Texture evolution during annealing of hot extruded U-10wt%Zr alloy by in situ neutron diffraction

Abstract Texture evolution during annealing of a U-10wt%Zr alloy hot extruded in the ( α + δ ) region was studied by in situ neutron diffraction. The extruded alloy had a lamellar ( α + δ ) microstructure and the initial texture consisted of ( 100 ) α , ( 110 ) α , and the ( 0001 ) δ poles oriented along the extrusion direction. The β phase, after the α → β transformation, showed no preferred orientation while the γ phase, after the β → γ transformation, had ( 110 ) γ and ( 111 ) γ poles oriented along the extrusion direction. After a temperature cycle through the γ phase, there was a complete loss of texture in the α phase while the δ phase retained the initial texture indicating a memory effect.