Abstract

Materials play an important role in the fast breeder reactors.  Materials used in cladding tube and fuel pins should have better creep and void swelling resistance. To overcome these difficulties, a new class of material known as oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steels are used. There are two groups of ODS steels, the ferritic and the austenitic ODS steels based on the matrix. The present paper reviews the current status of research in austenitic ODS steels. The interaction of dislocations with finely dispersed incoherent, hard particles that governs the strength and high temperature properties of ODS materials is briefly reviewed. The synthesis route adopted for these ODS steels, which is mostly through powder metallurgy route is also discussed. The role of various oxides such as Y2O3, ZrO2and TiO2and the clusters formed in these ODS steels on the mechanical properties and void swelling characteristics is also discussed.

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Thermoelectric (TE) materials have made rapid advancement in the past decade, paving the pathway toward the design of solid-state waste heat recovery systems. The next requirement in the design process is realization of full-scale multistage TE devices in the medium to high temperature range for enhanced power generation. Here, we report the design and manufacturing of full-scale skutterudite (SKD)/half-Heusler (hH) cascaded TE devices with 49-couple TE legs for each stage. The automated pick-and-place tool is employed for module fabrication providing overall high manufacturing process efficiency and repeatability. Optimized Ti/Ni/Au coating layers are developed for metallization as the diffusion barrier and electrode contact layers. The Cu−Sn transient liquid phase sintering technique is utilized for SKD and hH stages, which provides a high strength bonding and very low contact resistance. A remarkably high output power of 38.3 W with a device power density of 2.8 W•cm −2 at a temperature gradient of 513 °C is achieved. These results provide an avenue for widespread utilization of TE technology in waste heat recovery applications.