• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.100-106
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• 2014

There is a growing need to introduce advanced pressure vessel steels with higher strength and toughness for the optimizatiooCn of the design and construction of longer life and larger capacity nuclear power plants. SA508 Gr.4N Ni-Cr-Mo low alloy steels have superior strength and fracture toughness, compared to SA508 Gr.3 Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel. Therefore, the application of SA508 Gr.4N low alloy steel could be considered to satisfy the strength and toughness required in advanced nuclear power plants. The purpose of this study is to characterize the microstructure and mechanical properties of SA508 Gr.4N low alloy steels. 1 ton ingot of SA508 Gr.4N model alloy was fabricated by vacuum induction melting followed by forging, quenching, and tempering. The predominant microstructure of the SA508 Gr.4N model alloy is tempered martensite having small packet and fine Cr-rich carbides. The yield strength at room temperature was 540MPa, and it was decreased with an increase of test temperature while DSA phenomenon occurred at around $288^{\circ}C$. Overall transition property of SA508 Gr.4N model alloy was much better than SA508 Gr.3 low alloy steel. The index temperature, $T_{41J}$, of SA508 Gr.4N model alloy was $-132^{\circ}C$ in Charpy impact tests, and reference nil-ductility transition temperature, $RT_{NDT}$ of $-105^{\circ}C$ was obtained from drop weight tests. From the fracture toughness tests performed in accordance with the ASTM standard E1921 Master curve method, the reference temperature, $T_0$ was $-147^{\circ}C$, which was improved more than $60^{\circ}C$ compared to SA508 Gr.3 low alloy steels.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.121-125
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• 2012

The large forgings used in chemical plants or nuclear power plants are produced by complex heat treatment. because of thickness up to 200~300 mm and weight up to 200~300 ton, setting proper heat treatment cycle is so difficult. In addition, defects of products make companies wasting large money and valuable time. In this study, to reduce try & err, when setting heat treatment of reactor pressure vessel steel SA508Gr.3, carrying out the basic mechanical property test of SA508 Gr.3 and testing hardness of SA508Gr.3 in various tempering temperature. and calculating temper curve with Hollomon-Jaffe parameter.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.292.1-292
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• 2002

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.120-128
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• 2012

The fatigue crack growth behaviors of SA508 Gr.3 Cl.2 low alloy steel in high temperature water environment were investigated. Overall, weld metal showed similar crack growth rate as that of base metal. At 0.01 Hz, fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) was higher than that in air while the difference was smaller at 0.1 Hz. Also, FCGR showed ${\Delta}K$ dependency at 0.1 Hz only, indicating that the environmental effect was much greater at slower loading frequency of 0.01 Hz. FCGR of SA508 Gr.3 Cl.2 low alloy steel was compatible to or smaller than the ASME Sec. XI fatigue reference curves in high temperature water environment.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.122-132
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• 2010

Higher strength and fracture toughness of reactor pressure vessel steels can be obtained by changing the material specification from that of Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel (SA508 Gr.3) to Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel (SA508 Gr.4N). However, the operation temperature of the reactor pressure vessel is more than $300^{\circ}C$ and the reactor operates for over 40 years. Therefore, we need to have phase stability in the high temperature range in order to apply the SA508 Gr.4N low alloy steel for a reactor pressure vessel. It is very important to evaluate the temper embrittlement phenomena of SA508 Gr.4N for an RPV application. In this study, we have performed a Charpy impact test and tensile test of SA508 Gr.4N low alloy steel with changing impurity element contents such as Mn and P. And also, the mechanical properties of these low alloy steels after longterm heat treatment ($450^{\circ}C$, 2000hr) are evaluated. Further, evaluation of the temper embrittlement by fracture analysis was carried out. Temper embrittlement occurs in KL4-Ref and KL4-P, which show a decrease of the elongation and a shifting of the transition curve toward high temperature. The reason for the temper embrittlement is the grain boundary segregation of the impurity element P and the alloying element Ni. However, KL4-Ref shows temper embrittlement phenomena despite the same contents of P and Ni compared with SC-KL4. This result may be caused by the Mn contents. In addition, the behavior of embrittlement is not largely affected by the formation of $M_3P$ phosphide or the coarsening of Cr carbides.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.139-146
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• 2009

The heat-affected zone (HAZ) of SA508 Gr.4N Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel, which has higher Ni and Cr contents than SA508 Gr.3 Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel, was investigated on the microstructure and mechanical properties. The HAZ was categorized into seven characteristic zones (CGCG, FGCG, ICCG, SCCG, FGFG, ICIC and SCSC-HAZ) according to the peak temperature from the thermal cycle experienced during multi-pass welding. Post Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) was conducted in the temperature range of $550{\sim}610^{\circ}C$ for 30 hours to evaluate the effect of PWHT conditions on the microstructure and mechanical properties. Before PWHT, CGHAZ and FGFGHAZ showed high yield strength (YS) ranging from 1000 to 1250 MPa, while YS of SCSCHAZ decreased from 607 MPa (observed for base metal) to 501 MPa. The Charpy impact energies of sub-HAZs fell below 100J at $-29^{\circ}C$, except in the SCSCHAZ. By applying PWHT to sub-HAZ specimens, YS decreased as the PWHT temperature increased. In the case of CGHAZs and FGFGHAZ heat-treated at $610^{\circ}C$, YS dropped drastically to the range of 654~686 MPa. From the Charpy impact test, the upper-shelf energy (USE) increased to approximately 250J and Index temperature ($T_{68J}$) decreased below $-50^{\circ}C$. Specifically, in FGFG, ICIC and SCSC-HAZ, $T_{68J}$ was below -110, which was lower than the case of base metal.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.451-457
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• 2010

In the present study, the influences of grains and precipitates of microstructural evolution on the ultrasonic nonlinearity have been experimentally investigated. The prior-austenite grain and precipitate size are controlled by the variation in austenitizing and tempering conditions in reactor pressure vessel materials of nuclear power plant, SA508 Gr.3 low alloys. The ultrasonic nonlinearity was found to have strong correlations with grains and precipitates since the ultrasonic nonlinear parameter $\beta$ shows decrease trend with coarsening of grains and precipitates. Although the prior-austenite grain size increased, the $\beta$ changed little due to the effects of subgrains, packets and laths. For the preciptate effects, the $\beta$ decreased sharply due to decrease in $Mo_2C$ causing the coherency stain in addition to the precipitate size. The results in this study may provide a potential for characterizing the microstructural evolution, grains and precipitates, by measuring the ultrasonic nonlinearity.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2013

Recently the primary water stress corrosion cracking(PWSCC) has occurred in the dissimilar metal weld region between pressurizer nozzle and safe-end in nuclear power plants(NPPs). As material of the pressurizer nozzle, SA508 Gr. 3 low alloy steel was used. F316L stainless steel and Alloy 82/182 were used as safe-end and weld metal, respectively. Although mechanical properties are needed for evaluation of the structural integrity against flaw in the material, material specification and standard don't supply those properties. Therefore, the present study conducted tensile and fracture toughness tests on SA508 Gr.3 and F316L stainless steel at ambient temperature and operating temperature of NPPs and reported the tested results.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.194-202
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• 2010

Application of a stronger and more durable material for reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) might be an effective way to insure the integrity and increase the efficiency of nuclear power plants. A series of research projects to apply the SA508 Gr.4 steel in ASME code to RPVs are in progress because of its excellent strength and durability compared to commercial RPV steel (SA508 Gr.3 steel). In this study, the microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties of SA508 Gr.3 Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel and SA508 Gr.4N Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel were investigated. The differences in the stable phases between these two low alloy steels were evaluated by means of a thermodynamic calculation using ThermoCalc. They were then compared to microstructural features and correlated with mechanical properties. Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel shows the upper bainite structure that has coarse cementite in the lath boundaries. However, Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel shows the mixture of lower bainite and tempered martensite structure that homogeneously precipitates the small carbides such as $M_{23}C_6$ and $M_7C_3$ due to an increase of hardenability and Cr addition. In the mechanical properties, Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel has higher strength and toughness than Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel. Ni and Cr additions increase the strength by solid solution hardening. In addition, microstructural changes from upper bainite to tempered martensite improve the strength of the low alloy steel by grain refining effect, and the changes in the precipitation behavior by Cr addition improve the ductile-brittle transition behavior along with a toughening effect of Ni addition.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.729-736
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• 2015

In this study, the effects of specimen size and side-groove on the results of the J-R test for leak-before-break (LBB) evaluation were investigated. A series of J-R tests were conducted at both RT and $316^{\circ}C$, using three different sizes of compact tension (CT) specimens machined from SA508 Gr.1a piping material: 12.7 mm-thick 1T-CT, 25.4 mm-thick 1T-CT, and 25.4 mm-thick 2T-CT with and without side-groove. The results showed that side-grooving reduced the J-R curve for all specimens and the effect of side-grooving was more significant at $316^{\circ}C$ than at RT. As the thickness of the specimens decreased and the width of the specimens increased, the J-R curve slightly decreased at RT but it increased at $316^{\circ}C$. However, the variation in the J-R curve of SA508 Gr.1a with the thickness and width of CT specimen was insignificant.