Study of susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement of welded joints of large WWER reactor vessels at different temperatures

The effect is studied of hydrogen and a coolant of WWER on the susceptibility to brittle fracture of welded joints from steels 15Kh2MFA and 15Kh2NMFA obtained by automatic submerged arc welding with the use of the welding materials of different purity. The effect of hydrogen (concentration range 0.5-7.5 cm3/100 g, testing temperatures 20, 70 and 325 deg C) and the coolant (pressures up to 120 atm, temperatures 20-350 deg C) have been estimated by the fracture work during static bending tests. It is shown that the purification of the welding materials enhances the fracture properties by about a factor of 2. Hydrogenation results in a sharp drop (by about a factor of 3) of the fracture work. The increased testing temperature (up to 325 deg C) is accompanied by disappearance of the effect of hydrogen embrittlement, which is explained by an increase in the diffusion mobility of atomic hydrogen. Under the action of the coolant the fracture work shows a two-fold decrease, while the pressure being increased up to 100 atm leads to greater fracture work decrease