Mechanical Properties of SA508 Gr.4N Model Alloys as a High Strength RPV Steel

Abstract

Demands of RPV materials with higher strength and toughness are rising to increase the power capacity and the operation life of nuclear power plants. The ASME SA508 Gr.4N specification can give a superior toughness and strength to the commercial low alloy steels such as SA508 Gr.3. However, the SA508-Gr.4N steels have not yet been used commercially due to a lack of information of the productivity and the age related properties. While the irradiation embrittlement studies are going-on, the current paper focused on the effects of alloying elements such as Ni, Cr and Mo on the fracture mechanical properties of the SA508 Gr.4N low alloy steels. Various model alloys were fabricated by changing the contents of alloying elements based on the composition range of the ASME specification. Tensile properties, Charpy impact toughness and fracture toughness of the model alloys were evaluated and those properties were discussed with the microstructural characteristics of each alloy. The strengths of the alloys were increased with increase of the Ni and Mo contents while there was no remarkable change of the yield strength with the Cr addition. The Charpy impact and fracture toughness were considerably improved with the increase of Ni, Cr contents. The Mo addition did not change the toughness properties significantly. The Cr contents were more effective on the fracture toughness through changing the carbides precipitation characteristics and the Ni contents were effective on the Charpy impact toughness through changing the effective grain size.