Improvement of High Temperature Mechanical Property by Precipitation Hardening of Reduced Activation Ferritic/Martensitic Steels

Reduced Activation Ferritic/Martensitic steels (RAFs) are leading candidates for blanket and first wall structures of the D-T fusion reactors. Recently, in order to achieve better efficiency of energy conversion by using RAFs in advanced blanket systems, improvement of high temperature mechanical property of RAFs is desired. In this work, experimental alloys, FETA-series (Fe-Ta-C or N) steels, were prepared to observe precipitation hardening mechanism by MX-type particles at elevated temperatures in detail. According to the results, innovative improvement of creep property can be achieved by applying of precipitation hardening by very fine TaX (X=C, N) particles. With increasing tantalum content, finer dispersion of MX-type particles, dislocation structures and sub-grain structures were observed by TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy). These fine structures contributed to the improvement of creep property.