Effects of residual stress on irradiation hardening in stainless steels

Effects of residual stress on irradiation hardening were studied in advance for predicting irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking. The specimens of SUS316 and SUS316L with several % plastic strains, which correspond to weld residual stress, were prepared by bending and keeping deformation under irradiation. Ion irradiations of 12 MeV Ni3+ were performed at 330, 400 and 550 deg. C to 45 dpa. No bended specimen was simultaneously irradiated with the bended specimen. The residual stress was estimated by X-ray residual stress measurements before and after the irradiation. The micro-hardness was measured by using nanoindenter. The residual stress did not relax even for the case of the higher temperature aging at 500 deg. C for the same time of irradiation. The residual stress after ion irradiation up to high dpa, however, relaxed at these experimental temperatures. The irradiation hardening of stressed specimen was obviously lower than that of un-stressed one in case of SUS316L irradiated at 300 deg. C to 12 dpa.