Monitoring the embrittlement of reactor pressure vessel steels by using the Seebeck coefficient

The origin of the effect of aging on the thermoelectric power of maraging C250 steel

“…Austenite phase, known to be formed after prolonged aging, was not observed. The decrease in TEP value is noticeably larger when compared to other aged alloys (for example [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]). This raises the question why such a decrease in TEP is observed in maraging steel.…”

“…The K values derived from the linear fits for the M series (R 2 = 0.94) and the T series (R 2 = 0.99) are ?7.7 and ?6.2 lV/°K/(at%), respectively. The K Mo measured in the current work is close to the value reported for Fe-Mo alloy (?8.6 lV/°K/at%) in [23]. Following Eq.…”

“…Another potential non-destructive method for monitoring the aging state of maraging steels is the measurement of thermoelectric power (TEP), also known as the Seeback coefficient (S). This method was proved effective for evaluating thermal aging of various metallic systems, mainly ferrous and Al-based alloys [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. The TEP value is associated with the conductor's tendency to develop an electric voltage under a temperature gradient [14].…”

Roadmap for Nondestructive Evaluation of Reactor Pressure Vessel Research and Development by the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program

“…As a result, the approach has been applied to the characterization of a number of aging and degradation processes in metals. One potential application is the characterization of irradiation embrittlement [88][89][90][91][92], where numerous studies have described the potential for correlating embrittlement and DBTT shifts due to irradiation.…”

Changes in the thermoelectric power of a Ni base superalloy induced by elastic and plastic strain

“…For example, the percentage of cold work and the recrystallised grain size have been followed by TEP variations of the Austenitic stainless steels AISI 304 [7]. It has been shown that the change of the Seebeck coefficient has the potential for non-destructive monitoring of the neutron embrittlement of RPV steels [8]. The temperature of the austenite to martensite phase transition in the ferromagnetic shape memory alloy Ni 50 Mn 34 In 16 has been associated with a sharp change in the TEP and the thermal conductivity curves of the alloy [9].…”