Creep behaviour of modified 9Cr–1Mo ferritic steel

Creep deformation and fracture behaviour of indigenously developed modified 9Cr–1Mo steel for steam generator (SG) tube application has been examined at 823, 848 and 873 K. Creep tests were performed on flat creep specimens machined from normalised and tempered SG tubes at stresses ranging from 125 to 275 MPa. The stress dependence of minimum creep rate obeyed Norton’s power law. Similarly, the rupture life dependence on stress obeyed a power law. The fracture mode remained transgranular at all test conditions examined. The analysis of creep data indicated that the steel obey Monkman–Grant and modified Monkman–Grant relationships and display high creep damage tolerance factor. The tertiary creep was examined in terms of the variations of time to onset of tertiary creep with rupture life, and a recently proposed concept of time to reach Monkman–Grant ductility, and its relationship with rupture life that depends only on damage tolerance factor. SG tube steel exhibited creep-rupture strength comparable to those reported in literature and specified in the nuclear design code RCC-MR.