Evaluation of stainless steels for their resistance to intergranular corrosion

Austenitic stainless steels are being considered as structural materials for first wall/blanket systems in the International Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER). The uniform corrosion of stainless steels in water is well known and is not a critical issue limiting its application for the ITER design. The se...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of nuclear materials 1996-10, Vol.233 (1-3), p.1361-1363
Main Authors: Korostelev, A.B., Abramov, V.Ya, Belous, V.N.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Austenitic stainless steels are being considered as structural materials for first wall/blanket systems in the International Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER). The uniform corrosion of stainless steels in water is well known and is not a critical issue limiting its application for the ITER design. The sensitivity of austenitic steels to intergranular corrosion (IGC) can be estimated rather accurately by means of calculation methods, considering structure and chemical composition of steel. There is a maximum permissible carbon content level, at which sensitization of stainless steel is eliminated: K = Cr eff − αC eff, where α-thermodynamic coefficient, Cr eff-effective chromium content (regarding molybdenum influence) and C eff-effective carbon content (taking into account nickel and stabilizing elements). Corrosion tests for 16Cr11Ni3MoTi, 316L and 316LN steel specimens, irradiated up to 2 × 10 22 n/cm 2 fluence have proved the effectiveness of this calculation technique for determination of austenitic steels tendency to IGC. This method is directly applicable in austenitic stainless steel production and enables one to exclude complicated experiments on determination of stainless steel susceptibility to IGC.
ISSN:0022-3115
1873-4820
DOI:10.1016/S0022-3115(96)00277-2