April 19, 2023
Conference Paper

Assessing Manufacturability of the Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) 14YWT Alloy Fuel Cladding Tube Using SolidStir™ Technology

Abstract

The 14YWT (Fe–14Cr–3W–0.4Ti–0.3Y2O3 (wt.%)) alloy is a potential candidatematerial for fabricating fuel cladding tubes and other structural components to be used in next-generation advanced nuclear reactors. Due to inherent limitations of current processing routes, this research explored a new variant of friction stir processing, commercially referred to as SolidStir™ Extrusion (patent pending) technology from Enabled Engineering to consolidate and extrude 14YWT powder into a fuel cladding tube. Several single-layer and multiple-layer consolidation experiments were carried out in an Inconel 625 die to determine the suitable processing parameters for SolidStir™ extrusion of the 14YWT alloy cladding tube. With these processing parameters, a 16–18 mm long tube of the 14YWT alloy with no visible defects was successfully extruded using this novel technology. Microstructural characterization results obtained using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, electron backscatter diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy will be presented.

Published: April 19, 2023

Citation

Bhowmik S., P. Varshney, O. El-Atwani, S.A. Maloy, K. Kandasamy, and N. Kumar. 2023. Assessing Manufacturability of the Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) 14YWT Alloy Fuel Cladding Tube Using SolidStir™ Technology. In TMS 2023: Friction Stir Welding and Processing XII Symposium held at the TMS Annual Meeting and Exhibition, March 19-23, 2023. San Diego, CA. Minerals, Metals and Materials Series, edited by Y. Hovanksi, et al, 89–98. Cham:Springer. PNNL-SA-182946. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-22661-8_8

Research topics

Nuclear Material Science