Research Progress of Steels for Nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessels

作者：Linjun Zhou, Jie Dai, Yang Li, Xin Dai, Changsheng Xie, Linze Li, Liansheng Chen · 发表于：Materials · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.3390/ma15248761 · 被引用次数：36 · 研究领域：Nuclear Materials and Properties、Hydrogen embrittlement and corrosion behaviors in metals、Fatigue and fracture mechanics

The nuclear reactor pressure vessel is an important component of a nuclear power plant. It has been used in harsh environments such as high temperature, high pressure, neutron irradiation, thermal aging, corrosion and fatigue for a long time, which puts forward higher standards for the performance requirements for nuclear pressure vessel steel. Based on the characteristics of large size and wall thickness of the nuclear pressure vessel, combined with its performance requirements, this work studies the problems of forging technology, mechanical properties, irradiation damage, corrosion failure, thermal aging behavior and fatigue properties, and summarizes the research progress of nuclear pressure vessel materials. The influencing factors of microstructures evolution and mechanism of mechanical properties change of nuclear pressure vessel steel are analyzed in this work. The mechanical properties before and after irradiation are compared, and the influence mechanisms of irradiation hardening and embrittlement are also summarized. Although the stainless steel will be surfacing on the inner wall of nuclear pressure vessel to prevent corrosion, long-term operation may cause aging or deterioration of stainless steel, resulting in corrosion caused by the contact between the primary circuit water environment and the nuclear pressure vessel steel. Therefore, the corrosion behavior of nuclear pressure vessels materials is also summarized in detail. Meanwhile, the evolution mechanism of...