Initiation of the Shape Memory Effect by Fast Neutron Irradiation

The band sample of austenitic steel 0.3C–13Cr–10Mn–3Si–1V was cold deformed to a shape of circular arc with a deflection of 3 mm and then irradiated by fast neutrons with a fluence of 6×1019 cm–2 in the vertical wet channel of the IVV-2M reactor at a temperature of 80 °C. This material belongs to the class of the stainless manganese austenitic steels with the shape memory effect (SME). The neutron irradiation was initially supposed to lower the SME upon the further heating in comparison with the reference sample. But instead, the SME appeared immediately under irradiation showing a decrease in the deflection of about 21 %. Check experiments confirmed that the lower limit of the SME in this material is 120 °C with its absence at 80 °C. This allows us to assert that the observed effect is the result of the neutron irradiation.