Crack resistance behavior of ODS and standard 9%Cr-containing steels at high temperature

9%Cr-Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) steels are under intense research in the EU and other countries to extend the operation temperature range of ferritic alloys towards 600–650 °C. Unfortunately, fracture toughness behavior in this high temperature range is missing. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to evaluate the crack resistance behavior of a 9%Cr ODS steel in the range of 300–650 °C and comparison to the standard nonODS Eurofer-97 steel.Test results on the ODS steel show a drastic decrease of both initiation toughness and tearing resistance with increasing test temperature. In particular, above 550 °C, the crack resistance curve (J–R curve) of ODS Eurofer is extremely low while the standard Eurofer-97 exhibit a much higher crack resistance curve.