Plastic deformation behavior and bonding strength of an EBW joint between 9Cr-ODS and JLF-1 estimated by symmetric four-point bend tests combined with FEM analysis

The joint between 9Cr-ODS and JLF-1 made by electron beam welding (EBW) fractured at the JLF-1 base metal (BM) during uniaxial tensile tests. Thus, the bonding strength of the joint was not determined and was estimated as more than the ultimate tensile strength of the BM in this case. Symmetric four-point bend tests which concentrate the stress inside the inner span including the weld metal (WM) were carried out at room temperature (RT) and 550 °C to investigate how the bonding strength is more than the ultimate tensile strength of the BM. The normal stress at the center of the weld bead can be calculated with elastic theory up to only 0.25% in strain, though the joint showed more than 10% in strain due to plastic deformation. Thus, finite element method (FEM) was utilized to simulate the plastic deformation behavior of the joint during bend tests. According to the fitting of the FEM output, such as load and displacement of the upper jig contacting the specimens, to the experimental results, the bonding strength of the joint at RT and 550 °C were estimated as 854 MPa and 505 MPa, respectively.