Low Cycle Fatigue Behavior in Air and in PWR Water of a Type 304L Austenitic Stainless Steel Manufactured by Hot Isostatic Pressing Process

Abstract

In most industries and more particularly in the Nuclear one, the use of new materials or new manufacturing methods is really challenging because “safety” is still the key point. Among many characterizations required for a new steel grade or a new manufacturing process to be accepted and then introduced in a Nuclear design code, the fatigue properties must be determined with great care. Nowadays, the consideration of the Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) primary water environment effect on the Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) behavior of Austenitic Stainless Steels is an important issue for both Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) lifetime extensions and new builds as described in NUREG/CR-6909 [1]. This study aims to present the LCF behavior in Air and in PWR water at 300°C of a type 304L steel manufactured by Powder Metallurgy coupled with Hot Isostatic Pressing process (PM/HIP) and to compare them with those observed on 304L nuclear grade products such as rolled plate or forged branch [2–5]. It appears that the LCF behavior in Air and in PWR water of this 304L HIP material is better or at least similar to the one observed on classical 304L steels.