The effects of boron on the grain boundary and surface energies in iron at 900 and 1000 OC and AISI 316 stainless steel in the temperature range 950-1 250 OC were investigated. It was found that boron reduced these energies in a manner typical of an element with low solubility in the matrix. It has been found that boron improves the grain boundary strength of iron at low temperatures [I] and in...

The anisotropic, heterogeneous and coarse granular structures of austenitic stainless steel welds may lead to important disturbances of the ultrasonic propagation : beam skewing and splitting, attenuation, backscattering and spurious echoes. Numerous studies were undertaken by EDF R&D and CEA for a few years to study these disturbances and to improve the ultrasonic NDT in nuclear applications. ...