Kw. Song et Wk. Choo, CHANGES IN THE DUPLEX GRAIN-STRUCTURE OF UO2 WITH A BIMODAL GRAIN-SIZE DISTRIBUTION AND IRREGULAR GRAINS, Journal of nuclear materials, 203(2), 1993, pp. 122-127
Grain growth and the transition from irregular to regular grains have
been studied on the duplex grain structure of UO2. The powder compacts
were sintered in CO2 at 1300 and 1500-degrees-C for 0.1 to 40 h. The
duplex grain structure which consists of fine regular grains and coars
e irregular grains develops at 1300-degrees-C after 0.1 h. Grain growt
h occurs preferentially in the cluster of fine regular grains. so that
the medium-sized grains of about 7 mum develop. Continued grain growt
h yields coarse grains, and simultaneously the irregular grain changes
into the regular one. The initial bimodal grain size distribution of
the duplex grain structure changes eventually into a monomodal distrib
ution via transient bimodal distributions. Factors influencing the cha
nges in the duplex grain structure are discussed.