Measurement of the effects of helium (from tritium decay) on the weldability of Types 304 and ITER Grade 316LN stainless steel demonstrated the inherent complexities in designing and conducting an experimental program using tritium-charged-and-aged materials to simulate the effects of irradiation-induced helium on weld behavior. Differences in microstructure, surface condition and alloy chemist...

We study the embrittlement of Ni due to the presence of S impurities, considering their effect in the bulk and at grain boundaries (GBs). For bulk Ni, we employ Rice’s theory based on generalized-stacking-fault energetics and the unstable stacking energy criterion. We use first-principles density-functionaltheory calculations to determine the ductility parameter D = γs/γus, the ratio of the sur...

Microwave heating stands as a strong candidate for selective liberation of multiphase materials like concrete. It takes advantage of the differences in thermal, dielectric and mechanical properties of each of the components to create stress gradients that can lead to grain boundary fracture and embrittlement. The work and results reported are concerned with selective liberation of concrete’s ra...

In high-strength steels it is often difficult to distinguish between hydrogen embrittlement and various other brittle failure mechanisms. The objective of this work was to develop a sensitive analytical procedure based on secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) that would allow in-service identification of local hydrogen accumulation, either during quality control or during failure analysis of e...