Temperature effects on the mechanical properties of candidate SNS target container materials after proton and neutron irradiation

Abstract This report presents the tensile properties of EC316LN austenitic stainless steel and 9Cr–2WVTa ferritic/martensitic steel after 800 MeV proton and spallation neutron irradiation to doses in the range 0.54–2.53 dpa at 30–100 °C. Tensile testing was performed at room temperature (20 °C) and 164 °C. The EC316LN stainless steel maintained notable strain-hardening capability after irradiation, while the 9Cr–2WVTa ferritic/martensitic steel posted negative hardening in the engineering stress–strain curves. In the EC316LN stainless steel, increasing the test temperature from 20 to 164 °C decreased the strength by 13–18% and the ductility by 8–36%. The effect of test temperature for the 9Cr–2WVTa ferritic/martensitic steel was less significant than for the EC316LN stainless steel. In addition, strain-hardening behaviors were analyzed for EC316LN and 316L stainless steels. The strain-hardening rate of the 316 stainless steels was largely dependent on test temperature. A calculation using reduction of area measurements and stress–strain data predicted positive strain hardening during plastic instability.