Engineered materials for appliation in severe metallurgical environments; Tantalum-carbon alloy development

Technical Report · Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10119992· OSTI ID:10119992

Axler, K M

A suite of investigations has been completed to develop and demonstrate a construction material for use in severely corrosive metallurgical processing environments. The material is a tantalum-base alloy with inclusions of Ta{sub 2}C. Alloy development work involved multi-step thermal processing to invoke specific microstructural features. The kinetics of carbide formation from supersaturated solid solutions of carbon in tantalum were established. Performance evaluation of the alloy was conducted and the alloy has been demonstrated to outperform any previously studied metallic construction material used in pyrometallurgical processing of plutonium. Specific microstructural features of the alloy have been identified which provide the extreme corrosion resistance. Grain boundary occupancy by the Ta{sub 2}C phase is associated with the corrosion resistance to liquid metal. Precipitation from the supersaturated condition invokes a microstructure with the most significant grain boundary delineation by carbide inclusions and hence provides the most corrosion resistant attributes. It has been experimentally proven that the precipitate growth rate is not dictated solely by the diffusion rate of the interstitial species and is more complex. The observed growth rate of carbide precipitates involves several competing effects.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 10119992
• Report Number(s): LA-12876-T; ON: DE95006838; TRN: 95:002561
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: Feb 1995
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
PLUTONIUM
REFINING
TANTALUM CARBIDES
MICROSTRUCTURE
PYROMETALLURGY
TANTALUM BASE ALLOYS
CORROSION RESISTANCE
PERFORMANCE TESTING
INCLUSIONS
PRECIPITATION
PYROCHEMICAL REPROCESSING
ELECTROREFINING
QUENCHING
ELECTRON MICROPROBE ANALYSIS
AGING
360205
360203
360202
400105
CORROSION AND EROSION
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
STRUCTURE AND PHASE STUDIES
SEPARATION PROCEDURES