Texture evolution during annealing of hot extruded U-10wt%Zr alloy by in situ neutron diffraction

Abstract

Texture evolution during annealing of a U-10wt%Zr alloy hot extruded in the (alpha + delta) region was studied by in situ neutron diffraction. The extruded alloy had a lamellar (alpha + delta) microstructure and the initial texture consisted of (100)(alpha), (110)(alpha), and the (0001)(delta) poles oriented along the extrusion direction. The beta phase, after the alpha -> beta transformation, showed no preferred orientation while the gamma phase, after the beta -> gamma transformation, had (110)(gamma) and (111)(gamma) poles oriented along the extrusion direction. After a temperature cycle through the gamma phase, there was a complete loss of texture in the alpha phase while the delta phase retained the initial texture indicating a memory effect.