During their service in a nuclear power plant, structural materials are subject to high temperature, mechanical stress, corrosive coolant environments, and neutron irradiation. The combination of radiation, corrosion and thermo-mechanical loading represents a unique environment that materials must endure: radiation can significantly alter the material’s thermo-mechanical performance and the lifetime of a component. The conditions under which this happens are difficult to study and normally necessitate nuclear reactor experiments followed by post-irradiation examination in hot cells, which renders investigations complex, time consuming and expensive. While few attempts have been made to study the combined effects of radiation and corrosion with lead bismuth eutectic [1] or molten salts [2] none of these experimental set-ups were designed to study the combination of corrosion and irradiation together with mechanical loading. Here the development of a miniature test technique is presented where irradiation, corrosion and strain can synergistically be applied on a material in a controlled way. The experiment is based on scaling down the membrane bulge test [3], using liquid lead as a pressure medium at high temperature. Membrane type specimens are made from the structural material to study, with their back side pressurized thereby inducing corrosion and membrane stretching stress while irradiation damage is generated by proton irradiation at the front surface affecting the entire thickness to the back side of the sample. The paper presents the way how the engineering problems related to the combination of corrosion by liquid metal, stress application and irradiation of the sample have been addressed.

在核电站中使用期间，结构材料会遭受高温，机械应力，腐蚀性冷却剂环境和中子辐射的影响。辐射，腐蚀和热机械载荷的组合代表了材料必须承受的独特环境：辐射会显着改变材料的热机械性能和部件的寿命。发生这种情况的条件很难研究，通常需要进行核反应堆实验，然后在热室中进行辐照后检查，这使研究变得复杂，耗时且昂贵。尽管很少有人尝试研究铅铋共晶[1]或熔融盐[2]对辐射和腐蚀的综合影响，但这些实验装置都没有设计用来研究腐蚀和辐射与机械载荷的结合。此处介绍了微型测试技术的发展，其中可以以受控方式将辐照，腐蚀和应变协同作用应用于材料。该实验基于缩小膜膨胀试验[3]，使用液态铅作为高温下的压力介质。膜状标本由结构材料制成，用于研究，它们的背面被加压，从而引起腐蚀和膜拉伸应力，而前表面的质子辐照会产生辐照损伤，从而影响样品背面的整个厚度。本文介绍了如何解决与液态金属腐蚀，应力施加和样品辐照相结合的工程问题。