Lattice parameters of fluorite-structured uranium-americium mixed oxides

Vauchy, R.; Hirooka, Shun; Watanabe, Masashi; Yokoyama, Keisuke; Murakami, Tatsutoshi

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 584, p.154576_1 - 154576_11, 2023/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2023.154576

Cavitation damage prediction in mercury target for pulsed spallation neutron source using Monte Carlo simulation

Wakui, Takashi; Takagishi, Yoichi*; Futakawa, Masatoshi

Materials, 16(17), p.5830_1 - 5830_16, 2023/09

https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16175830

Cavitation damage on the mercury target vessel is induced by proton beam injection in mercury. The prediction method of the cavitation damage using Monte Carlo simulations was proposed taking into account of the uncertainties of the position of cavitation bubbles and impact pressure distributions. The distribution of impact pressure attributed to individual cavitation bubble collapsing was assumed to be the Gaussian distribution, and the probability distribution of the maximum value of impact pressures was assumed to be three kinds of distributions; the delta function, the Gaussian and Weibull distributions. Two parameters were estimated using Bayesian optimization by comparing the distribution of the cavitation damage obtained from experiment with that of accumulated plastic strain obtained from the simulation. It was found that the results obtained using the Weibull distribution reproduced the actual cavitation erosion phenomenon better than the other results.

Time-lapse observation of crevice corrosion in grade 2205 duplex stainless steel

Aoki, So; Engelberg, D. L.*

Materials, 16(15), p.5300_1 - 5300_13, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16155300

The objective of this study was to investigate and visualize the initiation and propagation behaviour of crevice corrosion in grade 2205 duplex stainless steel by means of time-lapse, in-situ observations. All observed crevice corrosion initiated close to the edge of the washer, where the crevice gap was very tight. Crevice corrosion then expanded underneath the crevice forming disk into areas with wider gaps towards the crevice mouth. This was associated with a rise in anodic current, leading into hydrogen gas evolution within the crevice. Once crevice corrosion reached the crevice mouth, the corrosion propagated Circumferentially, but also in depth.

Key role of temperature on delamination in solid-state additive manufacturing via supersonic impact

Wang, Q.*; Ma, N.*; Huang, W.*; Shi, J.*; Luo, X.-T.*; Tomitaka, Sora*; Morooka, Satoshi; Watanabe, Makoto*

Materials Research Letters (Internet), 11(9), p.742 - 748, 2023/08

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/21663831.2023.2227221

Dynamic interaction between dislocations and obstacles in BCC iron based on atomic potentials derived using neural networks

Mori, Hideki*; Tsuru, Tomohito; Okumura, Masahiko; Matsunaka, Daisuke*; Shiihara, Yoshinori*; Itakura, Mitsuhiro

Physical Review Materials (Internet), 7(6), p.063605_1 - 063605_8, 2023/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.7.063605

The introduction of obstacles (e.g., precipitates) for controlling dislocation motion in molecular structures is a prevalent method for designing the mechanical strength of metals. Owing to the nanoscale size of the dislocation core ( 1 nm), atomic modeling is required to investigate the interactions between the dislocation and obstacles. However, conventional empirical potentials are not adequately accurate, in contrast to the calculations based on density functional theory (DFT). Therefore, the atomic-level details of the interactions between the dislocations and obstacles remain unclarified. To this end, this study applied an artificial neural network (ANN) framework to construct an atomic potential by leveraging the high accuracy of DFT. Using the constructed ANN potential, we investigated the dynamic interaction between the edge dislocation and obstacles in BCC iron. When the dislocation crossed the void, an ultrasmooth and symmetric half-loop was observed for the bowing-out dislocation. Except for the screw dislocation, the Peierls stress of all the dislocations predicted using the ANN was less than 100 MPa. More importantly, the results confirmed the formation of an Orowan loop in the interaction between a rigid sphere and dislocation. Furthermore, we discovered a phenomenon in which the Orowan loop disintegrated into two small loops during its interaction with the rigid sphere and dislocation.

Pressure engineering of van der Waals compound RhI; Bandgap narrowing, metallization, and remarkable enhancement of photoelectric activity

Fang, Y.*; Kong, L.*; Wang, R.*; Zhang, Z.*; Li, Z.*; Wu, Y.*; Bu, K.*; Liu, X.*; Yan, S.*; Hattori, Takanori; et al.

Materials Today Physics (Internet), 34, p.101083_1 - 101083_7, 2023/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2023.101083

The layered van der Waals halides are particularly sensitive to external pressure, suggesting a feasible route to pinpoint their structure with extraordinary behavior. However, a very sensitive pressure response usually lead to a detrimental phase transition and/or lattice distortion, making the approach of materials manipulation in a continuous manner remain challenging. Here, the extremely weak interlayer coupling and high tunability of layered RhI crystals are observed. A pressure-driven phase transition occurs at a moderate pressure of 5 GPa, interlinking to a change of layer stack mode. Strikingly, such a phase transition does not affect the tendency of quasi-linear bandgap narrowing, and a metallization with an ultra-broad tunability of 1.3 eV redshift is observed at higher pressures. Moreover, the carrier concentration increases by 4 orders of magnitude at 30 GPa, and the photocurrent enhances by 5 orders of magnitude at 7.8 GPa. These findings create new opportunities for exploring, tuning, and understanding the van der Waals halides by harnessing their unusual feature of a layered structure, which is promising for future devices based on materials-by-design that are atomically thin.

One-pot synthesis of superparamagnetically modified zeolite chabazite for removal of Cs from radioactively contaminated water

Ito, Azusa; Karmaoui, M.*; Thirunavukkarasu, G.*; Hriljac, J. A.*

APL Materials (Internet), 11(4), p.041105_1 - 041105_9, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0139282

Aging of fuel-containing materials (fuel debris) in the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) Nuclear Power Plant and its implication for the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station

Kitagaki, Toru; Krasnov, V.*; Ikeda, Atsushi

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 576, p.154224_1 - 154224_14, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.154224

Investigation of the oxidation behavior of Zircaloy-4 cladding in a mixture of air and steam

Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Ishijima, Yasuhiro; Kondo, Keietsu; Fujimura, Yuki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 575, p.154209_1 - 154209_19, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.154209

Previous studies had shown that in certain conditions, the rate of oxidation of zirconium (Zr) based alloy fuel cladding is higher in air-steam mixtures than in dry air. In severe accidents in the spent fuel pool and in other air ingress accidents in nuclear power plants, the cladding is likely to be oxidized in an air-steam mixture, which makes it crucial to have an in-depth understanding of the nature of oxidation and its kinetics in that environment. Oxidation tests were conducted at 800C on Zircaloy-4 specimens in a mix of (air+steam) with various component ratios. Oxidation kinetics, details of the oxide layer, and hydrogen pick-up in the specimen were studied to investigate the mechanism of oxidation in each of these sets of conditions. Zirconium nitride precipitation in the oxide layer during the initial stages of the pre-breakaway oxidation stage and the widespread porous oxide growth on the cladding surface in the latter post-BA oxidation stage are related to the oxidation mechanism in the air-steam mixture. The differences in the mechanism of oxidation of the cladding in dry air and air-steam mixtures are discussed based on the experimental results.

A Colossal barocaloric effect induced by the creation of a high-pressure phase

Jiang, X.*; Hattori, Takanori; Xu, X.*; Li, M.*; Yu, C.*; Yu, D.*; Mole, R.*; Yano, Shinichiro*; Chen, J.*; He, L.*; et al.

Materials Horizons, 10(3), p.977 - 982, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1039/d2mh00905f

As a promising environment-friendly alternative to current vapor-compression refrigeration, solid-state refrigeration based on the barocaloric effect has been attracting world wide attention. Generally, both phases in which a barocaloric effect occurs are present at ambient pressure. Here, instead, we demonstrate that KPF exhibits a colossal barocaloric effect due to the creation of a high-pressure rhombohedral phase. The phase diagram is constructed based on pressure-dependent calorimetric, Raman scattering, and neutron diffraction measurements. The present study is expected to provide an alternative routine to colossal barocaloric effects through the creation of a high-pressure phase.