Expression of Concern: Effect of Heat Treatment on the Properties of Electron Beam Welded Joint of First Wall

Abstract

The structural material of the water-cooled ceramic breeder (WCCB) blanket is reduced activated ferrite/martensite (RAFM) steels. The first wall (FW) of one of its components is realized by hot isostatic pressure (HIP) diffusion welding and vacuum electron beam welding (EBW). In order to study the performance difference of electron beam welded joint of RAFM steels before and after heat treatment, the EBW test of RAFM steels was carried out, and the welded joint was quenched and tempered treatment. The properties of welded joints before and after quenched and tempered treatment were studied. The results show that the microstructure of the weld is composed of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\delta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> ferrite and coarse lath martensite. After quenching and tempering treatment, the microstructure of the joint changes into tempered martensite with no obvious martensite characteristics. Moreover, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\delta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> ferrite disappears, and carbide precipitates out at the original austenite grain boundaries. Here, the type of precipitated carbide is M <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">23</sub> C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">6</sub> as characterized by the electron backscatter diffraction analysis.