Microstructure and properties of 316L stainless steel foils for pressure sensor of pressurized water reactor

Abstract The microstructure and texture of three 316L foils of 25 μm thickness, which were subjected to different manufacturing process, were systematically characterized using advance analytical techniques. Then, the electrochemical property of the 316L foils in simulated pressurized water reactor (PWR) solution was analyzed using potentiodynamic polarization. The results showed that final rolling strain and annealing temperature had evident effect on grain size, fraction of recrystallization, grain boundary type and texture distribution. It was suggested that large final rolling strain could transfer Brass texture to Copper texture; low annealing temperature could limit the formation of preferable orientations in the rolling process to reduce anisotropy. Potentiodynamic polarization test showed that all samples exhibited good corrosion performance in the simulated primary PWR solution.