Effects of heat treatment process for blanket fabrication on mechanical properties of F82H

The objectives of this work are to evaluate the effects of thermal history corresponding to a blanket fabrication process on Reduced Activation Ferritic/Martensitic steel (RAF/Ms) microstructure, and to establish appropriate Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) conditions without degradation in the micro structures. One of RAF/Ms F82H and its modified versions were investigated by metallurgical methods after isochronal heat treatments up to 1473 K simulating HIP thermal history. Although conventional F82H showed significant grain growth after conventional solid HIP conditions, F82H with 0.1 wt% tantalum maintained a fine grain structure after the same heat treatment. It is considered that the grain coarsening was caused by dissolution of tantalum-carbide which immobilizes grain boundaries. On the other hands, conventional RAF/Ms with coarse grains were recovered by post HIP normalizing at temperatures below the TaC solvus temperature. This process can refine the grain size of F82H to more than ASTM grain size number 7. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.