Mechanical properties of friction welds of RAFs (JLF-1) to SUS304 steels as measured by the acoustic emission technique

The purpose of this paper is not only the optimization of friction welding with more reliability and wider application, but also the development of a method to perform in-process real-time weld quality (such as strength and ductility) evaluation using acoustic emission for dissimilar friction welding of nuclear reactor components from JLF-1 and SUS304. It was confirmed experimentally that real-time quality evaluation of a weld was possible by acoustic emission (AE) technique. The main friction welding parameters were selected to ensure good quality welds on the basis of visual examination, tensile tests, and Vickers hardness surveys of the bond of area and heat affected zone (HAZ). The results of this study will be useful for fundamental data in the blanket structure of fusion reactor.