Dissertation
THE EFFECT OF FABRICATION PARAMETERS ON THE MICROSTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN U-10Mo ALLOYS
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2020
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111502
Abstract
Uranium alloyed with 10 wt% molybdenum (U-10Mo) system has been the subject of recent interest for its potential application as a replacement fuel in advanced nuclear research reactors within the United States. The alloy can be processed into a monolithic fuel foil bonded to a thin zirconium interlayer and an aluminum cladding. While the alloy in this form is stable under irradiation by current standards for U.S. high-performance reactors, the alloy microstructure and performance as a function of thermomechanical process parameters needs to be completely understood. Manufacturing the U-10Mo alloy involves a series of thermomechanical processing steps, including casting, homogenization, hot rolling, annealing, cold rolling, and hot isostatic pressing (HIP). According to the equilibrium phase diagram of the UMo system, the high-temperature γ-UMo phase, though stable at room temperature, decomposes into orthorhombic α-U and body-centered tetragonal γ’-phase through a eutectoid transformation below the eutectoid temperature(~565°C). It is known that U-10Mo alloy has isotropic thermomechanical properties and swelling response in the γ-U phase, while the α-phase, stable at reactor operating temperatures, swells anisotropically and is unfavorable for fuel performance. Minimizing the phase transformation kinetics in this alloy as a function of thermomechanical processing becomes very critical. Thus, understanding the mechanism of phase transformation, along with its growth and preventing it in U-10Mo as a function of thermomechanical processing steps is the primary focus of this work.
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Details
- Title
- THE EFFECT OF FABRICATION PARAMETERS ON THE MICROSTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN U-10Mo ALLOYS
- Creators
- Vineet Varesh Joshi
- Contributors
- David P Field (Advisor)Amit Bandyopadhyay (Committee Member)Qizhen Li (Committee Member)Scott Whalen (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Materials Science and Engineering Program
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 152
- Identifiers
- 99900581500001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation