AbstractsEarth & Environmental Science

The Character, Stability and Consequences of Mn-Ni-Si Precipitates in Irradiated Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels

by Peter Benjamin Wells




Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara
Department:
Year: 2016
Keywords: Nuclear engineering; Materials science
Posted: 02/05/2017
Record ID: 2063580
Full text PDF: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10103547


Abstract

Formation of a high density of Mn-Ni-Si nanoscale precipitates in irradiated reactor pressure vessel steels could lead to severe, unexpected embrittlement, which may limit the lifetimes of our nation’s light water reactors. While the existence of these precipitates was hypothesized over 20 years ago, they are currently not included in embrittlement prediction models used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This work aims to investigate the mechanisms and variables that control Mn-Ni-Si precipitate (MNSP) formation as well as correlate their formation with hardening and embrittlement. A series of RPV model steels with systematic variations in Cu and Ni contents, two variables that have been shown to have a dominant effect on hardening, were irradiated in a series of test reactor and power reactor surveillance irradiations. Atom probe tomography (APT) measurements show that large volume fractions (fv) of MNSPs form in all the steels irradiated at high fluence, even those containing no added Cu, which were previously believed to have low sensitivity to embrittlement. It is demonstrated that while Cu enhances the rate of MNSP formation, it does not appear to significantly alter their saturation fv or composition. The high fluence MNSPs have compositions consistent with known intermetallic phases in the Mn-Ni-Si system and have fv very near those predicted by equilibrium thermodynamic models. In addition, X-ray diffraction experiments by collaborators shows that these precipitates also have the expected crystal structure of the predicted Mn-Ni-Si phases. Post irradiation annealing experiments are used to measure the hardness recovery at various temperatures as well as to determine if the large f v of MNSPs that form under high fluence neutron irradiation are thermodynamically stable phases or non-equilibrium solute clusters, enhanced or induced by irradiation, respectively. Notably, while post irradiation annealing of a Cu-free, high Ni steel at 425°C results in dissolution of most precipitates, a few larger MNSPs appear to remain stable and may begin to coarsen after long times. A cluster dynamics model rationalizes the dissolution and reduction in precipitate number density, since most are less than the critical radius at the annealing temperature and decomposed matrix composition. The stability of larger precipitates suggests that they are an equilibrium phase, consistent with thermodynamic models. Charged particle irradiations using Fe3+ ions are also used to investigate the precipitates which form under irradiation. Two steels irradiated to a dose of 0.2 dpa using both neutrons and ions show precipitates with very similar compositions. The ion irradiation shows a smaller f v, likely due to the much higher dose rate, which has been previously shown to delay precipitation to higher fluences. While the precipitates in the ion irradiated condition are slightly deficient in Mn and enriched in Ni and Si compared…