Dose dependence of true stress parameters in irradiated bcc, fcc, and hcp metals

The dose dependence of true stress parameters has been investigated for nuclear structural materials: A533B pressure vessel steels, modified 9Cr–1Mo and 9Cr–2WVTa ferritic martensitic steels, 316 and 316LN stainless steels, and Zircaloy-4. After irradiation to significant doses, these alloys show radiation-induced strengthening and often experience prompt necking at yield followed by large necking deformation. In the present work, the critical true stresses for deformation and fracture events, such as yield stress (YS), plastic instability stress (PIS), and true fracture stress (FS), were obtained from uniaxial tensile tests or calculated using a linear strain-hardening model for necking deformation. At low dose levels where no significant embrittlement was detected, the true fracture stress was nearly independent of dose. The plastic instability stress was also independent of dose before the critical dose-to-prompt-necking at yield was reached. A few bcc alloys such as ferritic martensitic steels experienced significant embrittlement at doses above ∼1 dpa; and the true fracture stress decreased with dose. The materials fractured before yield at or above 10 dpa.