Study on small sample's high temperature creep behaviors under argon's protection

Background: The high temperature creep resistance is an important indicator of the performance evaluation of reactor material. Purpose: This paper studies the high temperature creep behavior of cladding candidate material Ni-based alloy C276 of Supercritical Water Reactor (SCWR) under argon's protection, analyzes the creep mechanism and evaluates creep properties of C276. Methods: In order to reduce the experiment cost, radiation dose and strengthen the penetration of irradiation experiments, using the unconventional small sample has become the trend of experimental study. In this paper, small sheet sample will be used at high temperature creep experiments. In order to avoid the impact of oxidation at high temperature on the data of Material properties, this article will use independently designed and improved high temperature creep machine with argon's protection. Results: The creep curves of C276 have been obtained at the high temperature, when the samples of C276 are respectively applied at the different constant stress. Conclusions: The results prove that using small sample under the protection of argon can more truly reflect the mechanical properties of materials. (authors)