Mechanical properties of full austenitic welding joint at cryogenic temperature for the ITER toroidal field coil structure

Abstract ITER toroidal field coil (TFC) structures are large welding structures composed of coil case and support structures made of heavy thick high strength and high toughness stainless steels. Japan Atomic Energy Agency plans to apply narrow gap Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding with FMYJJ1 (0.03C–10Mn–12Cr–14Ni–5Mo–0.13N) which is full austenitic stainless filler material. In order to evaluate effect of base material thickness and combinations of base material on tensile properties, tensile tests were performed at room temperature, 77 K and 4 K by using tensile specimens taken from 200 mm thickness welded joints of two combinations of base materials and 40 mm thickness welded joints of four combinations of base materials. As the results, it was confirmed that there were no large distribution of yield and tensile strength along the thickness of welded joints of 200 mm thickness and yield and tensile strengths of welded joints were decreased with decreasing of C + N contents of base material.