Irradiation hardening and ductility loss of Eurofer97 steel variants after neutron irradiation to ITER-TBM relevant conditions

Ten Eurofer97 steel variants, produced by non-standard fabrication-processing routes and modified alloying chemistries, were studied by neutron irradiations in the high flux isotope reactor. The irradiations were performed to ITER-TBM relevant conditions of ∼255–350 °C, 2.94–3.24 dpa. We quantified the irradiation-induced degradation of the steels using mechanical property tests. All the steels suffered from irradiation hardening, where a significant increase in Vickers microhardness and yield stress (σ_YS) occurred, accompanied with severe loss of tensile elongation. The extent of hardening was material dependent. For T_irr = 300±30 °C, most steels showed σ_YS increase in the range of ∼30% to as high as ∼66%, except for a low temperature tempered steel with σ_YS increase below 15%. Despite large losses in elongation, most failures were ductile. Significant post-necking ductility was retained with reduction in area (RA) between 65–75%, but <50% for low temperature tempered steels. The ultimate tensile stress to yield stress (σ_UTS/σ_YS) ratios decreased significantly after irradiation, highlighting irradiation-induced strain hardening capacity reduction. No major effect of irradiation on the plastic instability stress (σ_PIS) and true fracture stress of the steels was observed. By comparing the tensile stresses in true stress units and with literature, the results suggest that RAFM steel designing should target materials with a large separation between σ_PIS and σ_YS, to ensure the materials can maintain large work hardening and uniform deformation capability after irradiation. The tensile data of the steels additionally revealed a compelling evidence of an inverse trend between the change in RA and increase in σ_YS of the neutron irradiated Eurofer97 type steels.