Simulation of Neutron Irradiation Damage in Stainless Steel by Cold Rolling

Simulation of irradiation damage in a stainless-steel type 304L was studied by means of cold rolled samples that were then subjected to different annealing cycles to assess their recovery and compare it with the behavior observed in annealed neutron irradiated samples. Changes in hardness as a function of time and temperature were used to compute the activation energy associated with the recovery in hardness; such value coincided with those reported in literature for irradiated samples. The study was coupled with the evaluation of the degree of sensitization in the cold-rolled and annealed samples by means of the electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation technique. Annealing the cold-rolled samples for 5 h at 500 °C resulted in the optimum treatment for reducing the hardness as it does not sensitize the steel.