Irradiation creep of SA 304L and CW 316 stainless steels: Mechanical behaviour and microstructural aspects. Part II: Numerical simulation and test of SIPA model

International audienceA cluster dynamic model has been adapted to test the Stress Induced Preferential Absorption of Defect (SIPA) on Frank loops hypothesis concerning irradiation creep, to reproduce quantitatively both microstructure evolution and its stress induced anisotropy and macroscopic creep rate. It is concluded that SIPA on Frank loops model can account for the observed defects structure, but is unable to reproduce quantitatively the creep rate. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Irradiation creep of SA 304L and CW 316 stainless steels: Mechanical behaviour and microstructural aspects. Part I: Experimental results

International audienceSolution annealed 304L (SA 304L) and cold work 316 (CW 316) austenitic stainless steel irradiation creep behaviour have been studied thoroughly. Irradiations were carried out in fast breeder reactors BOR-60 (at 330 degrees C, up to 120 dpa) and EBR-II (at 375 degrees C, up to 10.5 dpa), and in the OSIRIS mixed spectrum reactor (at 330 degrees C, up to 9.8 dpa). After an incubation threshold, the irradiation creep of the austenitic stainless steels is linear in stress and in dose. Creep appears to be athermal in this temperature range. A significant difference in the behaviour is measured between the creep of SA 304L and CW 316. In order to study the anisotropy of loop population, which would be the signature of a possible stress induced preferential absorption (SIPA) mechanism for irradiation creep, special attention was given to the measurement of anisotropy of loop distribution between the four families. The anisotropy induced by an applied stress has been shown to be in the range of the statistical scatter in the situation where no stress is applied. TEM microstructural analyses performed on this sample show slight difference between the microstructure of specimens deformed under irradiation and the microstructure of specimens irradiated without stress under the same irradiation conditions. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserve

Deformation under irradiation of 304L and 316 austenitic stainless steels

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