On High Temperature Behaviours Of Heat Resistant Austenitic Alloys

Advanced heat resistant materials are important to achieve the transition to long term sustainable power generation. The global increase in energy consumption and the global warming from greenhouse gas emissions create the need for more sustainable power generation processes. Biomass-fired power plants with higher efficiency could generate more power but also reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, e.g. CO2. Biomass offers no net contribution of CO2 to the atmosphere. To obtain greater efficiency of power plants, one option is to increase the temperature and the pressure in the boiler section of the power plant. This requires improved material properties, such as higher yield strength, creep strength and high-temperature corrosion resistance, as well as structural integrity and safety. Today, some austenitic stainless steels are design to withstand temperatures up to 650 °C in tough environments. Nickel-based alloys are designed to withstand even higher temperatures. Austenitic stainless steels are more cost effective than nickel-based alloys due to a lower amount of expensive alloying elements. However, the performance of austenitic stainless steels at the elevated temperatures of future operation conditions in biomass-red power plants is not yet fully understood. This thesis presents research on the influence of long term high-temperature ageing on mechanical properties, the influence of very slow deformation rates at high-temperature on deformation, damage and fracture, and the influence of high-temperature environment and cyclic operation conditions on the material behaviour. Mechanical and thermal testing have been performed followed by subsequent studies of the microstructure, using scanning electron microscopy, to investigate the material behaviours. Results shows that long term ageing at high temperatures leads to the precipitation of intermetallic phases. These intermetallic phases are brittle at room temperature and become detrimental for the impact toughness of some of the austenitic stainless steels. During slow strain rate tensile deformation at elevated temperature time dependent deformation and recovery mechanisms are pronounced. The creep-fatigue interaction behaviour of an austenitic stainless steel show that dwell time gives shorter life at a lower strain range, but has none or small effect on the life at a higher strain range. Finally, this research results in an increased knowledge of the structural, mechanical and chemical behaviour as well as a deeper understanding of the deformation, damage and fracture mechanisms that occur in heat resistant austenitic alloys at high-temperature environments. It is believed that in the long term, this can contribute to material development achieving the transition to more sustainable power generation in biomass-red power plants.

The global energy consumption is increasing and together with global warming from greenhouse gas emission, create the need for more environmental friendly energy production processes. Higher efficiency of biomass power plants can be achieved by increasing temperature and pressure in the boiler section and this would increase the generation of electricity along with the reduction in emission of greenhouse gases e.g. CO2. The power generation must also be flexible to be able to follow the demands of the energy market, this results in a need for cyclic operating conditions with alternating output and multiple start-ups and shut-downs. Because of the demands of flexibility, higher temperature and higher pressure in the boiler section of future biomass power plants, the demands on improved mechanical properties of the materials of these components are also increased. Properties like creep strength, thermomechanical fatigue resistance and high temperature corrosion resistance are critical for materials used in the next generation biomass power plants. Austenitic stainless steels are known to possess such good high temperature properties and are relatively cheap compared to the nickel-base alloys, which are already operating at high temperature cyclic conditions in other applications. The behaviour of austenitic stainless steels during these widened operating conditions are not yet fully understood. The aim of this licentiate thesis is to increase the knowledge of the mechanical behaviour at high temperature cyclic conditions for austenitic stainless steels. This is done by the use of thermomechanical fatigue- and creepfatigue testing at elevated temperatures. For safety reasons, the effect of prolonged service degradation is investigated by pre-ageing before mechanical testing. Microscopy is used to investigate the microstructural development and resulting damage behaviour of the austenitic stainless steels after testing. The results show that creep-fatigue interaction damage, creep damage and oxidation assisted cracking are present at high temperature cyclic conditions. In addition, simulated service degradation resulted in a detrimental embrittling effect due to the deterioration by the microstructural evolution.

Materials covered include carbon, alloy and stainless steels; alloy cast irons; high-alloy cast steels; superalloys; titanium and titanium alloys; refractory metals and alloys; nickel-chromium and nickel-thoria alloys; structural intermetallics; structural ceramics, cermets, and cemented carbides; and carbon-composites.

Selected peer-reviewed full text papers from the 3rd International Conference on Advanced Materials Characterization Techniques (AMCT 2019) Selected, peer-reviewed papers from the 3rd International Conference on Advanced Materials Characterization Techniques (AMCT 2019), July 23-24, 2019, Kangar, Malaysia

This concise survey describes the requirements on materials operating in high-temperature environments and the processes that increase the temperature capability of metals, ceramics, and composites. The major part deals with the applicable materials and their specific properties, with one entire chapter devoted to coatings. Written for engineering and science students, researchers, and managers in industry.