Liquid Metal Embrittlement of Type 304 Stainless Steel by Liquid Mercury
Abstract
Liquid metal induced embrittlement (LMIE) refers to the presence ofa liquid metal environment lowering a normally ductile metal's fracture toughness or ductility at fracture [I].. In the last ten years at Oklahoma State University, LMIE of nickel-base alloys by liquid mercury has been extensively investigated. Additionally, it is known that austenitic stainless steel and liquid mercury constitute an embrittlement couple. Due to compositional and structural similarities between nickel-base alloys and austenitic stainless steels, it can be inferred that some similarity of embrittlement behavior in liquid mercury environments should exist. Therefore, the thrust ofthe present study is to first summarize embrittlement behaviors and phenomena in the nickel-base alloys resulting from earlier studies. Then, AISI Type S30400, the most widely used commercial austenitic stainless steel, will be examined to determine if the same generalizations for embrittlement phenomena in nickel-base alloys hold for embrittlement of austenitic stainless steels.
Collections
- OSU Theses [15752]