Abstract: Nickel steel plates including 5% Ni, 7% Ni and 9% Ni steel are mainly used for cryogenic storage tanks with temperatures ranging from -90 ℃ to -196 ℃. Many national standards have been established for these Nickel steels. Due to the complexity of these standards of low-temperature nickel steels and enormous distinctions of the technical specifications in these standards, this paper's focus is to analyze and compare the main properties of the above materials, including chemical composition, mechanical properties and heat treatment processes, set in American ASTM, European EN, Japanese JIS, Chinese GB standards and some industrial enterprise standards as well. The paper not only summarizes the similarities and differences between the above standards and specifications, but also investigates some critical issues such as heat treatment temperatures, supply conditions and impact performance requirements which are directly related to low-temperature performance. Furthermore, it provides certain referential criteria for the selection of material for cryogenic storage tanks under different conditions.

Key words: nickel series low temperature steel, cryogenic storage tank, performance comparison, standard