Swelling Of AISI Research Articles

The swelling behavior of manganese-bearing AISI 216 steel

The inclusion of 8.5 wt% manganese in AISI 216 does not appear to alter the swelling behavior from that found to be typical of austenitic alloys with comparable levels of other austentite-stabilizing elements. The swelling in AISI 216 in EBR-II is quite insensitive to irradiation temperature in the range 400–650°C. Microscopy reveals that this may arise from the low level of precipitation that occurs in the alloy.

Saturation of proton-induced swelling in AISI 316

There is some evidence which suggests that void swelling may not increase continuously with increasing irradiation but may saturate at a level dependent on irradiation conditions, helium/dpa level or artifacts of the simulation such as the presence of injected interstitials. An experiment was therefore performed to determine the saturation level of swelling of annealed AISI 316 at 625°C in the absence of helium and injected interstitials. Using 140 keV protons and step-height measurements it was found that saturation did not occur until 260% swelling was achieved at ~ 600 dpa. Prior to saturation the swelling curve exhibited the anticipated bilinear form with a steady state swelling rate of 0.64%/dpa based on a 20 eV threshold energy.

The effect of solid transmutation products on swelling in 316 stainless steel

Application of the extensive data base developed in fission reactors to the design of fusion reactors requires an understanding of the differences in the characteristics of the two neutron spectra. This paper presents the results of a study in which the isotopic evolution of AISI 316 was calculated for two breeder reactors, two fusion devices and the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). The largest changes in composition arise in HFIR, where the manganese is strongly depleted and substantial vanadium is generated. Both of these elements increase in fusion reactors but much more slowly. Data on the manganese dependence of swelling in AISI 316 is presented to show that depletion of manganese in HFIR may lead to changes in the swelling behavior. Swelling may also be altered by vanadium in a manner typical of other strong MC-carbide forming elements such as titanium.