Creep ruptures of AISI 347 austenitic stainless steel foils at elevated temperature of 750 ℃

Abstract

The creep rupture properties of AISI 347 austenitic stainless steel foil used in compact recuperators have been evaluated at 750 ℃ in the stress range of 54–221 MPa to establish baseline behavior for its extended use. The creep curve of the foil shows that the primary creep stage is brief and creep life is dominated by tertiary creep deformation with rupture lives in the range 3–433 h. Power law relationship was obtained between the minimum creep rate and the applied stress with stress exponent value of n = 4.25. The creep damage tolerance parameter for specimen tested at 750 ℃ and 54 MPa indicates that creep fracture takes place by precipitate coarsening mechanism. Nucleation of voids mainly occurs at second-phase particles (Cr23C6 carbides). The improvement in strength is attributed to the precipitation of fine niobium carbides in the matrix which prevents dislocation movement of the microstructure.