Fracture toughness of ordered intermetallic compounds exhibiting limited ductility and mechanical properties of ion-irradiated polycrystalline NiAl. Final report, July 1, 1986--June 30, 1997

The focus of the research performed under the auspices of this grant changed several times during the lifetime of the project. The initial activity was an investigation of irradiation-induced amorphization of ordered intermetallic compounds, using energetic protons as the bombarding species. Two significant events stimulated a change of direction: (1) the proton accelerating facility that the authors had been using at the California State University at Los Angeles became unavailable late in 1988 because of a personnel matter involving the only individual capable of operating the machine; (2) they learned that disordering and amorphization of intermetallic compounds produced interesting effects on their mechanical properties. Loss of access t the local accelerator prompted a collaboration with Dr. Droa Pedraza of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), enabling access to the accelerator at ORNL. The influence of disordering and amorphization on mechanical properties ultimately stimulated the development of a miniaturized disk-bend testing (MDBT) facility, the intent of which was to provide semiquantitative and even quantitative measures of the mechanical behavior of ion-irradiated ordered intermetallic alloys. The second phase of the project involved the perfection and usage of the MDBT, and involved exploratory experiments on unirradiated materials like amorphous alloy ribbons and brittle grain boundaries in Ni{sub 3}Al. This report is a brief summary of the research highlights of the project, organized according to the activity that was emphasized at the time.