CORRELATION BETWEEN MECHANICAL AND ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES ON RADIATION DAMAGE NUCLEAR REACTOR

Soraia Pirfo Barroso - Michael E. Fitzpatrick - Marta Horváth - Ákos Horváth - Richard Szekely

   For nuclear power plant lifetime management is imperative to estimate the loss of toughness, embrittlement and other mechanical properties changes caused by neutron irradiation. This paper focuses on the use of magnetic measurements to determine the irradiation effects, attempting to predict fracture toughness changes, on nuclear reactor structural materials. Two types of nuclear reactor materials were investigated, the JRQ IAEA’s reference material (A533B –type) and 15KH2MFA VVER’s reactor pressure vessel steels. Samples of those materials were irradiated at different neutron fluencies. The samples were carefully identified in accordance with the cutting direction on the forging block. Hereby, the correlation between embrittlement and the magnetic mea surements is explained based on this study.

Keywords: reactor pressure vessel, embrittlement, toughness, magnetic measurements, anisotropy

[full-paper]