Plasticity improvement and radiation hardening reduction of Y doped V-4Cr-4Ti alloy

Abstract

In current work, V-4Cr-4Ti and V-4Cr-4Ti-2Y alloys are prepared using mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering. Sequential-beam irradiation of 30 keV H+ and 50 keV He+ ions, are carried out at 450 ℃ to the peak damage of 0.18 dpa. The influence of Y on the microstructure, mechanical properties, radiation induced defect and radiation-hardening are investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), mechanical test, and nano-indentation test. Two kinds of Y-rich particles precipitated in Y added alloy, one is Y2O3 phase with a mean size of 60 nm, the other is YVO4 with a diameter of ∼10 nm, but no carbide of Y is observed. The results show that Y can significantly improve plasticity of V base alloy, reduce the size and number density of radiation induced dislocation loops, limit radiation hardening. Two different fitting process with different initial values and boundary conditions are used to analysis radiation hardening, the fitting results indicate a slight softening of matrix near damage layer which named softened layer. This softened layer can affect nanoindentation test results especially for shallow irradiation. A plausible explanation for the formation of this softened layer could be the oxygen diffuses from unirradiated region to damage layer.