Low temperature annealing of a cold worked Zr-Nb alloy

Abstract

When typical Zr-Nb alloys undergo thermomechanical processing, they form additional Nb nanoclusters during the irradiation. This suggests Nb remains slightly supersaturated in the a-Zr matrix. To confirm it, assuming that the defect generated during irradiation stimulates the additional formation of these Nb nanoclusters, and the diffuse path is very short, cold worked ZIRLO with a high dislocation density is annealed at a similar temperature of the nuclear power plant to see if Nb precipitation will form. The XRD was used for indirect detecting the Nb precipitation formation. The result shows that Nb may precipitate at a temperature around 400°C, the stored energy from processing and aging at a slightly higher temperature to the operating temperature of nuclear power plants can also stimulate the precipitation of Nb nanoclusters.