Effect of pre-deformation enhanced thermal aging on precipitation and microhardness of a reactor pressure vessel steel

Microstructure evolution in neutron irradiated Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) steels was experimentally simulated through an improved degradation procedure in this study. The degradation procedure includes austenitizing at 1 150 A degrees C and water quench, deformation 10% and 30% respectively, and then thermal aging at 500 A degrees C for different period of time. The microstructure of the specimens was analyzed in details using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The micro-hardness test results showed that all the hardness curves of undeformed, 10% pre-deformed and 30% pre-deformed specimens have two micro-hardness peaks with the first peak value corresponding to different thermal aging time of 1 hour, 5 hours and 10 hours, respectively. It was revealed that the hardness curves were influenced by the precipitation of Cu-rich precipitates (CRPs) and carbides, deposition of martensite and work hardening.