Fabrication of ultrafine grained FeCrAl-0.6 wt.% ZrC alloys with enhanced mechanical properties by spark plasma sintering

Low mechanical strength, especially at high temperatures, is the key problem that limit the application of FeCrAl alloys as the accident tolerance fuel (ATF) cladding materials. Dispersion strengthening by carbide nanoparticles is an effective way to improve mechanical properties at high temperatures. In this work, an ultrafine grained FeCrAl-0.6 wt.% ZrC alloys with excellent mechanical properties were fabricated successfully by mechanical milling and spark plasma sintering. The effect of milling speed on powder characteristics, microstructure and mechanical properties of FeCrAl alloys were investigated. The particle size of the powders increase significantly after milling at 400 rpm, while it has a lower oxygen content. Increasing the milling speed decreased the resultant grain size and improved relative density. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) demonstrated the nano ZrC particles uniformly distributed in the matrix at higher milling speed, which effectively promotes grain refinement and dispersion strengthening. The results of mechanical properties show that the tensile strength, percentage elongation and hardness of FeCrAl-0.6 wt.% ZrC alloys at room temperature (RT) reached up to 1.05 GPa, 349.86 HV and 12.1%, respectively, after milling at 400 rpm. It is worth noting that the FeCrAl-0.6 wt.% ZrC alloy also exhibited a good high-temperature strength more than 110 MPa at 800 ℃, which is about 55.4% and 24.7% higher than previously reported FeCrAl-0.5 wt.% ZrC and FeCrAl-1.0 wt.% ZrC alloys, but the plasticity is reduced. The results demonstrated that the excellent mechanical properties were not only attributed to the dispersion strengthen by nanosized ZrC, a good interface bonding between Fe matrix and nanosized ZrC, but also the ultra-fine grained structure induced by the milling process.