Microstructural investigation of oxide dispersion strengthened alloy 617 after creep rupture at high temperature

Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloys have been widely considered as candidate structural materials for advanced nuclear reactors because of their good high temperature properties and irradiation resistance. In this study, the creep properties of oxide dispersion strengthened Alloy 617 (ODS-617) was examined at 950 °C under 25 MPa in the air. Conventional Alloy 617 tested under the same conditions was included for comparison. The ODS-617 exhibited superior creep resistance, including a much longer rupture life of 8533 h and a steady-state creep rate of 8.9 × 10−8 (1/s), which was two orders of magnitude lower than that of the conventional alloy. The lower steady-state creep rate was related to the dispersion of nano-sized Y-Al-O particles, which may impede grain boundary diffusion. It seems that cracks preferentially developed near some large rod-like AlN particles, resulting in the brittle creep fracture mode.