About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2026 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Special Topics in Nuclear Materials: Reproducibility and Uncertainty; Hydrogen Effects; Space and Microreactor Systems
|
| Presentation Title |
Deleterious Effect of Electrical Discharge Machining Interaction Layer on Metallic Zirconium Hydride Conversion Process |
| Author(s) |
Mary O'Brien, Austin DePottey, Darrell Cheu, Caitlin Kohnert, Tom Nizolek, Rafael Spillers |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Mary O'Brien |
| Abstract Scope |
Metallic hydrides are highly desirable moderator materials for space and small modular reactor applications due to their ability to sustain relatively high hydrogen densities at elevated temperatures. As a result, recent work has focused on the optimization of the direct metal hydriding processes for producing metal hydrides. The zirconium hydride system is of particular interest, and here we present hydrides made from zircaloy-4 starting material. This study presents the deleterious effect of electrical discharge machining (EDM) interaction layers on the hydride manufacturing process of zirconium hydride. We present classic intergranular fracture in conjunction with elemental analysis by energy dispersion spectroscopy results to support our purported mechanism of liquid metal embrittlement due to reactions in the EDM interaction layer at the temperatures relevant to the hydride conversion process. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Nuclear Materials, Characterization, |