Journal Published Online: 28 July 2009
Volume 6, Issue 7

Irradiation-Induced Grain-Boundary Solute Segregation and Its Effect on Ductile-to-Brittle Transition Temperature in Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels

CODEN: JAIOAD

Abstract

A study on grain-boundary segregation and embrittlement in terms of the Charpy ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) has been performed for the neutron-irradiated A533B steels with typical contents of impurities of Japanese reactor pressure vessel ones. The neutron irradiation was conducted at 563 K to a fluence of 1.3× 1024n/m2 (E>1 MeV) using material testing reactors. The neutron irradiation induced the P and Ni segregation and the reduction in C in some cases at grain-boundaries. The increase in the P segregation at high fluence (>5×10 23n/m2, E>1 MeV) was less than 0.1 in monolayer coverage for the steels with the bulk content of P not exceeding 0.02 wt%. The hardening more strongly affected the DBTT shift than the P segregation for those steels. The reduction in segregated C that enhances the grain-boundary cohesion by neutron fluence is not large enough to cause the DBTT shift.

Author Information

Nishiyama, Yutaka
Nuclear Safety Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai-mura, Ibaraki-ken, Japan
Yamaguchi, Masatake
Center for Computational Science and e-Systems, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai-mura, Ibaraki-ken, Japan
Onizawa, Kunio
Nuclear Safety Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai-mura, Ibaraki-ken, Japan
Iwase, Akihiko
Dept. of Materials Science, Osaka Prefecture Univ., Sakai-shi, Osaka, Japan
Matsuzawa, Hiroshi
Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, Tokyo, Minato-ku, Japan
Pages: 8
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Stock #: JAI101959
ISSN: 1546-962X
DOI: 10.1520/JAI101959