Nanostructured Ferritic Alloys
A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Inorganic Crystalline Materials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2018) | Viewed by 23168
Special Issue Editors
Interests: mechanical testing; irradiation effects; advanced characterization; alloy development; radiation tolerant materials; joining; nuclear reactors
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Nanostructured ferritic alloys (NFA) emerged near the beginning of the 21st century, with much excitement in nuclear energy research communities around the globe as a hopeful solution for achieving high performance combined with tolerance to degradation of mechanical properties upon exposure to elevated temperatures and high neutron doses that are envisioned in future advanced nuclear reactor technologies. NFAs evolved from oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloys, which have been around for many decades, due to refinement in the microstructure consisting of an ultra-fine grain structure and high concentration of nano-size (~2–5 nm) oxide particles. Recent studies have shown that NFAs possess remarkable high-temperature strength, resulting in outstanding creep performance combined with very low swelling rates as revealed in high-dose heavy-ion irradiation experiments. NFAs are traditionally produced using mechanically alloying iron-based alloy powders with a dispersoid powder, such as yttria-Y2O3, followed by a consolidation method to produce solid products. Unfortunately, this manufacturing method presents many challenges that still require better understanding via research and development. One area that needs greater understanding involves processing conditions and composition influences that affect the uniformity in grain size, as well as the dispersion of nano-size oxide particles that greatly impact the performance and the production reproducibility of NFAs. The successful development of NFAs will require novel ideas and greater understanding of fabrication and joining technologies that historically have hindered the acceptance of ODS alloys for high performance applications in the past. The fabrication of NFAs into complex products, such a fuel cladding, presents challenges due to the high strength properties that do not favor plastic deformation and another problematic area are advanced joining methods that do not degrade the salient microstructure features of NFAs. Therefore, the development of NFAs offering enormous potential in demanding applications of advanced nuclear reactors along with the significant challenges in processing, fabrication and joining technologies is a matter of intensive research interest and a hot topic.
In this Special Issue, we welcome original research and review articles covering the state of the art and the latest research results covering “Nanostructured Ferritic Alloys” that aim to provide improved understanding of key processing parameters for achieving the important microstructural traits that are linked to higher levels of performance and understanding of deformation and radiation effects in harsh environments of advanced nuclear reactors operating at high temperatures to high neutron doses.
Dr. Stuart A. Maloy
Dr. David T. Hoelzer
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- Nanostructured ferritic alloys
- Irradiation
- Tensile properties
- Processing
- Fracture toughness
- Welding
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