TY - GEN
T1 - Non-destructive Correlative 3D Characterization of Nuclear Graphite
T2 - 150th Annual Meeting and Exhibition of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, TMS 2021
AU - Kelly, Stephen
AU - White, Robin
AU - Harris, William
AU - Volkenandt, Tobias
AU - Laudone, Giuliano
AU - Jones, Katie
AU - Tordoff, Benjamin
AU - Veater, Ben
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.
PY - 2021/2/24
Y1 - 2021/2/24
N2 - Graphite is a key material in the design and operation of a wide range of nuclear reactors because of its attractive combination of thermal, mechanical, and neutron interaction properties. In all its applications, the microstructural evolution of nuclear graphite under operating conditions will strongly influence reactor lifetime and performance. However, measuring the 3D microstructural characteristics of nuclear graphite has traditionally faced many challenges. X-ray tomographic techniques face limitations in achievable resolution on bulk (mm-sized) specimens while serial sectioning techniques like FIB-SEM struggle to achieve adequate milling rates for tomographic imaging over representative volumes. To address these shortcomings, we present here a multiscale, targeted, correlative microstructural characterization workflow for nuclear graphite employing micro-scale and nano-scale x-ray microscopy with a connected laser milling step in between the two modalities. We present details of the microstructure, including porosity analysis, spanning orders of magnitude in feature size for nuclear graphite samples including IG-110.
AB - Graphite is a key material in the design and operation of a wide range of nuclear reactors because of its attractive combination of thermal, mechanical, and neutron interaction properties. In all its applications, the microstructural evolution of nuclear graphite under operating conditions will strongly influence reactor lifetime and performance. However, measuring the 3D microstructural characteristics of nuclear graphite has traditionally faced many challenges. X-ray tomographic techniques face limitations in achievable resolution on bulk (mm-sized) specimens while serial sectioning techniques like FIB-SEM struggle to achieve adequate milling rates for tomographic imaging over representative volumes. To address these shortcomings, we present here a multiscale, targeted, correlative microstructural characterization workflow for nuclear graphite employing micro-scale and nano-scale x-ray microscopy with a connected laser milling step in between the two modalities. We present details of the microstructure, including porosity analysis, spanning orders of magnitude in feature size for nuclear graphite samples including IG-110.
KW - Graphite
KW - Multiscale
KW - Porosity
KW - X-ray tomography
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104448017&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-65261-6_50
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-65261-6_50
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 9783030652616
VL - 0
T3 - Minerals, Metals and Materials Series
SP - 553
EP - 562
BT - TMS 2021 150th Annual Meeting and Exhibition Supplemental Proceedings
PB - Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Y2 - 15 March 2021 through 18 March 2021
ER -
