Advanced Modeling of Tritium Embrittlement in Stainless Steels

Austenitic stainless steel alloys are an integral part of the infrastructure for the storage and processing of tritium. This environment causes most alloys to undergo embrittlement caused by tritium that diffuses into the material and decays to helium-3. Many studies have been performed ranging from experimental measurements of mechanical properties of embrittled steels to attempts to model the formation of bubbles caused by the tritium and decay-helium in the material. The model developed herein attempts to utilize the decades of experimental data obtained by SRNL on hydrogen and tritium-exposed stainless steels to train a data-driven model as a function of exposure environment. The results presented here will illustrate the ability to utilize data-driven model for predicting mechanical properties and will argue the ability to utilize the model for the prediction of the lifetime of embrittled materials.