3.8 Article

Through-Thickness Microstructure Characterization in a Centrifugally Cast Austenitic Stainless Steel Nuclear Reactor Primary Loop Pipe Using Time-of-Flight Neutron Diffraction

期刊

QUANTUM BEAM SCIENCE
卷 5, 期 2, 页码 -

出版社

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/qubs5020012

关键词

cast austenitic stainless steel; non-destructive evaluation; texture

资金

  1. National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy [89233218NCA000001]

向作者/读者索取更多资源

The US Federal Regulations require regular inspection of centrifugally cast austenitic stainless steel pipes used in primary cooling loops of nuclear power plants. Conventional ultrasonic techniques are unreliable due to microstructural attenuation of ultrasonic waves. Texture and phase fraction measurements using neutron diffraction scans will inform the development of a more robust diagnostic tool.
The US code of Federal Regulations mandates regular inspection of centrifugally cast austenitic stainless steel pipe, commonly used in primary cooling loops in light-water nuclear power plants. These pipes typically have a wall thickness of similar to 8 cm. Unfortunately, inspection using conventional ultrasonic techniques is not reliable as the microstructure strongly attenuates ultrasonic waves. Work is ongoing to simulate the behavior of acoustic waves in this microstructure and ultimately develop an acoustic inspection method for reactor inspections. In order to account for elastic anisotropy in the material, the texture in the steel was measured as a function of radial distance though the pipe wall. Experiments were conducted on two 10 x 12.7 x 80 mm radial sections of a cast pipe using neutron diffraction scans of 2 mm slices using the HIPPO time-of-flight neutron diffractometer at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE, Los Alamos, NM, USA). Strong textures dominated by a small number of austenite grains with their (100) direction aligned in the radial direction of the pipe were observed. ODF analysis indicated that up to 70% of the probed volume was occupied by just three single-grain orientations, consistent with grain sizes of almost 1 cm. Texture and phase fraction of both ferrite and austenite phases were measured along the length of the samples. These results will inform the development of a more robust diagnostic tool for regular inspection of this material.

作者

我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。

评论

主要评分

3.8
评分不足

次要评分

新颖性
-
重要性
-
科学严谨性
-
评价这篇论文

推荐

暂无数据
暂无数据