In this study, the 0.2% yield stress of duplex stainless steel was evaluated using a compound Hall-Petch equation. The compound Hall-Petch equation was derived from four types of duplex stainless steel, which contained 0.2-64.4 wt% δ-ferrite phase, had different chemical compositions and were annealed at different temperatures. Intragranular yield stress was measured with an ultra-microhardness tester and evaluated with the yield stress model proposed by Dao et al. Grain size, volume fraction and texture were monitored by electron backscattering diffraction measurement. The k γ constant in the compound equation for duplex stainless steel agrees well with that for γ -phase SUS316L steel in the temperature range of 1323-1473 K. The derived compound Hall-Petch equation predicts that the yield stress will be in good agreement with the experimental results for the Cr, Mn, Si, Ni and N solid-solution states. We find that the intragranular yield stress of the δ-phase of duplex stainless steel is rather sensitive to the chemical composition and annealing conditions, which is attributed to the size misfit parameter.

, in the equation is calculated and is found to follow the equation PϭK · exp(0.5/q). Meanwhile, the grain growth exponent, n, for the anisothermally annealed SUS316L steel is also determined and is found to lie between 2.5 and 3.0. On the other hand, EBSD analysis of the evolved microstructure at different heating rates indicates that low heating rate caused partial recrystallization with preferred orientations at the recrystallization finish temperature, while high heating rates above 1 K/s induced the homogeneously nucleated recrystallization microstructure with random orientations and a lognormal type grain size distribution.

Effect of combined addition of elements on the formation of high-temperature β-Ti (bcc) phase in Ti-45Al-M1-M2 quaternary alloys has been examined by converting the quaternary system to quasi-ternary system using M1-equivalency of M2: [M1] eq = k [M2]. The k value is evaluated from the ratio of critical concentration, XcM, to form the β phase in the isothermal section of each ternary system at 1473 K: kM1/M2= XcM1/XcM2. In case that M1 and M2 are in the same group element, Mo-equivalency of Cr, kMo/Cr = 0.46 and Nb-equivalency of V, kNb/V = 0.57. The critical concentrations to form the β phase in the quaternary systems become lower than those estimated from these values, and the experimentally determined equivalencies become 0.8 and 1.0, respectively. These results suggest an existence of negative interaction between M1 and M2 to stabilize the β phase even if they were in the same group element. Experimentally determined quaternary phase diagram revealed that the combined addition makes the β+α two-phase region expand to lower temperatures, thereby effective in improving hot workability for development of wrought gamma alloys.

A new conceptual design of intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) is proposed for application to the gas turbine high temperature reactor system (GTHTR300C) which is being developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). The GTHTR300C cogenerates hydrogen using the iodine-sulfur (IS) hydrogen production process and electric power using gas turbine. The IHX is used to transport high temperature heat from the nuclear reactor to the hydrogen plant. The IHX proposed in this paper is a horizontal design as opposed to conventional vertical design. Therefore, JAEA investigated the advantage of the horizontal IHX and the economic evaluation when scaling up from conceptual design of high temperature engineering test reactor (HTTR) / IHX to GTHTR300C. To meet the performance requirement, both thermal and structural designs were performed to select heat transfer tube length, tube bundle diameter, insulation thickness, and the length of shell support in a horizontal pressure vessel. It is found that the length of the heat exchanger tube can be shortened and the superalloy-made center pipe structure can be eliminated, which results in reducing the quantity of construction steel by about 30%. Furthermore, the maximum stress concentration in the tubes is found to be significantly reduced such that the creep strength to withstand continuous operation is extended to 40 years, equaling the nuclear reactor life time, without replacement.

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