Baseline Program

​​​​​​​​​​​The Baseline Program is the graphite unirradiated material property testing program of the DOE-ART​ Graphite R&D Program​. The Baseline Program provides a large database of material property data for each of the graphite grades used within the irradiated Advanced Graphite Creep (AGC) Program​. It is intended to provide a large data pool of accurate material property values across multiple billets and multiple batches for each grade of graphite. Changes to material property values induced by irradiation can then be determined from the irradiated material property tests of the AGC experiments. This allows the user to identify irradiation effects on specific graphite grades used in the ART Graphite R&D Program. The data can also be used to determine how oxidation and interactions with other materials, such as molten salt, affect material properties. Finally, the Baseline Program data can be used to complete Material Data Sheets specified within the ASME Boiler Pressure and Vessel Code (BPVC) for graphite components used in nuclear applications (Article HHA) for the specific graphite grade.

The testing methodology is visually illustrated in the figure below and show how the samples are selected and machined from raw billets for each graphite grade, the sample geometries for testing (strength, elastic modulus, CTE, and thermal diffusivity), and the orientation/location of the specimens within the raw billets.