About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
Materials in Nuclear Energy Systems (MiNES) 2025
|
| Symposium
|
Materials in Nuclear Energy Systems (MiNES) 2025
|
| Presentation Title |
Testing Refractory Compositionally Complex Alloys for Phase Stability in High Radiation Environments |
| Author(s) |
Sydney E. Copp, Siwei Chen, Yajie Zhao, Sicilia Christadore, Brennan Paterson, Carla Nocheseda, Eric Lass, Steven Zinkle |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Sydney E. Copp |
| Abstract Scope |
Compositionally complex alloys (CCAs) are promising high performance structural material candidates for future nuclear reactors. Their complex atomistic makeup and multi-principal element design is hypothesized to improve the phase stability, thereby improving the radiation resistance and minimizing mechanical property changes when exposed to environmental extremes. This study focuses on HfTiZrTa0.5 material with two different heat treatments to simultaneously produce high strength and ductility. Polished samples were irradiated using 9 MeV copper ions at room temperature, 400 oC, or 800oC to a midrange dose of either 1 or 10 dpa. Post-irradiation characterization using SEM, TEM, glancing incidence x-ray diffraction, and nanoindentation revealed unexpected surface roughness and texturing across different crystallographic directions in each respective grain following irradiation at 800oC. Nanoindentation results showed good agreement in hardness values after irradiation for the two heat treatments, indicating that irradiation-induced defects dominated the mechanical response and minimized the influence of any pre-existing differences from processing techniques. Additional evidence of radiation-enhanced phase separation and microstructural transformations were consistent with deformation-induced phase evolution. Understanding the behavior of these materials under environmental extremes provides insight into their viability as nuclear structural materials. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Undecided |