RECENT INSIGHTS ON THE PARAMETRIC DEPENDENCE OF IRRADIATION CREEP OF AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEELS

This paper is the fourth in a series that reexamines older data on irradiation creep of austenitic stainless steels and combines it with data from more recent experiments to develop a comprehensive but relatively simple understanding of irradiation creep and its dependence on fabrication and environmental variables. Of particular importance are the roles of void or bubble-induced swelling to accelerate creep and of carbide densification to obscure early swelling and creep strains. This paper particularly focuses on one experiment to explore the effect of compressive stress states and another experiment to examine the impact of changes in irradiation temperature and stress level.