Mechanical characterisation of V-4Cr-4Ti alloy: Tensile tests under high energy synchrotron diffraction

Vanadium base alloys represent potentially promising candidate structural materials for use in nuclear fusion reactors due to vanadium's low activity, high thermal strength, and good swelling resistance. In this work, the mechanical properties of the current frontrunner vanadium base alloy, V-4Cr-4Ti, have been interrogated using in-situ high energy X-ray diffraction (XRD) tensile testing at varying tempera-tures. The single crystal elastic constants of the samples were determined from the in-situ XRD data and used to evaluate results from density functional theory calculations. Polycrystalline elastic properties and Zener anisotropy were calculated from the single crystal elastic constants produced, revealing the effect of elevated temperature on the alloy's elastic properties. These results characterise important thermome-chanical properties, valuable in mechanical modelling, that will allow further and improved analysis of the structural suitability of V-4Cr-4Ti ahead of alloy adoption in the mainstream. Crown Copyright (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study investigated the mechanical properties of the vanadium base alloy V-4Cr-4Ti using in-situ high energy X-ray diffraction, and calculated its polycrystalline elastic properties and Zener anisotropy. The results are valuable for further assessing the suitability of V-4Cr-4Ti as a structural material.