10B areal density: A novel approach for design and fabrication of B4C/6061Al neutron absorbing materials

Yuli Li, Wenxian Wang, Jun Zhou, Hongsheng Chen, Peng Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

In this paper, a novel approach to evaluate the neutron shielding performance of a boron-containing neutron absorbing material was proposed for the first time through the establishment of a direct relationship between 10B areal density (10BAD) of the material and its neutron absorption ratio. It is found when the 10BAD of a material is greater than 0.034 g/cm2, the material will achieve a good neutron shielding performance. Based on this proposed approach, B4C/6061Al composite plates with different B4C content (10 wt%, 20 wt%, 30 wt%) were successfully fabricated using vacuum hot pressing followed by hot-extrusion. The characteristics of the B4C/Al interface were studied in details using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the effects of B4C particle content on microstructure and mechanical properties of the Al matrix were investigated. Through current studies, B4C/6061Al composite plates possessing good neutron shielding performance and tensile strength are found to be able to be fabricated using either 20 wt% of B4C content with a plate thickness of 4.5 mm or 30 wt% B4C content with a plate thickness of 3 mm...

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)238-246
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Nuclear Materials
Volume487
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 15 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • General Materials Science
  • Nuclear Energy and Engineering

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