The effect of creep on magnetic domain structure of heat resistant steels

The magnetic domain and magnetic properties of heat resistant steels including 10CrMo910, P91 and 23CrMoNiWV88 are investigated in the present work. The magnetic properties characterized by magnetic hysteresis loop of the three materials under 500-600 degrees C are measured by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The magnetic domain structure of as-received and crept specimens is observed by magnetic force microscope (MFM). The magnetic domain of ferrite phase change from initial stripe pattern to maze pattern during creep. The black and white fringes and stripe-like pattern have also been found in the P91 and 23CrMoNiWV88 specimens, respectively. The experimental results reveal that the magnetic domain structure is strongly influenced by microstructures with different distributions of the carbides. It is shown that the coercivity and remanence of each material although has a remarkable decrease at 500-600 degrees C especially for P91 almost 64% decrease, it's still the same magnitude as the one at room temperature. All the short-term crept specimens with different creep damage have a linear increase in coercivity and remanence comparing to the as-received 10CrMo910 specimens. These results indicate that it should be possible to develop an in-situ monitoring technology for creep damage based on magnetism measurement.