NSUF 19-2889: Dose rate effects on irradiation-enhanced precipitation in FeCrAl alloys
The objective of this project is to investigate the role of irradiation-induced defect clusters and pre-clustering on the formation of alpha’ precipitates in FeCrAl alloys and other high-Cr ferritic alloys. First-order dependencies of alpha’ phase precipitation in FeCrAl alloys have been investigated in a number of previous studies. However, higher-order factors affection this phase change are not well understood at this time. Further information on this subject is expected to support licensing of this class of alloys for LWR systems and ultimately impact development of a broader class of high-Cr ferrous-based alloys for nuclear applications. To this end, the proposed work seeks to characterize the precipitate structure of a low-dose rate, ion irradiated specimen following a series of heat treatments. The sample is a Fe-18Cr-3Al model alloy that has been ion irradiated at the Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory (MIBL) with 5 MeV Fe2+ ions to a nominal damage dose of 0.5 dpa at 400 °C at a low dose rate of approximately 10-6 dpa/s. APT specimens will be prepared from the sample using FIB at the Oregon State University Electron Microscopy Facility (EMF) from the irradiated and unirradiated region in the as-received condition as well as after a series of heat treatments at 400 °C for 10, 100, and 1000 hrs. Final tip sharpening will be performed using the FIB at the Microscopy and Characterization Suite (MaCS) at the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) just prior to data collection on the LEAP 4000HR. Data analysis and reconstruction will be performed using the IVAS software using established techniques for quantifying alpha’ precipitates in this class of alloys. The resulting reconstructions should allow for a definitive determination regarding whether irradiation-induced defect clusters serve as preferential nucleation sites to further promote phase separation alongside irradiation-enhanced diffusion effects. This project is projected to take approximately 6 months to complete. Sample preparation and heat treatments can begin immediately following the notification of award, though heat treatments will take some time. Sample preparation and data collection is expected to take no more than 3 months. Data analysis and reporting will take approximately 3 months from the date of final data collection.
Additional Info
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Abstract | The objective of this project is to investigate the role of irradiation-induced defect clusters and pre-clustering on the formation of alpha’ precipitates in FeCrAl alloys and other high-Cr ferritic alloys. First-order dependencies of alpha’ phase precipitation in FeCrAl alloys have been investigated in a number of previous studies. However, higher-order factors affection this phase change are not well understood at this time. Further information on this subject is expected to support licensing of this class of alloys for LWR systems and ultimately impact development of a broader class of high-Cr ferrous-based alloys for nuclear applications. To this end, the proposed work seeks to characterize the precipitate structure of a low-dose rate, ion irradiated specimen following a series of heat treatments. The sample is a Fe-18Cr-3Al model alloy that has been ion irradiated at the Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory (MIBL) with 5 MeV Fe2+ ions to a nominal damage dose of 0.5 dpa at 400 °C at a low dose rate of approximately 10-6 dpa/s. APT specimens will be prepared from the sample using FIB at the Oregon State University Electron Microscopy Facility (EMF) from the irradiated and unirradiated region in the as-received condition as well as after a series of heat treatments at 400 °C for 10, 100, and 1000 hrs. Final tip sharpening will be performed using the FIB at the Microscopy and Characterization Suite (MaCS) at the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) just prior to data collection on the LEAP 4000HR. Data analysis and reconstruction will be performed using the IVAS software using established techniques for quantifying alpha’ precipitates in this class of alloys. The resulting reconstructions should allow for a definitive determination regarding whether irradiation-induced defect clusters serve as preferential nucleation sites to further promote phase separation alongside irradiation-enhanced diffusion effects. This project is projected to take approximately 6 months to complete. Sample preparation and heat treatments can begin immediately following the notification of award, though heat treatments will take some time. Sample preparation and data collection is expected to take no more than 3 months. Data analysis and reporting will take approximately 3 months from the date of final data collection. |
| Award Announced Date | 2019-09-17T14:47:10.903 |
| Awarded Institution | None |
| Facility | None |
| Facility Tech Lead | Yaqiao Wu |
| Irradiation Facility | None |
| PI | Samuel A. Briggs |
| PI Email | [email protected] |
| Project Type | RTE |
| RTE Number | 2889 |