Nanoparticles are extensively introduced to improve the mechanical,physical,and chemical properties of alloys.In the present study,the underlying nano-refinement mechanisms of face-centered cubic Zr(Fe,Cr)_(2)secondary phase particles(SPPs)that precipitated in Zircaloy-4 alloy under high-temperature compression were investigated in detail by utilizing high-resolution transmission electron microscopy(HRTEM)and conventional TEM techniques.The frequently observed Zr(Fe,Cr)_(2)SPPs were incoherent with the matrix and exhibited brittle fracture behaviors without measurable plasticity.HRTEM observations revealed two mechanisms underlying the nano-refinement of incoherent micro-sized SPPs via localized shear fracture on{11¯2}SPP and nanoprecipitate-assisted bending fracture,respectively.The latter was,for the first time,found to occur when the movements of large SPPs were blocked by nanometer-sized SPP during alloy deformation.Accordingly,two force models were proposed to visualize their potential nano-refinement processes.The knowledge attained from this study sheds new light on the deformation behaviors of Zr(Fe,Cr)_(2)SPPs and their associated size refinement mechanisms under high-temperature compression,and is expected to greatly benefit the process optimization of zirconium alloys to achieve precipitate nano-refinement.
Corrosion re sistance of Zircaloy-4 alloy tube in superheated steam at 673 K/10.3 MPa is anisotropic.A part of the surface undergoes uniform corrosion while the other suffers nodular corrosion.Narrow and wide nodules are observed after an exposure period of 3 and 30 days,respectively.A new matrix transformation method is established in order to study the formation mechanism of nodules in the cross-section(CS) of Zircaloy-4 alloy tube using the EBSD technique,while the CS perpendicular to axial direction(AD).The results reveal that the microtexture is a key factor behind the two types of corrosion.Furthermore,the oxide layers grow anisotropically over the corroded surface.A thick oxide layer forms over the nodular corrosion region on the grains with c-axis oriented in the range of 40° around tangential direction(TD),whereas a thin oxide layer over the uniform corrosion region is detected on the grains with c-axis oriented in the range of 68° around TD.In short,the anisotropic growth of oxide layer was caused by the change of microtexture of the Zr-4 alloy tube,and this anisotropic growth of oxide layer contributed to the nodules formation.
