Institute of Metals Division - Preferred Orientation in Alpha Plutonium

s-plutonium samples possessing a strong growth texture have been produced by allowing them to transform under pressure from p to a. A fiber texture with [010] parallel to the pressure axis results. The textured samples are expected to be useful in determining the effects of crystallographic orientation on the physical properties of a plutonium, and initial results of measurements of resistivity and mechanical properties are described. THE crystal structure of a plutonium1 is mono-clinic, P21/m, and many of the metal's properties should reflect the crystallographic anisotropy. Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to grow useful sizes of single crystals of a plutonium. Therefore, few of plutonium's orientation-sensitive properties have been determined as a function of crystallographic orientation. One way to gain information about at least some of the orientation-dependent properties is to study a highly textured sample. Such samples have been produced by cold rolling a plutonium,2 but they are necessarily very small in one dimension. We have now successfully used two other techniques to produce highly textured samples, not limited to small thicknesses. METHODS OF PRODUCING PREFERRED ORIENTATION The texture is produced by causing the plutonium to transform from ß to a while under pressure. It was observed by Gardner3 that applying a compres-sive load during the transformation resulted in the formation of columnar grains of a plutonium, and Cramer4 observed a similar structure in some diffusion couples rolled in the P phase. Neither of these workers, however, investigated the subject beyond these observations. The more flexible of the two methods developed is that of compressive loading. The technique is to enclose a sample of plutonium in a die assembly before applying the load. It is possible, of course, to dispense with the die and simply press the sample between two platens. In this case, however, the unrestrained sample deforms during the pressing, making it difficult to maintain the load and to control the final sample thickness. This compressive loading technique has been used on specimens ranging from 1/4 to 3 in. diameter, with height-to-diameter ratios ranging from 5 : l to 1:6. The procedure begins with loading the sample, a right cylinder of a plutonium, into the pressing die. Plastic deformation of the sample while it is being pressed is minimized by machining the sample so that its diameter is nearly the same as that of the die barrel. Then the loaded die assembly is placed in a vacuum pressing can that fits on a hydraulic press. After a vacuum is achieved the die assembly is heated to 180°C and equilibrated. The load is then applied and the specimen and die are allowed to cool to about 40° to 50°C before the pressure is removed. The resulting sample is composed of rod-shaped a -plutonium grains, the rod axes being parallel to the cylinder axis and the pressing direction. Photomicrographs of the oriented structure are shown in Fig. 1. Although most of the specimen is composed of grains whose rod axes are parallel to the cylinder axis, a thin, peripheral layer consists of rod-shaped grains whose rod axes are perpendicular to the cylinder axis. Presumably, the highly plastic nature of p plutonium leads to approximately hydrostatic conditions during the initial stages of the P — a transformation under pressure. At this time, the grains in the peripheral layer would have grown parallel to the local force direction. During the latter stages of the transformation, the accompanying volume contraction would have eliminated the radial forces, leaving only the axial force and resulting in the growth of the observed structure. The growth texture did not form without the application of pressure. Attempts were made to produce the texture by repeating the standard temperature cycle without