The Application of Scanning Contact Potentiometry Method and Diffraction of Thermal Neutrons at Physico-Mechanical Tests of Materials

Abstract

The results of physical and mechanical tests on the tensile strength of austenitic steel 12X18H10T, in the stress range from 100 MPa to the maximum value of 700 MPa, at which the sample was destroyed, are presented. Structural changes were registered synchronously by two methods: the method of scanning contact potentiometry and the method of diffraction of thermal neutrons. At loads above 650 MPa, the α-martensite phase was found in the austenite matrix, as well as the appearance of diffraction peaks characteristic of a cubic martensitic BCC lattice was observed in neutron spectra. On the potentiograms, this process corresponds to the appearance of local regions in which high values of electric potential gradients were observed. This is the case of discovery of the fatigue nucleus cracks in the tensile testing of steel ЭИ847 by the method of scanning contact potentiometry