Effect of Annealing Temperature on Microstructures and Properties of Warmly Deformed SCRAM Steel

Abstract

Effect of annealing temperature on microstructures and properties of warmly deformed SCRAM (Super-clean Reduced Activation Martensitic) steel on Gleeble-3500 thermo-simulation machine was investigated. The results showed that an increase in the annealing temperature can result in increasing the martensitic lath width from 0.48 um to 0.65 um and decreasing the dislocation density from 6.4×1015m-2to 2.8×1015m-2in SCRAM steel. The specimen exhibited high reduction of area and total elongations when the annealing temperature is up to 600 oC. The tensile fracture surface observation indicated that dimples became more uniform and deeper and cleavage fracture traces disappeared with the annealing temperature increasing. The irradiation-induced helium bubbles and hardening were observed in all the specimens after helium implantation to 1e + 17/cm2at 450 oC. The helium bubbles became larger but less when the annealing temperature increased. The optimal annealing temperature is 450 oC in this experiment.