Microstructural Characterization of 6061 Aluminum to 304L Stainless Steel Inertia Welds
'Microstructural characterization of 6061-T6 aluminum-to-Type 304L stainless steel inertia welds provided a technical basis to conclude that transition joints fabricated from such welds should satisfactorily contain helium/hydrogen gas mixtures. This conclusion is based on the lack of semi-continuous alignments of particles and/or inclusions at, or near, the aluminum-to-stainless steel interface. These dissimilar metal transition joints play a key role in the operation of an accelerator driven, spallation neutron source designed for the production of tritium. The Accelerator Production of Tritium system will produce tritium through neutron interactions with 3He gas contained in water-cooled, 6061-T6 aluminum pressure tubes. Current design concepts include thousands of thin-walled pressure tubes distributed throughout a number of aluminum-clad, lead-filled, blanket modules. The aluminum pressure tubes are connected to a tritium extraction and purification system through a stainless steel manifold. The transition from aluminum to stainless steel is made via transition joints machined from the aluminum-to-stainless steel inertia welds. The paper describes the baseline microstructural characterization of the welds, including optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopy and uses that characterization to evaluate potential gas leakage across the weld.'
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC09-96SR18500
- OSTI ID:
- 12510
- Report Number(s):
- WSRC-MS-99-00078
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: The 32nd Annual Convention of the International Metallographic Society (Understanding Processing/Structure/Property/Behavior), Cincinnati, OH (USA), 31-3 Oct 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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