In order to study the behavior of nuclear materials under dynamic stress, CEA Valduc wishes to develop a new device integrated into a glove box. For this purpose, a collaboration with CEA GRAMAT and an industrial specialist in the field has been set up. During the experiments conducted with thisdevice, some components are subjected to very high temperatures and the presence of gaseous hydrogen for a very short time.
Initially, different grades of austenitic steels were tested under these severe conditions and a prototype was ordered and received at the industrial site.
The study has three objectives. The first is the acquisition of new experimental mechanical and microstructural data at the micrometric scale from the previously exposed steel batches. The second concerns the microstructural analysis of thermal fatigue. Finally, the third and final objective is the integration of these new data into a numerical tool for microstructural evolution simulation aiming at reproducing the global effect of aging, in thermal and pressure cycles by coupling, for example, CALPHAD-type codes and the use of multiphysical COMSOL-type codes.
The work will take place according to the three components carried out in parallel. It will also be requested from the post-doctoral student in charge of this study to:
- participate to the implementation and monitoring of collaborations with recognized experts in the fields of embrittlement, thermal fatigue, and microstructural analysis,
- synthesize and publish, as far as possible, the results obtained in the form of various documents and publications in international journals or conference communications