Low cycle fatigue behaviour of neutron irradiated copper alloys at 250 and 350 deg. C. (ITER R and D Task no. T213)

The fatigue behaviour of a dispersion strengthened and a precipitation hardened copper alloys was investigated with and without irradiation exposure. Fatigue specimens of these alloys were irradiated with fission neutrons in the DR-3 reactor at Risoe with a flux of ∼2.5 x 1017 n/m2s (E> 1 MeV) to influence levels of 1.0 - 1.5 x 1024 n/m2 (E> 1 MeV) at 250 and 350 deg. C. These irradiations were carried out in temperature controlled rigs where the irradiation temperature was monitored and controlled continuously throughout the whole irradiation experiment. Both unirradiated and irradiated specimens were fatigue tested in vacuum at the irradiation temperatures of 250 and 350 deg. C in a strain controlled mode with a loading frequency of 0.5Hz. Post-fatigue microstructures were examined using transmission electron microscopy and the fracture surfaces were investigated using scanning electron microscope. The present investigations demonstrated that the fatigue life decreases with increasing temperature and that the exposure to neutron irradiation causes further degradation in fatigue life at both temperatures. These results are discussed in terms of the observed post-fatigue microstructures and the fracture surface morphology. Finally, the main conclusions and their implications are summarised. (au)