High temperature mechanical behavior of tube stackings – Part I: Microstructural and mechanical characterization of Inconel® 600 constitutive material

This paper is the first part of a set of two papers dedicated to the mechanical behavior of cellular materials at high temperatures. For that purpose, cellular materials made of brazed tube stacking cores have been considered here. This paper addresses the characterization of the elasto-viscoplastic properties of the constitutive material of the tubes, Inconel®600, by means of tensile tests. Various temperatures and strain rates were investigated, from room temperature to 800 °C, in order to study the influence of both the brazing heat treatment and the test temperature on the mechanical properties of Inconel®600. Whereas the heat treatment drastically decreases the strength of the tubes, a significant viscous effect is revealed at 800 °C. Electron backscattered diffraction analyses carried out post-mortem on samples showed that both dynamic recrystallization and recovery occurred during tensile tests performed at 800 °C, especially at lower strain rates. In contrast, a highly deformed and textured microstructure was observed for the tubes loaded at lower temperatures.