Fatigue response and life prediction of selected reactor materials

This paper analyzes experimental fatigue response for selected unirradiated and irradiated reactor materials: AISI 316 stainless steel, ferritic/martensitic MANET and HT9 steels. Available tensile test results on the same or similar materials are used to predict changes in fatigue response using the Universal Slopes method. The predictions are compared with the experimental data to assess the potential for using tensile data to predict reactor component fatigue response. It was found that the effect of irradiation on fatigue life was less severe than on tensile properties. However, tensile properties are useful for qualitative predictions of fatigue response.