About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2026 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Accelerated Qualification Methods for Nuclear Reactor Structural Materials
|
| Presentation Title |
In-situ precession-assisted four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) study of initial Zr oxidation under water vapor and oxygen |
| Author(s) |
Yongwen Sun, Ying Han, Dan Zhou, Athanassios S. Galanis, Alejandro Gomez-Perez, Ke Wang, Stavros Nicolopoulos, Hugo Perez Garza, Yang Yang |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Yongwen Sun |
| Abstract Scope |
Zirconium (Zr) alloys widely used as cladding materials in light water reactors, are susceptible to oxidation which compromises mechanical integrity and limits service life. We present an in-situ strain/phase mapping method that integrates four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM), MEMS gas-cell holder, precession electron diffraction (PED), and direct electron detector (DED) to observe early-stage oxidation in water vapor and oxygen environments separately. This workflow enables real-time monitoring of strain evolution at nanometer resolution across large fields of view. Differences in Zr strain localization/oxide phase distribution between water vapor and oxygen environments have been observed. Complementary molecular dynamics simulations at picosecond and nanometer scales provide further insight into the factors affecting these behaviors. Our integrated workflow provides a platform for probing initial oxidation processes in Zr alloys and can be readily extended to other corrosion studies. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Characterization, Nuclear Materials, Phase Transformations |