Uniaxial creep response of Alloy 800H in impure helium and in low oxygen potential environments for nuclear reactor applications

Abstract

Studies were conducted on the creep behavior of Alloy 800H in impure helium and in a 1%CO–CO 2 environment. At relatively low applied stresses and at low temperatures, the presence of methane in helium reduced the rupture strain significantly while increasing the rupture life relative to the behavior in pure helium. The degradation in rupture strain is due to the occurrence of cleavage fracture in the He + CH 4 environment; this explanation is also supported by high activation energy ( Q = 723 kJ/mol) for creep in He + CH 4. At higher applied stresses and also at higher temperatures, creep-rupture behavior in He and He + CH 4 was similar. Creep response in pure He and in CO–CO 2 follows a dislocation climb-controlled power-law behavior whereas that in He + CH 4 has a different behavior as indicated by the high stress exponent ( n = 9.8). The activation energy for creep in pure He was 391 kJ/mol and in CO–CO 2 was 398 kJ/mol, and appeared to be independent of stress in both environments. On the other hand, in He + CH 4, the activation energy ( Q = 723 kJ/mol) seems to be dependent on stress.