• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.51 no.1
• /
• pp.249-256
• /
• 2019

The 9Cr-1Mo ferritic-martensitic ODS steel is a promising structural material for the next generation nuclear power plants including fast reactors for application in reactor vessels and nuclear fuel. The ODS steel was cooled down by furnace cooling, air cooling, oil quenching and water quenching, respectively, after normalizing it at $1150^{\circ}C$ for 1 h and then tempering at $780^{\circ}C$ for 1 h. It is found that grain size, a relative portion of ferrite and martensite, martensitic lath configuration, behaviors of carbide precipitates, and hardness of the ODS steel are strongly dependent on a cooling rate. The grain size and martensitic lath width become smaller with the increase in a cooling rate. The carbides were precipitated at the grain boundaries formed between the ferrite and martensite phases and at the martensitic lath interfaces. In addition, the carbide precipitates become smaller and more widely dispersed with the increase in a cooling rate, resulting in that the faster cooling rate generated the higher hardness of the ODS steel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.2
• /
• pp.337-343
• /
• 2020

Oxide dispersed strengthened (ODS) steel is an important candidate for Gen-IV reactors. Oxide embedded in Fe can help to trap irradiation defects and enhances the strength of steel. It was observed in this study that the size of oxide has a profound impact on the depinning mechanism. For smaller sizes, the oxide acts as a void; thus, letting the dislocation bypass without any shear. On the other hand, oxides larger than 2 nm generate new dislocation segments around themselves. The depinning is similar to that of Orowan mechanism and the strengthening effect is likely to be greater for larger oxides. It was found that higher shear deformation rates produce more fine-tuned stress-strain curve. Both molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and BKS (Bacon-Knocks-Scattergood) model display similar characteristics whereby establishing an inverse relation between the depinning stress and the obstacle distance. It was found that (110)_oxide || (111)_Fe (oriented oxide) also had similar characteristics as that of (100)_oxide || (111)_Fe but resulted in an increased depinning stress thereby providing greater resistance to dislocation bypass. Our simulation results concluded that critical depinning stress depends significantly on the size and orientation of the oxide.