Abstract
FeCrAl alloys with varying compositions and microstructures are under consideration for accident-tolerant fuel cladding, but limited details exist on dislocation loop formation and growth for this class of alloys under neutron irradiation. Four model FeCrAl alloys with chromium contents ranging from 10.01 to 17.51 wt % and aluminum contents of 4.78 to 2.93 wt % were neutron irradiated to doses of 0.3–0.8 displacements per atom (dpa) at temperatures of 335–355 °C. On-zone STEM imaging revealed a mixed population of black dots and larger dislocation loops with either a/2〈111〉 or a〈100〉 Burgers vectors. Weak composition dependencies were observed and varied depending on whether the defect size, number density, or ratio of defect types was of interest. Results were found to mirror those of previous studies on FeCrAl and FeCr alloys irradiated under similar conditions, although distinct differences exist.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 20-26 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 495 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2017 |
Funding
The authors would like to thank the Irradiated Materials Examination and Testing facility and Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis laboratory staff for their continuing support of this research. Research was sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy, Advanced Fuel Campaign of the Fuel Cycle R&D program. Neutron irradiation of FeCrAl alloys at ORNL's HFIR user facility was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, DOE. A portion of support for one of the authors (SAB) was provided by the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy University Programs.
Keywords
- Accident tolerant
- Dislocation
- FeCrAl
- Radiation effects