Papers by Author: Heather M. Volz

Abstract: Discontinuous precipitation (DP) and discontinuous coarsening (DC) reactions have been observed in numerous alloy systems [1]. DP has been observed in the U-Nb system [2, 3, 4, 5]. The U-Nb phase diagram (Fig. 1) exhibits a continuous γ-BCC solid solution at high temperatures and a two-phase mixture of a-orthorhombic and γ-BCC below the 647°C monotectoid isotherm. The DP reaction occurs during continuous cooling and isothermal aging over 300-647°C. No metallographic evidence of a DC reaction in U-Nb has been published, although this is suggested from x-ray observations of distinct changes in the Nb content of the γ phase upon prolonged holding after the DP reaction [2, 3, 6]. This study will provide direct evidence for a DC reaction. Discontinuous and other aging reactions [7] are undesirable in U-Nb alloys, since they degrade corrosion resistance [5], ductility [8], and the shape-memory effect [9]. Hence, an improved understanding of the kinetics of these discontinuous phase transformations in U-Nb alloys is of practical interest.

Abstract: The impact of strong neutron absorption on data analysis and the comparison of two different absorption corrections for neutron diffraction data implemented in the GSAS Rietveld code are the foci of this work. We investigated the effect of absorption on the texture and the thermal motion parameter for rolled elemental foils. The orientation distribution functions (ODF) of rolled foils of dysprosium and erbium metals were determined from neutron time-of-flight data patterns collected on HIPPO at LANSCE. Both Dy and Er are strong absorbers for thermal neutrons with absorption cross-sections of 994 barns for Dy and 159 barns for Er at l = 1.8 Å. Various stacks of foils of each material, along with combinations of absorbing and less-absorbing foils, were measured. The patterns were analyzed using the GSAS options for Debye-Scherrer and linear absorption models, as well as without an absorption correction. Discrepancies between refined and expected “true” values of crystallographic parameters if absorption is not taken into consideration are discussed.