Effect of neutron dose and irradiation temperature on the mechanical properties and structure of dispersion strengthened copper alloys

This report is the first to present the data on the effect of neutron irrad iation doses of 0.2 and 0.4 dpa at T-irr similar to 150 degreesC and T-irr similar to 300 degreesC on the mechanical properties of the GlidCopAl25IG a lloy in different metallurgical conditions (CR + annealed, HIP, as-extruded ). The dose dependence of radiation strengthening for GlidCopAl25IG alloy a t T-test = T-irr = 150 degreesC shows that strengthening increases with dos e, up to Delta sigma (y) similar to 100 MPa at 0.4 dpa. Simultaneously, the uniform elongation decreases with increasing dose. An important point is t hat all investigations on ODS copper alloys, regardless of the metallurgica l state (CR + ann, HIP, as-extruded), revealed similar dose dependencies of strengthening and loss of ductility. Irradiation up to 0.4 dpa at 300 degr eesC results in a slight strengthening of about 30 MPa of the ODS copper al loys. In this case the tendency to embrittlement depends on the metallurgic al state and orientation of the specimens. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.