Study of tensile test behavior of austenitic stainless steel type 347 seamless thin-walled tubes in coldworked condition

Abstract

These austenitic stainless steel type 347 seamless thin-walled tubes are potential candidates to be used in fuel elements of nuclear power plants (as PWR – Pressurized Water Reactor). So, their metallurgical condition and mechanical properties, as the tensile strength and yield strength, normally are very restrict in demanding project and design requirements. Several full size tensile tests at room temperature and high temperature (315ºC) were performed in these seamless tubes in cold-worked condition. The results of specified tensile and yield strengths were achieved but the elongation of the tube, in the geometry of the component, could not be measured at high temperature due to unconventional mode of rupture (helical mode without separation of parts). The average value of elongation was obtained from stress-strain curves of hot tensile tests and was around 5%. The results obtained in this research show that this behavior of the full size tensile test samples of thin-walled tube (wall thickness less than 0.5 mm) in high temperature (315ºC) is due to the combination of the manufacturing process, the material (crystallographic structure and chemical composition) and the final geometry of the component. In other words, the strong crystallographic texture of material induced by tube drawing process in addition with the geometry of the component are responsible for the behavior in hot uniaxial tensile tests.