PHYSICAL-PROPERTIES IN THE TEMPERATURE-RANGE FROM-180-DEGREES-C TO 400-DEGREES-C OF NICKEL-ALLOY STEELS FOR LOW-TEMPERATURE APPLICATIONS

Nickel, which is the second neighbour to iron in the periodic table of elements, has a significant effect on most of the physical properties of the steels studied here, with the nickel content of the steels varying between 3 and 9%. Density and coercive force increase as the nickel content in the steel increases. By contrast, thermal expansion, modulus of elasticity and shear modulus decrease with increasing nickel content. Because of large scatter in the data, it is not possible to notice any significant influence of nickel content on Poisson's ratio and bulk modulus. Specific heat is also found not to vary with the nickel content of the steel. Electrical resistivity and thermal resistivity values increase, as expected, with increasing nickel content. The results of thermal conductivity measurements on 12 Ni 19 and X 8 Ni 9 have led to the development of modified Smith-Palmer relationships, which allow the calculation of the thermal conductivity values for the present set of steels and other steels with similar compositions.