Effect of the heat treatment conditions onto characteristics of Chromium-Zirconium Copper

Aoki, Shoji*; Wada, Masahiko*; Yamaji, Tetsuo*; Mori, Kensuke; Enoeda, Mikio; Hirose, Takanori; Suzuki, Kazuhiko

Chromium-zirconium copper (Cu-Cr-Zr) as precipitation hardened copper alloy is examined as one of the structural materials used for the ITER in vacuum vessel components (blanket and divertor etc.). The precipitation hardening in Cu-Cr-Zr is made by the solution treatment with rapid cooling to obtain the supersaturated solid solution of chromium and zirconium in copper, and the subsequent aging treatment to grow the refined precipitate consists of chromium and zirconium respectively. While the parts have been assembled and used by copper alloys already precipitation hardened in general use, the blanket parts will be done by the innovative method with the thermomechanical treatment set of the precipitation hardening at the same time as dissimilar material junction in the ITER blanket. In this research, the mechanical and electrical conductivity properties change was investigated under the wide range of thermomechanical treartment conditions in order to comprehend the conditions necessary to fulfill the excellent characteristics in Cu-Cr-Zr. Therefore, the influence of the quenching cooling rate condition after solution treatment and the other conditions on Cu-Cr-Zr was inspected by measuring electrical conductivity as the indication of the solution treatment state i.e. the supersaturated solid solution or the precipitation state and measuring the tensile test properties of the specimens that are prepared by the set of the solution treatments with some quenching cooling rate conditions and following aging treatments.