Evaluation of Dose Dependence on Tensile Deformation and Failure in Austenitic Stainless

A number of studies have been conducted to clarify the change in the mechanical properties of austenitic stainless steels under intense radiation environments. However, most of these radiation-induced changes were observed for the uniform deformation regime only based on the engineering stress-strain curves, and consequently the radiation effects on the unstable deformation, which is often larger than the uniform deformation in the stainless steels, were often ignored. To understand the radiation effects on deformation and fracture phenomena in detail, therefore, it is necessary to produce full stress-strain data covering yielding, uniform deformation, unstable deformation, and final failure. This study aimed at the detailed characterization of irradiation effects on the full range of deformation including unstable deformation and final failure based on the equivalent true stress and true strain relation. Thus, the full equivalent true stress-true strain curves were determined from tensile data for annealed 316 SS and EC316LN SS irradiated to various doses using finite element simulation technique. The tensile fracture properties, i.e., equivalent fracture stress, fracture strain, and tensile fracture energy, were evaluated from the calculated true stress-true strain curves