• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.758-764
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• 2016

Specimens of stainless steel reactor internals were irradiated with 240 keV protons and 6 MeV Xe ions at room temperature. Nanoindentation constant stiffness measurement tests were carried out to study the hardness variations. An irradiation hardening effect was observed in proton- and Xe-irradiated specimens and more irradiation damage causes a larger hardness increment. The Nix-Gao model was used to extract the bulk-equivalent hardness of irradiation-damaged region and critical indentation depth. A different hardening level under H and Xe irradiation was obtained and the discrepancies of displacement damage rate and ion species may be the probable reasons. It was observed that the hardness of Xe-irradiated specimens saturate at about 2 displacement/atom (dpa), whereas in the case of proton irradiation, the saturation hardness may be more than 7 dpa. This discrepancy may be due to the different damage distributions.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.761-762
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• 2009

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.431-435
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• 2023

An irradiation hardening of Inconel 718 produced by selective laser melting (SLM) was studied based on the microstructural observation and mechanical behavior. Ion irradiation for emulating neutron irradiation has been proposed owing to advantages such as low radiation emission and short experimental periods. To prevent softening caused by the dissolution of γ' and γ" precipitates due to irradiation, only solution annealing (SA) was performed. SLM SA Inconel 718 specimen was ion irradiated to demonstrate the difference in microstructure and mechanical properties between the irradiated and non-irradiated specimens. After exposing specimens to Fe³⁺ ions irradiation up to 100 dpa (displacement per atom) at an ambient temperature, the hardness of irradiated specimens was measured by nano-indentation as a function of depth. The depth distribution profile of Fe³⁺ and dpa were calculated by the Monte Carlo SRIM (Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter)-2013 code under the assumption of the displacement threshold energy of 40 eV. A transmission electron microscope was utilized to observe the formation of irradiation defects such as dislocation loops. This study reveals that the Frank partial dislocation loops induce irradiation hardening of SLM SA Inconel 718 specimens.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.1970-1977
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• 2019

Understanding the irradiation hardening effect of structural steels under various irradiation conditions plays an important role in developing advanced nuclear systems. Such being the case, a crystal plasticity model for body-centered cubic (BCC) crystal based on the density of dislocations and irradiation defects is summarized and numerically implemented in this paper. Based on this model, nano-indentation hardness of Chinese A508-3 steels with ion irradiation is calculated. Very good agreement is observed between simulation and experimental data of several different irradiation doses subjected to various operating temperatures, from which, it can be concluded that indentation hardness increases with increasing irradiation dose at both room temperature and high temperature. Consequently, the validity of this model has been proved properly, and furthermore, the model established in this paper could guide the study of irradiation hardening effect and temperature effect to some extent.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2011

Recently, the technology of surface treatment is being more important which affects the material cost reduction and substitution to the expensive material. The material used for the mechanical processing should have not only high intensity, but also strength toughness, wear resistance and corrosion resistance. In order to increase the durability and have better quality of the parts using such kind of tooling material, various kinds of research of the surface hardening through many kinds of heat resources is being done and practically applied. In this study, the characteristics of hardening surface zone for high strength of the press die material through laser beam irradiation are researched. In this study, it is experimentally observed by the status of the surface morphology, tensile strength, the hardness distribution of the base metal and wear condition by the surface hardness pattern by the laser beam based on the process parameters of $CO_2$ laser by using SM45C and STD11 used for press tool. Through this research, the characteristics of surface hardened zone for high strength of the thin metal by laser beam irradiation is done.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.58-67
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• 2020

This study presents cyclic stress-strain and tensile test results at room temperature (RT) and 316℃ using cold-worked TP304 stainless steel base and weld metals. By comparing the cyclic hardening/softening behavior and failure cycle of cold-worked materials with those of irradiated austenitic stainless steels, the feasibility of simulating the irradiation effect on cyclic deformation and failure behaviors of TP304 stainless steel base and weld metals was investigated. It was found that, in the absence of strain-induced martensite trasformation, cold-working could properly simulate the change in cyclic hardening/softening behavior of TP304 stainless steel base and weld metals due to neutron irradiation. It was also recognized that cold-working could adequately simulate the reduction in failure cycles of TP304 stainless steel base and weld metals due to neutron irradition in the low-cycle fatigue region.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.2960-2967
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• 2021

In this work, a new hardening model is proposed for the depth-dependent hardness of ion-irradiated polycrystals with obvious grain size effect. Dominant hardening mechanisms are addressed in the model, including the contribution of dislocations, irradiation-induced defects and grain boundaries. Two versions of the hardening model are compared, including the linear and square superposition models. A succinct parameter calibration method is modified to parametrize the models based on experimentally obtained hardness vs. indentation depth curves. It is noticed that both models can well characterize the experimental data of unirradiated polycrystals; whereas, the square superposition model performs better for ion-irradiated materials, therefore, the square superposition model is recommended. In addition, the new model separates the grain size effect from the dislocation hardening contribution, which makes the physical meaning of fitted parameters more rational when compared with existing hardness analysis models.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2019

The effect of hardening methods and process parameters on surface hardening of a Ti-6Al-4V Alloy has been investigated in this study. To characterize the effectiveness of the respective surface hardening methods, samples of a Ti-6Al-4V alloy were self-quenched, laser-nitrided, laser-carburized, laser-carbonitrided at the same laser irradiation conditions. This experimental procedure was followed by comparing the microstructural evolutions and mechanical properties of the respective samples after the laser surface hardenings. The hardening characteristics of the respective laser surface hardenings were well defined in this study, and the hardness was significantly influenced by the reaction compounds and laser energy density.

• 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.