Impact of Rare Earth Addition on Creep Rupture Behavior of 316LN Austenitic Stainless Steel at 700°C

Effect of rare earth (RE) on creep rupture behavior of 316LN austenitic stainless steel (316LN steel) was investigated after crept at 700°C under the stress in the range from 125MPa to 200MPa, by the optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The results show RE addition in 316LN steel increased the creep rupture ductility at high stress, but reduced the creep rupture ductility at low stress. Under 200MPa, RE addition increased the creep rupture strain of 316LN steel from 0.558 to 0.787 but the creep rupture strain after crept under 150MPa was decreased from 0.875 to 0.566. The fracture mode of 316LN steel was also apparently impacted by the RE addition. The typical ductile fracture feature of homogeneous dense dimples was obviously observed in NRE steel after crept rupture under all stresses. While in 32RE steel, small amount of intergranular fracture fractographs under low stress appeared instead of partial dimples under high stress. Moreover, it is noted that RE addition in 316LN steel promotes to precipitate a great number of fine Laves particles within grains. These Laves particles strengthening the matrix resulted in the strain concentration on grain boundaries, which might sensitively induce crack initiation on grain boundaries during long-term creep under the low stress.