POSTIRRADIATION TENSILE PROPERTIES OF ANNEALED AND COLD-WORKED TYPE 316 STAINLESS STEEL.

Postirradiation tensile properties of annealed and cold-worked type 316 stainless steel* riiifc Tensile properties of annealed and cold-worked type 316^stainless steel Irradiated at temperatures between 450 and 850°C to a maximum fluence of 2.7 * 10 22 neutrons/cm 2 (E >0.1 MeV) have been compared to those of unirradiated type 316 stainless steel in the as-annealed, annealed-and-aged (4000 h), as-cold-worked, -and cold-worked-and-aged (4000 h) condition.The results show that fastneutron Irradiation substantially reduces the ductility of the annealed material.The postirradiatlon work-hardening rate and ductility in the annealed as well as cold-worked material >ras highest at an Irradiation end test temperature of about 500°C.At this tenperaeure dynamic strain aging took place in both the annealed and cold-worked'specimens' irradiated at about 50G'C while no such contribution to the work-hardening rate could be observed for unirradiated, cold-worked specimens at any temperature.The postirradiation ductility of cold-worked specimens was, therefore, significantly higher than that of unirradiated specimens in the cold-worked and cold-worked-and-aged condition at temperatures between 430 and 550°C. O -Xc", [1]where a Is the true stress, e the true strain,