Effect of dilution on micro hardness of Ni–Cr–B–Si alloy hardfaced on austenitic stainless steel plate for sodium-cooled fast reactor applications

Many components in the assembly section of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor are made of good corrosion-resistant 316 LN Stainless Steel material. To avoid self-welding of the components with the coolant sodium at elevated temperature, hardfacing is inevitable. Ni-based colmonoy-5 is used for hardfacing due to its lower dose rate by Plasma Transferred Arc process due to its low dilution. Since Ni–Cr–B–Si alloy becomes very fluidic while depositing, the major height of the weld overlay rests inside the groove. Hardfacing is also done over the plain surface where grooving is not possible. Therefore, grooved and un-grooved hardfaced specimens were prepared at different travel speeds. Fe content at every 100 μm of the weld overlay was studied by Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy and also the micro hardness was determined at those locations. A correlation between iron dilution from the base metal and the micro hardness was established. Therefore, if the Fe content of the weld overlay is known, the hardness at that location can be obtained using the correlation and vice-versa. A new correlation between micro hardness and dilution coefficient is obtained at different locations. A comparative study between those specimens is carried out to recommend the optimum travel speed for lower dilution.