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Characterization of deformation structures in P-22 Cr–Mo steel through electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microscopy

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Abstract

In this paper, the deformation mechanisms of a Fe–2.25%Cr–1%Mo (P22) steel are studied after tensile tests at room temperature (RT) and 550 °C (HT), creep-fatigue tests at 550 °C and stress relaxation test at 550 °C (HTSR). The RT, HT and HTSR tests produced permanent strain of about 2.5% by different processes. Deformation features such as the orientation of the grains, local misorientation, grain boundary type and distribution, etc., were characterized using electron backscatter diffraction. Transmission electron microscopy was done subsequently to obtain greater insight into the dislocation substructures. The as-received sample had a ferritic–bainitic microstructure, and a large amount of local misorientation was found in the bainite, indicating plastic strain due to phase transformation. After tensile strain to 2.5% at room temperature, the dislocations formed very small substructures (~100–200 nm) in the ferrite grains, and most of the retained plastic strain seemed to be concentrated in the bainite after deformation. Both the ferrite and bainite showed much lower local misorientation and dislocation wall content after a tensile test to 2.5% strain at 550 °C. Compared to the RT tensile sample, after creep-fatigue at 550 °C, the substructures in ferrite opened up considerably and formed small-angle grain boundaries, with clean areas as large as 20–25 μm. After stress relaxation at 550 °C, the ferrite displayed even less substructure, while the bainite seemed to have greater amounts of local misorientation than in the creep-fatigue case. However, the degree of misorientation was less pronounced than in the room temperature tensile case. These results have been discussed with respect to the causes behind the phenomena observed herein and their possible effects on mechanical behaviour.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. Tim Palmer and Mr. Kimbal Lu of NMDC, ANSTO, for their valuable support in sample preparation. The authors would like to acknowledge P. Dayal for his assistance in performing a few of the EBSD scans.

This work has been funded by internal funding from Institute of Materials Engineering and Nuclear Fuel Cycle Research, ANSTO. The authors would also like to express their gratitude to the Nuclear Materials Development and Characterization platform (NMDC) for providing the characterization facilities essential for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nuclear Fuel Cycle Research, NSTLI, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, New Illawarra Road, Lucas Heights, Sydney, NSW, 2234, Australia

    Dhriti Bhattacharyya & Michael Drew

  2. Formerly at Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, New Illawarra Road, Lucas Heights, Sydney, NSW, 2234, Australia

    S. R. Humphries

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Dhriti Bhattacharyya

  4. NMDC, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Heights, Australia

    Michael Drew & Warwick Payten

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  1. Dhriti Bhattacharyya
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  2. Michael Drew
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Correspondence to Dhriti Bhattacharyya.

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Bhattacharyya, D., Drew, M., Humphries, S.R. et al. Characterization of deformation structures in P-22 Cr–Mo steel through electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. J Mater Sci 58, 11286–11309 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-08698-8

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