Effect of weld thermal cycle, stress and helium content on helium bubble formation in stainless steels

Helium bubble structure was examined on a helium-implanted stainless steel after applying thermal and stress cycle using a weld thermal and stress cycle simulator. Helium ions were implanted on Type 304 stainless steels up to 200 appm uniformly to a depth of 3.5 μm. The specimens were heated at various temperatures between 1073 and 1473 K for 2 s in Ar gas atmosphere. Tensile stresses from 0.5 to 8 MPa were applied during the thermal cycle. TEM observations revealed that size of the bubbles at grain boundaries was larger for the specimens with a higher tensile stress and with a higher annealing temperature. Densities of bubbles increased with increasing helium content. A theoretical model calculation showed a good agreement with the experimental results.