (>1MeV). The microstructure of the clad was mainly composed of a fcc ${\gamma}-phase$, a low percentage of bcc ${\delta}-ferrite$, and a brittle ${\sigma}-phase$. Along the weld fusion line there formed a heavy carbide precipitation with a width of $20{\sim}40{\mu}m$, showing preferential cracking during plastic deformation. The yield stress and ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) of the irradiated clads increased. The origin of the hardening and the shift of the DBTT are discussed in terms of the irradiation-produced defect clusters of a fine size and brittle ${\sigma}-phase$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 2014

In this work, an integrated model including molecular dynamics and chemical rate theory was implemented to calculate the growth of point defect clusters(PDC) and copper-rich precipitates(CRP) which could change the mechanical properties of reactor pressure vessel(RPV) steels in a nuclear power plant. A number of time-dependent differential equations were established and numerically integrated to estimate the evolution of irradiation defects. The calculation showed that the concentration of the vacancies was higher than that of the self-interstitial atoms. The higher concentration of vacancies induced a formation of the CRPs in the later stage. The size of the CRPs was used to estimate the mechanical property changes in RPV steels, as is the same case with the PDCs. The calculation results were compared with the measured values of yield strength change and Charpy V-notch transition temperature shift, which were obtained from the surveillance test data of Korean light water reactors(LWRs). The estimated values were in fair agreement with the experimental results in spite of the uncertainty of the modeling parameters.