Y-12 Development Organization Technical Progress Report: Part 3 - Metal Processing, Period Ending September 1, 1994
- Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant (Y-12), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
The authors melted and cast an aluminum-uranium (Al-U) alloy by vacuum induction melting (VIM) prealloyed buttons made by arc melting. The resulting alloy casting displayed a large compositional gradient from top to bottom. The authors sampled the resulting casting for uranium to check homogeneity. The sampling revealed that the top of the casting contained 23.5 wt% uranium, and the bottom (an average of two samples) contained 42.4 wt% uranium. Although each button contained 36.5% uranium, these analyses show that the solidified casting was inhomogeneous. If the buttons were homogeneous, the segregation occurred during induction melting, and this method may not be feasible for making AL-U alloys. If the buttons were not homogeneous, perhaps arc melting the buttons more times would have helped. Bottom pouring the Al-U melt into a mold for faster cooling could also help prevent segregation.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant (Y-12), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OS21400
- OSTI ID:
- 39124
- Report Number(s):
- Y--2467-3; ON: DE95009061
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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