Accumulation and annealing of radiation defects and the hydrogen effect thereon in an austenitic steel 16Cr15Ni3Mo1Ti upon low-temperature neutron and electron irradiation

Abstract

The effect of hydrogen, accumulation and annealing of radiation defects on the physicomechanical properties of an austenitic Kh16N15M3T1 steel (16Cr15Ni3Mo1Ti) has been investigated upon low-temperature (77 K) neutron and electron irradiations. It has been shown that, when its concentration is about 300 at ppm, hydrogen reduces plasticity by 25%. The presence of helium (2.0–2.5 at ppm) introduced by the tritium-trick method exerts an effect on the yield strength and hardly affects embrittlement. Upon both electron and neutron irradiation, there is a linear relation between the increment of the yield strength and the square root of the increment of the residual electrical resistivity (the concentration of radiation defects). The annealing of vacancies occurs in the neighborhood of 300 K (energy for vacancy migration is 1.0–1.0 eV). Vacancy clusters dissociate near 480 K (energy for dissociation is 1.4–1.5 eV).