Materials Science Forum Vols. 654-656

Abstract: High Cr ferritic/martensitic steels are demanded to join using favorable welding processes with economical and metallurgical advantages in order to apply to the thick-walled reactor pressure vessel of a very high temperature gas cooled reactor. Narrow gap welding technology was adopted to weld a thick-walled 9Cr-1Mo-1W steel with thickness of 110mm. The welding integrity was checked by non-destructive examination, optical microscopy and hardness test, and the homogeneity through welding depth was checked by absorbed impact energy and tensile strength. The optimizing welding conditions resulted that a narrow U-grooved gap with almost parallel edges was sound in actual practice, and the coarse grain zone was minimized in the heat affected zone. The absorbed energy of 75±25 J through welding depth was acceptable in scatter band to check the uniformity through the welding depth. The ultimate tensile stress and yield stress were about the same through welding depth at 650±10 MPa and 500±10 MPa, indicating no difference through welding depth. Elongation was also almost same through depth, and the fracture surface was appeared as a normal. The weld metal had similar mechanical properties to base metal. The upper self energy of weld metal was 194J, and the ductile-brittle transition temperature was 30°C. The tensile behavior was the typical trend with temperature, and YS and UTS of weldment were slightly higher than base metal by nearly below 10%. Thus, it concluded that the soundness of the narrow gap welding of a thick-walled 9Cr-1Mo-1W steel was confirmed in terms of the welding uniformity through the depth and mechanical properties.

Abstract: Spark-plasma sintering (SPS) is an emerging powder consolidating technique which provides significant advantages to the processing of high temperature materials with poor deformability into configurations previously unattainable. Net-shaping capabilities of spark-plasma sintering are analyzed both theoretically and experimentally. Modeling and experimentation are conducted for cylindrical, prismatic, and complex powder specimen shapes. The impact of the “shape factor” on the non-uniformity of temperature, relative density, and grain size spatial distributions is analyzed. The modeling results are compared to the experimentally obtained data on the spark plasma sintering of high strength temperature resistant powder-based materials. The conducted research indicates the promising capabilities and addresses the challenges of spark-plasma sintering of complex-shape parts.

Abstract: A large scale sodium test facility of ‘CPTL’(Component Performance Test Loop) for simulating thermal hydraulic behavior of the Korean demonstration fast reactor components such as IHX(Intermediate Heat Exchanger), DHX(Decay Heat Removal Heat Exchanger) and sodium pump under development by KAERI is to be constructed. The design temperature of this test loop is 600°C and design pressure is 1MPa. The three heat exchangers are made of Grade 91 steel. Another sodium test facility of the ‘STEF’(Sodium Thermal-Hydraulic Experimental Facility) will be constructed next to the CPTL facility to simulate the passive decay heat removal behavior in the sodium cooled fast reactor. In this paper, the overall facility features of the CPTL and STEF are introduced and preliminary conceptual design of the facilities are carried out.

Abstract: The as-cast and heat-treated microstructure has been investigated in Co-Al-W-based superalloys with additions of 2 and 4 at.% Mo. The results revealed that Mo promoted the formation of (μ+γ) eutectic structure in the as-cast alloys and μ-phase precipitation after solution treatment. In addition, after aging treatment at 900oC, an extensive network of DO19 precipitates was observed, besides the γ+γ′ primary phases and the μ phase inherited from the as-cast and solution-treated conditions. Meanwhile, a solid-state transformation from the μ phase to the DO19 phase occurred; and long-term aging enhanced this transformation. In addition, high levels of Mo promoted the DO19-phase precipitation.

Abstract: Possibilities of heat resistant alloys based on a C15 Laves phase and an FCC phase have been examined in the Ir-Pt-Y ternary system. Although the Ir solid solution phase (A1) and the Ir2Y phase (C15) are not in equilibrium in the Ir-Y binary system, this equilibrium is attained by small Pt additions to the binary system. High temperature compressive strength of an A1/C15 monovariant eutectic alloy was found to be much lower than that of Ir-15Nb, an Ir based γ/γ' alloy. Low strength of the present alloys is attributed to the absence of effective strengthening mechanisms that operate in the A1 phase; for Y is hardly dissolved within the A1 phase, by which solution hardening and precipitation hardening are not available.

Abstract: Low Voltage Pulsed Magnetic Casting (LVPMC) is developed for grain refinement castings in recent years. This paper investigates the grain refinement effect of LVPMC on superalloy K417 and deals with the effects of cooling rate and superheating on grain refinement, as well as grain refinement mechanism. The experimental results show that the grains in the alloy are equiaxed and refined to 60 m averagely. The melt flow and Joule heat during solidification are modeled and simulated to reveals the grain refinement mechanism. It is considered that the melt vibration and convection caused by the pulsed magnetic field, as well as cooling rate and superheating contribute to the refinement of solidified grains.

Abstract: The effect of Ti addition on phase equilibria among Ni (A1), Ni3Al (L12) and Ni3V (D022) phases at 950 °C was investigated through TEM/EDS analysis on heat-treated alloys. The three-phase coexisting region of A1 + L12 + D022 was found to exist around the composition of Ni-4Al-19V (at. %) in the Ni-Al-V ternary system. With addition of Ti to the ternary system the three-phase coexisting region was shifted to the Ni-rich side. Ti partitioned most into the L12 phase and least into the A1 phase. These results suggest that the addition of Ti stabilizes the L12 and D022 phases against A1 phase, and raises the temperature of eutectoid reaction in the Ni3Al-Ni3V pseudo-binary system: A1 → L12 + D022.

Abstract: Nb, Al and Y2O3 powders were mechanically alloyed together with 5 wt% stearic acid. The heavy plastic deformation of the powders by mechanical alloying led significant hardening to 970 Hv and the reduced grain size to 10 nm. Nb-Al base ODS alloys consolidated by HIP at 1500 °C and 150 MPa for 0.5 h gave the dual phase of Nb solid solution and Nb3Al compound. The oxide particles are of the hexagonal type YAlO3 (YAH), with the size of 50 nm to 200 nm. The high-temperature ductility at 1200 °C and capability of the grain growth at 2000 °C were confirmed.

Abstract: The site preference of ternary additions in Ni3X-type GCP compounds was determined from the direction of solubility lobe of the GCP phase on the experimentally reported ternary phase diagrams. In Ni3Nb (D0a), Co and Cu preferred the substitution for Ni-site, Ti, V and W the substitution for Nb-site, and Fe the substitution for both sites. In Ni3V (D022), Co preferred the substitution for Ni-site, Cr the substitution for both sites, and Ti the substitution for V-site. In Ni3Ti (D024), Fe, Co, Cu, and Si preferred the substitution for Ni-site, Nb, Mo and V the substitution for Ti-site. The thermodynamic model, which was based on the change in total bonding energy of the host compound by a small addition of ternary solute, was applied to predict the site preference of ternary additions. The bond energy of each nearest neighbor pair used in the thermodynamic calculation was derived from the heat of compound formation by Miedema’s formula. The agreement between the thermodynamic model and the result of the literature search was excellent. Both transition and B-subgroup elements have two possibilities, i.e., the case of substitution for Ni-site or the case for X-site, depending on the relative value of two interaction energies.

Abstract: In order to spheroidize -Nb5Si3 strengthening phase embedded in Nb matrix for attaining a good room temperature toughness of Nb-Si alloy, the authors have proposed a microstructure control technique by combining eutectic and eutectoid reactions. Nb3Si intermetallic compound formed during solidification is a key phase for the microstructure control, but its stability is very sensitive to the alloying elements. Nb3Si disappears by adding as small as 3 at% of W and Mo, while these elements are very effective for the solid solution strengthening of Nb phase. For a further alloy development, establishment of an alloy design concept based on the control of phase stability of Nb3Si is needed. Similarly to ferrous alloys such as stainless steels where Cr and Ni are added to control the stability of bcc phase and fcc phase, two alloying elements (one is a stabilizing element and the other is a destabilizing element for Nb3Si phase) are added to a Nb-Si binary master alloy and their microstructure is investigated using SEM. The stabilizing element Ta is found to enlarge the composition area where Nb3Si exists even with the destabilizing element Mo, and it is confirmed that the phase stability concept is useful for designing Nb-Si based alloys.