Most research to date concerning the cryogenic toughness of austenitic stainless steels has concentrated on the base metal and weld metal in weldments. The most severe problem faced on the conventional austenitic stainless steel is the thermal aging d...
Most research to date concerning the cryogenic toughness of austenitic stainless steels has concentrated on the base metal and weld metal in weldments. The most severe problem faced on the conventional austenitic stainless steel is the thermal aging degradation such as sensitization and carbide induced embrittlement. In this paper, we investigate the cryogenic toughness degradation which can be occurred for austenitic stainless in welding. The test materials are austenitic stainless JN1, JJ1 and JK2 steels, which are materials recently developed for use in nuclear fusion apparatus at cryogenic temperature. The small punch(SP) test was conducted to detect similar isothermally aging condition with material degradation occurred in service welding. The single-specimen unloading compliance method was used to determine toughness degradation caused by thermal aging for austenitic stainless steels. In addition, we have investigated size effect on fracture toughness by using 20% side-grooved 0.5TCT specimens.