Study on laser welding of fuel clad tubes and end plugs made of modified 9Cr–1Mo steel for metallic fuel of Fast Breeder Reactors

Harinath, Y. V.; Gopal, K.A.; Murugan, S.; Albert, Shaju K.

doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2012.12.023

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The 2-D drawing of D9 fuel cladding tube of 6.6 mm diameter with 0.45 mm wall thickness with end plug is shown in Fig- 1. It is a square butt-socket joint to be joined by autogenous welding process [4].…”

Section: Specimens Usedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, since the wall thickness of fast reactor clad tube is typically around 0.5 mm, pulsed LBW process is appropriate technique for welding of such thin walled sections. Studies have been carried out earlier for a similar application using pulsed LBW process [4]. From the existing literature it can be inferred that a fine grained structure has been observed due to higher cooling rate in laser welds than GTA welds [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dissimilar and Similar Laser Beam and GTA Welding of Nuclear Fuel Pin Cladding Tube to End Plug Joint

Murugan

Santhosh

Raju

et al. 2017

AEF

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The end plug to cladding tube of fast reactor fuel pin is normally welded using Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) process. The GTAW process has large heat input and wide heat-affected-zone (HAZ) than high energy density process such as laser welding. In the present study Laser Beam Welding (LBW) is being considered as an alternative welding process to join end plug to clad tube. The characteristics of autogenous processes such as GTAW and pulsed Nd-YAG laser welding on fuel cladding tube to end plug joints have been investigated in this study. Dissimilar combinations of modified stainless steel (SS) alloy D9 cladding tube to SS316L end plug, and similar combinations of SS316L cladding tube to SS316L end plug were successfully welded using the above two welding processes. The laser welding was performed at the butting surfaces of the cladding tube and the end plug, and also by shifting the laser beam by 0.2 mm towards the end plug side to compensate the heat balance and for improving the Creq/Nieq ratio in the molten pool. Helium Leak Test (HLT) and Radiography Test (RT) were carried out to validate the quality of the welds. The microstructures of the weld joints were analysed using optical microscope. In the present study, it has been demonstrated that it is possible to obtain welds free from hot cracks by shifting the laser beam by 0.2 mm towards end plug side, while the weld produced using the beam positioned at the interface shows cracks in the weld.

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Section: Specimens Usedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%