Stability of the body-centered cubic gamma phase in the uranium-zirconium-niobium system

Abstract

A thermodynamic representation of the stability of the binary gamma phases has been developed for the U-Zr, U-Nb and Zr-Nb binary systems. This has permitted the calculation of the miscibility gaps in the ternary system. The three binary gaps merge to form a large three-phase region in the middle of the composition trangle. Because of the large coherency energies, the spinodal decomposition in the U-Nb and Zr-Nb gaps will be drastically modified, but a large region remains in the ternary system where the decomposition products have small coherency energies such that spinodal decomposition is probable. From these results, we have identified the four decomposition processes in Mulberry (U-16.6 at% Nb-5.6 at% Zr) as being discontinuous and spinodal decomposition within the miscibility gap, the diffusionless formation of α and the formation of (α + γ) from the supersaturated gamma phase.