• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.1167-1174
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• 2022

Cast austenitic stainless steels (CASSs) are widely used as structural materials in the nuclear industry. The main drawback of CASSs is the reduction in fracture toughness due to long-term exposure to operating environment. Even though ultrasonic non-destructive testing has been conducted in major nuclear components and pipes, the detection of cracks is difficult due to the scattering and attenuation of ultrasonic waves by the coarse grains and the inhomogeneity of CASS materials. In this study, the ultrasonic signals measured in thermally aged CASS were discriminated for the first time with the simple ultrasonic technique (UT) and machine learning (ML) models. Several different ML models, specifically the K-nearest neighbors (KNN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) models, were used to classify the ultrasonic signals as thermal aging condition of CASS specimens. We identified that the ML models can predict the category of ultrasonic signals effectively according to the aging condition.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.519-524
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• 2021

The impact properties of two austenitic Fe-23Mn-0.4C steels with different Al contents for cryogenic applications are investigated in this study. The 4Al steel consists mostly of austenite single-phase microstructure, while the 5Al steel exhibits a two-phase microstructure of austenite and delta-ferrite with coarse and elongated grains. Charpy impact test results reveal that the 5Al steel with duplex phases of austenite and delta-ferrite exhibits a ductile-to-brittle transition behavior, while the 4Al steel with only single-phase austenite has higher absorbed energy over 100 J at -196 ℃. The SEM fractographs of Charpy impact specimens show that the 4Al steel has a ductile dimple fracture regardless of test temperature, whereas the 5Al steel fractured at -100 ℃ and -196 ℃ exhibits a mixed fracture mode of both ductile and brittle fractures. Additionally, quasi-cleavage fracture caused by crack propagation of delta-ferrite phase is found in some regions of the brittle fracture surface of the 5Al steel. Based on these results, the delta-ferrite phase hardly has a significant effect on absorbed energy at room-temperature, but it significantly deteriorates low-temperature toughness by acting as the main site of the propagation of brittle cracks at cryogenic-temperatures.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.530-537
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• 2008

Austenitic stainless steels(SUS 304, SUS 316), which are used for safety control valve of LNG carrier, are occasionally exposed in the cryogenic environment. In this regards, it is required to evaluate the mechanical characteristics under the low temperature environment. In this study, a series of uniaxial tensile test was carried out varying temperature for austenitic stainless steel. The phenomena of the strain-induced plasticity have been observed on the all temperature ranges. The critical value for threshold of 2nd hardening due to the phase transformation induced plasticity as well as the increase of hardening have been reported. The summarized experimental results would be used for the validation of numerical techniques applicable for the nonlinear hardening behavior of austenitic stainless steel under the cryogenic temperature environment.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.426-434
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• 2021

The effect of two different annealing temperatures on the level of the second phase precipitated in the microstructure and the corrosion behaviors of super austenitic stainless steel were examined. The sample annealed at a higher temperature had a significantly lower fraction of the sigma phase enriched with Cr and Mo elements, showing more stable passivity behavior during the potentiodynamic polarization measurement. However, after the welding process with Inconel-type welding material, severe corrosion damage along the interface between the base metal and the weld metal was observed regardless of the annealing temperature. This was closely associated with the precipitation of the fine sigma phase with a high Mo concentration in the unmixed zone (UMZ) during the welding process, leading to the local depletion of Mo concentrations around the sigma phase. On the other hand, the fraction of the newly precipitated fine sigma phase in the UMZ was greatly reduced by post-weld heat treatment (PWHT), and the corrosion resistance was greatly improved. Based on the results, it is proposed that the alloy composition of welding materials and PWHT conditions should be further optimized to ensure the superior corrosion resistance of welded super austenitic stainless steel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.11
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• pp.4072-4083
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• 2022

Ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) is carried out on the Ni-based alloy stainless steel pipe gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) girth weld, the differences of microstructure, microhardness and shear strength distribution of the joint before and after ultrasonic shock are studied by microhardness test and shear punch test. The results show that after UIT, the plastic deformation layer is formed on the outside surface of the Ni-based alloy overlayer, single-phase austenite and γ type precipitates are formed in the overlayer, and a large number of columnar crystals are formed on the bottom side of the overlayer. The average microhardness of the overlayer increased from 221 H V to 254 H V by 14.9%, the shear strength increased from 696 MPa to 882 MPa with an increase of 26.7% and the transverse average residual stress decreased from 102.71 MPa (tensile stress) to -18.33 MPa (compressive stress), the longitudinal average residual stress decreased from 114.87 MPa (tensile stress) to -84.64 MPa (compressive stress). The fracture surface has been appeared obvious shear lip marks and a few dimples. The element migrates at the fusion boundary between the Ni-based alloy overlayer and the austenitic stainless steel joint, which is leaded to form a local martensite zone and appear hot cracks. The welded joint is cooled by FA solidification mode, which is forming a large number of late and skeleton ferrite phase with an average microhardness of 190 H V and no obvious change in shear strength. The base metal is all austenitic phase with an average microhardness of 206 H V and shear strength of 696 MPa.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.555-565
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• 2023

Despite many advantages as structural materials, austenitic stainless steels (SSs) have been avoided in many next generation nuclear systems due to poor void swelling resistance. In this paper, we report the results of heavy ion irradiation to the recently developed advanced radiation resistant austenitic SS (ARES-6P) with nanosized NbC precipitates. Heavy ion irradiation was performed at high temperatures (500 ℃ and 575 ℃) to the damage level of ~200 displacement per atom (dpa). The measured void swelling of ARES-6P was 2-3%, which was considerably less compared to commercial 316 SS and comparable to ferritic martensitic steels. In addition, increment of hardness measured by nano-indentation was much smaller for ARES-6P compared to 316 SS. Though some nanosized NbC precipitates were dissociated under relatively high dose rate (~5.0 × 10^-4 dpa/s), sufficient number of NbC precipitates remained to act as sink sites for the point defects, resulting in such superior radiation resistance.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2003

Current steel-framed building design codes are based on theoretical and experimental researches on the conventional structural steel. However, the yield phenomenon of austenitic stainless steel, which is characterized by continuous yielding, is quite different from that of conventional structural steel. The offset strength, which should determine the design strength, may affect the limits of width-thickness ratio of current design codes. Stub column test results showed that the limits of width-thickness ratio satisfied both ASD and LRFD codes when 0.2% offset strength was regarded as design strength. In addition, the local buckling strengths of all stainless steel stub columns did not decrease rapidly compared with those of conventional structural steel columns, even though the width-thickness ratio exceeded the design limit.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.321-337
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• 2007

The investigation on the behaviour of cold-formed stainless steel non-slender circular hollow section columns is presented in this paper. The normal strength austenitic stainless steel type 304 and the high strength duplex materials (austenitic-ferritic approximately equivalent to EN 1.4462 and UNS S31803) were considered in this study. The finite element method has been used to carry out the investigation. The columns were compressed between fixed ends at different column lengths. The geometric and material nonlinearities have been included in the finite element analysis. The column strengths and failure modes were predicted. An extensive parametric study was carried out to study the effects of normal and high strength materials on cold-formed stainless steel non-slender circular hollow section columns. The column strengths predicted from the finite element analysis were compared with the design strengths calculated using the American Specification, Australian/New Zealand Standard and European Code for cold-formed stainless steel structures. The numerical results showed that the design rules specified in the American, Australian/New Zealand and European specifications are generally unconservative for the cold-formed stainless steel non-slender circular hollow section columns of normal and high strength materials, except for the short columns and some of the high strength stainless steel columns. Therefore, different values of the imperfection factor and limiting slenderness in the European Code design rules were proposed for cold-formed stainless steel non-slender circular hollow section columns.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.31-34
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• 2015

Microstructure and tensile property in the weld heat-affected zone (HAZ) of austenitic Fe-Mn-Al-C low density steels were investigated through transmission electron microscopy analysis and tensile tests. The HAZ samples were prepared using Gleeble simulation with high heat input welding condition of 300 kJ/cm, and the HAZ peak temperature of $1200^{\circ}C$ was determined from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) test. The strain- stress responses of base steels showed that the addition of V improved the tensile and yield strength by grain refinement and precipitation strengthening. Tensile strength and elongation decreased in the weld HAZ as compared to the base steel, due to grain growth, while V-added steel had a higher HAZ strength as compared than V-free steel.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.211-216
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• 2002

To investigate transition region in welded overlay relating to disbonding crack, the effect of vanadium addition on disbonding of Cr-Mo steels overlay welded with austenitic stainless steel was studied. V modified Cr-Mo steels have a higher resistance to disbonding than V free Cr-Mo steel. One reason is due to the fact that fine vanadium carbide precipated in base metal traps hydrogen and thus decreases the susceptibility to the disbonding. The second is related to the higher stability of the vanadium and stable carbides formed during PWHT, in which the carbon diffusion to the interface is lower than for V free Cr-Mo steel. Decreasing the carbon content at the interface of the weld overlay shows good resistance to the disbonding. Hence, it is important to control the carbon content at the interface of the weld overlay.