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The term "Deep Tech" is prevalent in industry but ill-defined. In this extended letter, we define Deep Tech (technology that is difficult to develop today, with the potential to become a pervasive and easy-to-implement basic need in the future) and consider its role in evolving businesses. We suggest how organizations can position themselves to take advantage of a coming wave of innovation, with emphasis placed on Creative Destruction's role (cannibalizing product lines) in creating sustaining enterprises. Understanding the diffusion of technical innovation from hard-to-implement exciter to commodity basic need will encourage leaders to rethink their current offerings to play in a future-thinking space setting these companies apart from the competition. We provide examples drawn from successful organizations.

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In nuclear power plants, modified 9Cr-1Mo ferritic steel (Grade 91 or P91) is used for constructing steam generators (SG’s) whereas austenitic stainless steel (AISI 316LN) is a major structural member for intermediate heat exchanger (IHX). Therefore, a dissimilar joint between these materials is unavoidable. In this investigation, dissimilar joints were fabricated by Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) process with Inconel 82/182 filler metals. Transverse tensile properties and Charpy V-notch impact toughness for different regions of dissimilar joints of modified 9Cr-1Mo ferritic steel and AISI 316LN austenitic stainless steel were evaluated as per the standards. Microhardness distribution across the dissimilar joint was recorded. Microstructural features of different regions were characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopy. The transverse tensile properties of the joint is found to be inferior to base metals. Impact toughness values of different regions of dissimilar metal weld joint (DMWJ) is slightly higher than the prescribed value. Formation of a soft zone at the outer edge of the HAZ will reduce the tensile properties of DMWJ. The complex microstructure developed at the interfaces of DMWJ will reduce the impact toughness values.

Towards developing a constitutive model for describing the flow and fracture behaviour of engineering materials under higher strain rates, studying the deformation fields in uniform and localized deformation regime using the high strain rate tensile tests is of technical importance. To this end, high strain rate tensile tests have been carried out on flat tensile specimen of reduced activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steel at different loading rates varying from 5 m/s to 14 m/s. The strain fields at uniform and localized deformation regime have been mapped by Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique. For carrying out the DIC, high speed images of the specimen surface have been captured in-situ by high speed camera, synchronized with the loaddisplacement data acquisition system. The stress-strain fields thus obtained in this study would be an appropriate input to numerical analysis to characterize the flow and fracture behaviour of RAFM steels.

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology to predict initial crack growth behavior of crack or notch like stress raisers in AISI 316L(N) stainless steel material subjected to monotonic loading condition. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology for critical crack blunting corresponding to crack initiation in crack or notch like stress raisers is based on critical plastic strain (Epc) at a characteristic distance (lc), where uniform strain (Eu) is considered as Epc and two grain diameter is considered as lc. Further crack growth is based on parabolic crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) scheme established based on coupled experimental and FEM analysis of compact tension (CT) specimen subjected to mode-I loading condition. The FEM predicted load-displacement plots is compared with experimental result of CT specimens with different a/W ratios. It has shown that the proposed methodology could account initial crack blunting appropriately and predict the fracture load and load-displacement plots for initial crack growth regime. Findings – The results show that for crack growth with near straight crack front, experimental data from a CT specimen of particular a/W ratio coupled with plane strain 2D FEM analysis could predict load vs displacement plots for different a/W ratios when initial crack blunting is accounted appropriately with a local damage model. Originality/value – The present study is a part of developing methods to analyse fracture behavior of AISI 316L(N) SS material components used for fast breeder reactor-based power plant being built at Kalpakkam, India.