Gigacycle fatigue behaviour of austenitic stainless steels used for mercury target vessels

A mercury enclosure vessel for the pulsed spallation neutron source manufactured from a type 316L austenitic stainless steel, a so-called target vessel, suffers the cyclic loading caused by the proton beam induced pressure waves. A design criteria of the JSNS target vessel which is defined based on the irradiation damage is 2500 h at 1 MW with a repetition rate of 25 Hz, that is, the target vessel suffers approximately 10⁹ cyclic loading while in operation. Furthermore, strain rate of the beam window of the target vessel reaches 50 s⁻¹ at the maximum, which is much higher than that of the conventional fatigue. Gigacycle fatigue strength up to 10⁹ cycles for solution annealed 316L (SA) and cold-worked 316L (CW) were investigated through the ultrasonic fatigue tests. Fatigue tests were performed under room temperature and 250 °C which is the maximum temperature evaluated at the beam window in order to investigate the effect of temperature on fatigue strength of SA and CW 316L. The results showed that the fatigue strength at 250 °C is clearly reduced in comparison with room temperature, regardless of cold work level. In addition, residual strength and microhardness of the fatigue tested specimen were measured to investigate the change in mechanical properties by cyclic loading. Cyclic hardening was observed in both the SA and CW 316L, and cyclic softening was observed in the initial stage of cyclic loading in CW 316L. Furthermore, abrupt temperature rising just before fatigue failure was observed regardless of testing conditions.