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Long-term operation of nuclear power plants requires reliable monitoring of thermally aged materials while minimizing the amount of removed material. This paper presents the application of the Small Punch Test (SPT) as an additional mechanical testing method for monitoring the properties of austenitic main circulation piping material. The initial properties of the unexposed material were determined by a combination of standard mechanical tests and SPT performed on discs with a diameter of 8 mm and a thickness of 0.5 mm in accordance with EN 10371. The SPT methodology was used to determine yield strength and ultimate tensile strength from characteristic forces on the load–displacement curve and to determine fracture-related SPT energy as the integral under the curve up to specimen perforation. The tensile properties derived from SPT are in good agreement with the results of standard tensile tests. The presented dataset demonstrates that SPT can be used not only as a supplementary tool, but as an effective method for long-term surveillance programs with limited material availability.
Keywords: Small punch test, austenitic steel, main circulation piping, thermal ageing© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.