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ELSEVIER Journal of Nuclear Materials 212-215 (1994) 514-518
mab!riais

Tensile properties of type 316L(N) stainless steel irradiated

to 10 displacements per atom
M.G. Horsten, M.I. de Vries
ECN-Nuclear Energy, Petten, The Netherlands

Abstract

The tensile properties of neutron irradiated type 316L(N) plate and EB welded material have been measured
between 300 and 900 K. The test specimens were irradiated in the Petten High Flux Reactor up to 10 dpa at 500,
600, and 700 K. The tensile tests were performed at the conventional strain rate of 5 x 10m4 s-l. Additional
experiments have been performed at strain rates of lob6 and lo-’ s-l at 850 and 900 K respectively. An increase in
tensile strength of about 600 MPa was observed for irradiation temperatures of 500 and 600 K, with a corresponding
loss of ductility. Less irradiation hardening was observed for an irradiation temperature of 700 K. The irradiation-in-
duced increase in tensile strength saturated at 5 dpa. The irradiated material appeared to be strain-rate sensitive at
a test temperature of 900 K.

1. Introduction weldment was located in the middle of the specimen.

Austenitic type 316L(N) stainless steel is the pri-
mary candidate first wall structural material in the
Next European Torus (NET) programme. Thin walled
NET components must be welded by means of a low
heat-input joining technique, such as electron beam
(EB) welding. Effects of the fusion environment on the
mechanical properties of the construction material,
particularly embrittlement due to irradiation hardening
at the relatively low operating temperatures of 500-700
K must be taken into account in the design analyses of
the nuclear components. The irradiation hardening of
plate and EB welded type 316UN) material has been
measured by means of tensile tests.
2. Experimental procedure
The composition of the type 316L(N) stainless steel
is given in Table 1. The tensile specimens were cut
from 30 mm thick solution annealed plate and were 4
mm in diameter and had a gage length of 20 mm. Prior
to specimen preparation, an EB weldment was made
parallel to the rolling direction. The specimen orienta-
tion was perpendicular to the rolling direction and the
The specimens were irradiated in the High Flw Reac-
tor (HFR) in Petten to a maximum dose level of 10
displacements per atom (dpa) at three temperatures:
500, 600, and 700 K. The irradiation was performed in
a rig called SIENA [l], specially designed to achieve a
combination of high displacement damage and high
helium concentration, as is expected to occur in fusion
environments. The amount of helium produced was
about 140 appm, generated mainly by the two-stage Ni
reaction [2]: 58Ni (n, y) 59Ni (n, cy) 56Fe.
Tensile tests were conducted in the temperature
range of 300 to 900 K at a conventional strain rate of
5 X 10m4 s-l. Some specimens were tested at strain
rates of lo-* s-l or 1O-6 s-l to examine the influence
of strain rate at high temperature (900 K). The 0.2%
yield strength (0.2% YS), ultimate tensile strength
CUTS), total elongation (TE), and strain-to-necking
@TN) were determined from the engineering tensile
curves. The conventional uniform elongation measured
at the maximum load during a tensile test does not
provide proper information on the plastic strain prior
to necking of the irradiated material, due to a deviat-
ing yielding behaviour. The maximum load is reached
directly after the elastic part of the tensile curve and is
followed by a lower plateau stress during which the

0022-3115/94/$07.00 0 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

SSDI 0022-3115(94)00181-M
 M.G. Horsten, M.I. de Vries/Joumal of Nuclear Materials 212-215 (1994) 514-518 515

Table 1
Chemical composition of type 316L(N) stainless steel in weight percent
C Si Mn P s Cr Ni MO N B Fe

0.021 0.43 1.79 0.029 0.009 17.5 12.3 2.41 0.059 0.0023 bal.

specimen continues to deform plastically without neck-

ing. Plastic instability and necking of the specimen will
occur when the load starts to decrease rapidly. The
STN in this work is defined as the plastic strain at the
onset of plastic instability and necking of the specimen
and is measured at a characteristic value of the load
decrease, equal to the characteristic slope after reach-
ing the UTS of unirradiated material.

3, Results

3.1. Irradiation to 10 dpa

200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

The effect of irradiation to 10 dpa at 500 K on the
tensile strength of plate and EB welded material is
shown in Fig. 1 as a function of test temperature. The
strength of material irradiated at 600 K. is similar to
that observed after irradiation at 500 K. The TE and
STN values of unirradiated material and material irra-
diated to 10 dpa at 500 and 600 K are shown in Figs. 2a
and 2b as a function of test temperature. Irradiation to
10 dpa at 500 and 600 K increases the 0.2% YS of both
plate and El3 welded material from about 200 to about
800 MPa. Strain hardening is no longer observed; the
0.2% YS and UTS coincide. The corresponding TE
Test temperature (K)
Fig. 1. The tensile strength of unirradiated material and
material irradiated to 10 dpa at 500 K as a function of test
temperature.
decreases strongly. The tensile strength of unirratiated
material decreases slightly over the test temperature
range, whereas the irradiated material shows a strong
decrease in strength with increasing test temperature.

~-__
04 * Unirr. Plate
ii- Unim. EB

15 E 50
-
I-
500 K In. Plate
500KImEB
m*- SOOKh.EB t 600 K III. Plate
40 + 600 K Irr. Plate 2 40 -* ~OOKIILEB

i -*- 6OOKIrr.EB
~__
4.5 :t___i 3z 30

0 20

FI
.r(
d 10

m 0
200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

Test temperature (K) Test temperature (K)

Fig. 2. (a> The total elongation and (b> strain-to-necking of unirradiated material and material irradiated to 10 dpa at 500 and 600
K as a function of test temperature.
516 M.G. Horsten, M.I. de Vries /Journal of Nuclear Materials 212-215 (1994) 534-518

Type 316L(N) Plate - 10 dpa Type 316L(N) EB welded material

1200 - ~~~-~~
~~ 75

h ~~ 1
1000
0.2%YS \
: T186,=‘850K
800 ; ?

600 STN

400 ;

6-
200 t T,,,, = 3OOK

0’ 0

2~) 3W 400 500 600 700 800 900

Irradiation temperature (K) Strain rate (s”)

Fig. 3. The strength and ductility at 300 K of plate material Fig. 5. The total elongation of uniriadiated and irradiated (10
irradiated to 10 dpa at different irradiation temperatures. dpa) EB welded material as a function of strain rate at
elevated temperatures (8.50-900 K).

The most severe degradation of tensile properties is

observed at an irradiation temperature of 600 K, with
no STN in the test temperature range of 500 to 700 K.
The LJTS of unirradiated EB welded material is some-
what lower than that of plate material, accompanied by
considerably lower ductility. This difference between
EB welded and plate material is still present after 10
dpa irradiation. All specimens fractured in a ductile
manner by dimple rupture. The EB welded specimens
fractured in the weldment.
A much smaller increase in tensile strength is ob-
served at an irradiation temperature of 700 K com-
pared to irradiation temperatures of 500 and 600 K.
Fig. 3 illustrates the effect of irradiation temperature,
as measured at the test temperature of 300 K. Above
an irradiation temperature of 600 K, the 0.2% YS
decreases and the STN increases.
3.2. Effect of displacement damage
The influence of displacement damage level on ten-
sile strength and ductility at a temperature of 500 K is
shown in Fig. 4. An increase in 0.2% YS and UTS and
corresponding decrease in TE and STN is observed
already at 0.5 dpa. At 3 dpa, the 0.2% YS and UTS
coincide; strain hardening has disappeared by this
damage level. Both strength and ductility changes satu-
rate at a displacement damage level of 5 dpa.
3.3. Ductility at elevated temperatures

Type 316L(N) Plate The effect of strain rate on the ductility of EB

welded type 316L(N) material is shown in Fig. 5. The
1200 jppp-.------ 50
TE of unirradiated EB welded material at 850 K is
T,,, = T,,,, = 500K about 27% (see also Fig. 2). The ductility of EB welded
40
material irradiated at 700 K and tested at 900 K
800 increases strongly with strain rate. This was also ob-
30
served for plate material. The corresponding fracture
600 surfaces are shown in Fig. 6. The fracture surfaces of
j 20
unirradiated material tested at 850 K and at a strain
rate of 5 X lop4 s-l exhibit ductile dimple rupture,
10 while the fracture appearance of irradiated material
tested at 900 K at a strain rate of 1O-6 s-l is of a
10 brittle intergranular type.
0 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 12

Dose (dpa) 4. Discussion

Fig. 4. The tensile strength and ductility of plate material
irradiated and tested at 500 K as a function of displacement Irradiation hardening and loss of ductility after neu-
damage level. tron irradiation at low temperatures have been re-
 M.G. Horsten, M.I. de Vries/Joumal of Nuclear Materials212-215 (1994) 514-518 517

Table 3
Irradiation hardening for type 316 material from literature
Reference q:,, = Lt dpa 60.2% YS
(K) f MPa)
This paper 500 10 629
This paper 600 10 612
I41 473 7 498-554
161 573 16-27 570-687
171 573 2-5 a 670 f 75
[81 523 5 “-10 472-636
191 573 10-15 471-663

a Saturation dose level.

pronounced in the current specimens with a weldment

located in the middle of the gage length, due to strain
localization in the weldment. The difference in strength
between plate and EB welded material is still present
after irradiation, while the difference in ductility has
disappeared.
A saturation dose level of 5 dpa was observed after
irradiation at 500 K, with a 0.2% YS plateau value of
- 800 MPa. A comparison with data on irradiation-in-
duced increase of the yield strength found in the
literature [4,6-81 is presented in Table 3. The values of
the increase range from 470 to 750 MPa.
An empirical equation for the irradiation hardening
AO.2% YS as a function of displacement damage has
been proposed by Odette and Lucas [7]. They obtained
a best fit of literature data on 300 series stainless steels
at 575 K using:
Fig. 6. The fracture surface of EB welded material in the (top) AO.2%YS = Au& 1 - exp( - dpa/2))“2,
unirradiated and (bottom) irradiated (10 dpa, 700 KI condi- (1)
tion tested at 850-900 K at a low strain rate f10m6 s-t). with a saturation level Ausat of 670 It 7.5 MPa. A best
fit of this equation for the data from Pig. 4 results in a
saturation level of 629 MPa.
ported many times before [3-91. The irradiation-in- The loss of strain hardening within 3 dpa has been
duced increase in 0.2% YS and UTS as observed in reported by Elen et al. [Sl for the same material.
this experiment are summa~zed in Table 2. The differ- Odette and Lucas 171 reported that the most severe
ence between unirradiated plate and EB welded mate- properties degradation was observed at an irradiation
rial consists mainly of a lower ductility in EB welded temperature of 575 K, which coincides well with the
material. This has been observed also by Elen et al. [3], current results at an irradiation temperature of 600 K.
who tested specimens taken from the centre of the Softening at higher temperatures, as observed in the
weldment, and Jitsukawa et al. [4]. This effect is more current 700 K irradiation, was also observed by Tanaka
et al. 161 at temperatures in excess of 673 K after
irradiation to 30 dpa. This can be attributed to an in
Table 2 situ annealing effect at this elevated irradiation tem-
Summary of shifts obtained in post-irradiation strength perature.
Ttest A0.2% YS (MPaI AUTS (MPaI Irradiated stainless steels are prone to high temper-
(K) ature embrittlement due to the weakening of the grain
Plate EB Plate EB
boundaries by helium from thermal (n, ar) reactions.
weldment weldment
An indication of this phenomenon has been observed
500 500 629 576 398 339 in this experiment with specimens irradiated to 10 dpa
600 600 612 575 330 329
at 700 K and tested at 900 K and a low strain rate of
715 700 227 204 57 87
lo-” s-l. These specimens failed in a brittle intergran-
518 M.G. Horsten, MI. de Vries/Journal
ular way, whereas other test conditions resulted
ductile dimple fracture surfaces.
5. Summary
Tensile properties of type 316L(N) plate and EB
welded material were determined between 300 and 900
K after exposure to 10 dpa and 140 appm He at 500,
600, and 700 K. The results and conclusions can be
summarized as follows:
(1) Irradiation caused hardening and loss of ductility
at all irradiation and test conditions.
(2) Saturation of irradiation hardening at 5 dpa was
observed at 500 K, with a strength plateau of
- 800 MPa. Loss of strain hardening was already
observed after 3 dpa.
(3) Less hardening was observed for material irradi-
ated at 700 K.
(4) The most severe degradation of tensile ductility
was observed at an irradiation temperature of 600
K.
(5) All fracture surfaces appeared ductile, except spec-
imens irradiated to 10 dpa and tested at 900 K and
a strain rate of 10e6 s-l, which appeared brittle.
of Nuclear Materials 212-215 (1994) 514-51X
in The EB welded specimens all failed in the weld
zone.
(6) Only a minor difference existed between tensile
properties of unirratiated plate and EB welded
material. Irradiation to 10 dpa decreased only the
difference in ductility.
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