Materials Science Forum Vols. 654-656

Abstract: The SSRT behavior in hydrogen dissolved hot water was investigated for cold worked SUS316L at a strain rate of 5 x 10-7/sec. The cold work to 75% thickness reduction of the as-annealed steel resulted in the hardness increase from 150 HV to 420 HV. The tensile yield stress of the cold worked specimens (CW=75%) was about 1000 MPa and the total tensile elongation was significantly reduced from 0.8% of annealed specimen to 0.14% of the 75%CW specimen. The results of EPR tests on SUS316L steel indicated that the EPR-DOS increased with increasing sensitization period at 700°C and decreased with increasing degree of cold work or reduction in thickness. In the water with hydrogen dissolution of 0.4 ppm, many IGSCC type cracks were nucleated on the specimen side surfaces, while the fractured surface was almost TGSCC. No such a SCC as observed in hydrogen dissolved water was observed after the test in oxygen dissolved water. The susceptibility to SCC increased with increasing hydrogen content in hot water. Cold work caused the reduction of the number of surface cracks and disappearance of IGSCC.

Abstract: Liquid phase diffusion bonding between ODS steel and pure W was carried out and its joint strength was investigated for fusion applications. A block of high-Cr ODS ferritic steel and a W plate were diffusion bonded at 1240 °C for 1h with/without an insert material under an uni-axial compression load and a high vacuum atmosphere. Cross sectional microstructures of joint region were observed by scanning electron microscope and the mechanical properties of the joint region were evaluated by hardness test and torsion tests. Microstructure analysis revealed that high Cr ODS ferritic steel block and W plate with insert material was successfully diffusion bonded with free of voids. Shear strength of liquid phase diffusion bonded ODS steel and W was higher than that of directly solid state diffusion bonded ODS steel and W. This was attributed to residual strain which is resulted from the difference of thermal conductivity between the ODS steel and W.

Abstract: In order to estimate the long life integrity of vessel steels with considering various material compositions and irradiation conditions, it is necessary to understand physical mechanisms of the degradation of mechanical properties. In this research, chemical composition effects were investigated for Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels (RPVS) to apply small specimen test technique to surveillance test method. All specimens used in this study were machined from the A533B plate material, which are standard, low Mn, high Cu, high P, and high Cu and high P steels. Tensile strength is increased by phosphorous and copper additions. Charpy tests were carried out at temperature from 73 K to 473 K. The ductile to brittle transition temperature (DBTT) is shifted to higher temperatures with phosphorus additions accompanied by the reduction of the upper shelf energy (USE). The fracture mode of P-added A533B steels at temperatures in the lower shelf energy (LSE) region is intergranular cracking. Test results were discussed in view of the differences on elements of Cu, Mn and P.

Abstract: In recent years, the fossil fuel exhaustion and global warming have become serious problems. As a way to solve these problems, the development of the fuel cell vehicles has been paid attention to. In the fuel cell vehicles, high-pressure hydrogen gas is stored in a container consisting of aluminum liner and surrounding fiber-reinforced plastic layer. To increase the mileage per filling, an aluminum alloy having higher strength than the currently used 6061 alloy is needed. It has been known that increase in the Si content in 6000 series aluminum alloy brings about increase in the strength. In this study, a 6061 aluminum alloy with Si content of highest level (6061HS), 6061 alloy with a typical composition have been subjected to slow strain rate technique (SSRT) tensile tests in a moist air to assess the resistance to hydrogen embrittlement, and also to thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) to investigate the hydrogen behavior. The results obtained have been discussed in terms of the effect of Si content. Moreover, to investigate the effect of grain size, 6061HS alloy sheets with different grain size have been also subjected to the SSRT tensile tests and TDS.

Abstract: In recent years, the use of hydrogen as a clean energy has been paid attention to in terms of the prevention of global warming. Tanks composed solely of steel and cylinders consisting of aluminum liner reinforced with C-FRP in the surrounding are used to store high-pressure hydrogen gas in hydrogen stations and in fuel cell vehicles, respectively. On the other hand, hydrogen embrittlement has been known to occur in some metallic materials under several certain conditions. Also, it has been generally known that the environmental hydrogen that invades the material during services plays major role in hydrogen embrittlement. For this reason, investigations on the behavior of environmental hydrogen in metallic materials are needed. In this study, the behavior of environmental hydrogen in pure aluminum, 6061 aluminum alloy and 7075 aluminum alloy has been investigated by means of tritium autoradiography.

Abstract: In order to pursue high catalytic performance of Ni-Al intermetallic compounds for hydrogen production, we synthesized Ni-Al intermetallic nanoparticles from Ni-Al alloy ingots by vacuum arc plasma evaporation technique for the first time. The characterization of the synthesized nanoparticles was carried out using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The catalytic properties of the Ni-Al nanoparticles for methanol decomposition were evaluated. It is found that the nanoparticles had a large surface area above 70 m2/g, and showed very high catalytic activity for methanol decomposition.

Abstract: We investigated mechanical properties of neutron irradiated Fe based binary alloys in order to extract roles of each alloying element in reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels on irradiation hardening and annealing recovery behavior. Materials used were Pure-Fe, Fe-1Cr, Fe-1Mn, Fe-1Ni, Fe-1Cu and Fe-1Mo in at.%. Neutron irradiations were carried out at various irradiation doses from 0.3 to 8.5 × 1019 n/cm2 ( > 1.0 MeV) at 290 °C. Irradiation hardening of Fe-1Cu showed a tendency of saturation at a low dose. Irradiation hardening of Pure-Fe and the other binary alloys increased with increasing in irradiation dose. Especially, Fe-1Mn irradiated over 4.3 × 1019 n/cm2 showed significant irradiation hardening which is comparable to Fe-1Cu. However, the post-irradiation annealing recovery behavior of the irradiation hardening in Fe-Mn showed one-stage recovery at around 450 °C, which was completely different from the two-stages recovery behavior of Fe-1Cu.

Abstract: The effects of small amount (1 or 2 wt.%) of Ni additionson the irradiation hardening of the reduced-activation ferritic/martensitic steel, F82H, used as fusion reactor blanket structural materials were investigated by means of Fe-ion irradiation experimental test method and nano-indentation technique. The ion-irradiation hardening of Ni-added F82H is larger than that of the steel without Ni addition. The methodology to derive the irradiation hardening of ion-irradiated F82H steel was proposed from the results of hardness depth profile.

Abstract: A novel GBD treatment with Dy-Ni-Al eutectic alloy powder enhanced the coercivity of the sintered Nd-Fe-B magnet plate as thick as 5mm to 1760 kA/m (22 kOe) without reducing the remanence. The results of wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDS) indicated that this industrially epoch-making treatment spread Dy, which is a coercivity enhancing element, from the surface to the centre of the magnet through Nd-rich phase. Microstructural observations suggested that Ni and Al, which are the melting point depressants of Nd and Dy, enabled the high diffusivity of Dy.

Abstract: Commercial sedimentation CaCO3 was ground by a vibration rod mill to investigate the physicochemical properties of mechanically activated CaCO3.When the CaCO3of the calcite structure was ground, the intensities of the crystal facesof calcite was decreased by distortions and so on, and the aragonite appeared as the grinding proceeded. The formed aragonite was transformed to the calcite when the sample was heated at 773K for3.6 ks. The dissociation pressure of CO2 of the ground CaCO3was larger than that of the non-ground CaCO3.The enthalpy; entropy and specific heat of change of the dissociation reaction were obtained. At high temperature, the emission rate of the ground CaCO3 was slightly larger than that of the non-ground CaCO3. At room temerature, the CaCO3 adsorbs CO2, and it desorbs the adsorbed CO2. The amount of adsorbed CO2 on the ground CaCO3 was larger than that of the non-ground CaCO3.