Synthesis and Performance of Fe-based Amorphous Alloys for Nuclear Waste Applications
Recent developments in multi-component Fe-based amorphous alloys have shown that these novel materials exhibit outstanding corrosion resistance compared to typical crystalline alloys such as high-performance stainless steels and Ni-based C-22 alloy. During the past decade, amorphous alloy synthesis has advanced to allow for the casting of bulk metallic glasses. In several Fe-based alloy systems it is possible to produce glasses with cooling rates as low as 100 K/s. At such low cooling rates, there is an opportunity to produce amorphous solids through industrial processes such as thermal spray-formed coatings. Moreover, since cooling rates in typical thermal spray processing exceed 1000 K/s, novel alloy compositions can be synthesized to maximize corrosion resistance (i.e. adding Cr and Mo) and to improve radiation compatibility (adding B) and still maintain glass forming ability. The applicability of Fe-based amorphous coatings in typical environments where corrosion resistance and thermal stability are critical issues has been examined in terms of amorphous phase stability and glass-forming ability through a coordinated computational analysis and experimental validation. For example, a wedge casting technique has been applied to examine bulk glass forming alloys by combining multiple thermal probes with a measurement based kinetics analysis and a computational thermodynamics evaluation to elucidate the phase selection competition and critical cooling rate conditions. Based upon direct measurements and kinetics modeling it is evident that a critical cooling rate range should be considered to account for nucleation behavior and that the relative heat flow characteristics as well as nucleation kinetics are important in judging ease of glass formation. Similarly, a novel computational thermodynamics approach has been developed to explore the compositional sensitivity of glass-forming ability and thermal stability. Also, the synthesis and characterization of alloys with increased cross-section for thermal neutron capture will be outlined to demonstrate that through careful design of alloy composition it is possible to tailor the material properties of the thermally spray-formed amorphous coating to accommodate the challenges anticipated in typical nuclear waste storage applications over tens of thousands of years in a variety of corrosive environments.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 908118
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-CONF-227808; TRN: US0703634
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Presented at: M&C+SNA 2007, Monterey, CA, United States, Apr 15 - Apr 19, 2007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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