Current status of ultra-fine grained W-TiC development for use in irradiation environments

Ultra-fine grained (UFG) W-TiC with a high purity matrix of low dislocation density is expected to exhibit improve resistance to irradiation with neutrons and helium ions and the room temperature mechanical properties. Aiming at such UFG W-TiC with the desired microstructure, powders of W with 0.25-0.8 wt% TiC additions were subjected to mechanical alloying (MA) and hot isostatic pressing (HIP), where purified H-2 and Ar were used as the MA atmosphere. Microstructural observations and room- and high-temperature mechanical tests were performed for UFG W-TiC before and after neutron irradiation to a fluence of 2 x 10(24) nm(-2) at 873 K. It is shown that the MA atmosphere significantly affects grain refinement, room- temperature strength and high-temperature tensile plasticity of UFG W-TiC. W-0.5TiC with H-2 in MA (W-0.5TiC-H-2) shows a larger strain rate sensitivity of flow stress, m, of 0.5 similar to 0.6 at temperatures from 1673 to 1973 K, which is a feature of superplastic materials. Whereas W-0.5TiC-Ar shows a smaller m value of approximately 0.2. No radiation hardening is recognized in UFG W-0.5TiC-H-2 and W-0.5TiC-Ar.