On anisotropy of ferritic ODS alloys

Ferritic oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloys are candidate materials to be used as cladding for long term fast reactors, due to their high strength at high temperature and good swelling and irradiation resistances. The fabrication of cladding tubes is usually made by a succession of cold deformation steps where a deformation induced anisotropic microstructure could take place, which would affect the mechanical behaviour of the tube. The characterisation of this microstructural anisotropy is one of the key issues in the development of cladding ODS tubes. In this paper, the microstructural anisotropy of a Fe-14Cr-ODS extruded bar and a Fe-12Cr-ODS plate is characterised and its effect on the mechanical properties is analysed by tensile, impact and small punch testing. In both materials, a reduction of the ductility is observed in the transverse specimens. In addition, the fracture behaviour seems to be strongly dependent on the location of the crack plane regarding the elongated grained microstructure.