BEER - The Beamline for European Materials Engineering Research at the ESS

The Beamline for European Materials Engineering Research (BEER) will be built at the European Spallation Source (ESS). The diffractometer utilizes the high brilliance of the long-pulse neutron source and offers high instrument flexibility. It includes a novel chopper technique that extracts several short pulses out of the long pulse, leading to substantial intensity gain of up to an order of magnitude compared to pulse shaping methods for materials with high crystal symmetry. This intensity gain is achieved without compromising resolution. Materials of lower crystal symmetry or multi-phase materials will be investigated by additional pulse shaping methods. The different chopper set-ups and advanced beam extracting techniques offer an extremely broad intensity/resolution range. Furthermore, BEER offers an option of simultaneous SANS or imaging measurements without compromising diffraction investigations. This flexibility opens up new possibilities for in-situ experiments studying materials processing and performance under operation conditions. To fulfil this task, advanced sample environments, dedicated to thermo-mechanical processing, are foreseen

Comparison сharacreristics of optrons with an open optical channel

In the present work characteristics of industrial optical sensors for objects positioning in space are considered. Comparison of their parameters with the parameters of the angular-linear displacement sensor designed has been made. Methods for optimization parameters of sensors with an open optical channel are proposed

Microstructure of Zirconia-Based Sol-Gel Glasses Studied by SANS

Zirconia-based bulk glasses were prepared for the first time by sol-gel method. Such materials are very promising for application as photochromic devices, catalytic systems, chemical sensors, lasers and other nonlinear optics devices. Obtained transparent and semi-transparent materials were studied by small and ultra-small angle neutron scattering (SANS and USANS) methods. As evidenced by SANS, morphology of zirconia glasses is very sensitive to parameters of sol-gel synthesis, e.g. temperature and concentration of reactants. SANS data correlates rather well with surface porosity data. Increasing water concentration in reaction mixtures containing zirconium propylate leads to a significant increase in fractal cluster size, while decrease of the temperature results in an increase of the fractal dimension. The obtained results indicate that parameters of the microstructure and consequently physical properties of zirconia glasses can be effectively controlled by parameters of synthesis

In situ small-angle neutron scattering study of La2Zr2O7 and SrZrO3 ceramics for thermal barrier coatings

Ex and in situ (<= 1300 degrees C) small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments on annealed layers of air-plasma sprayed La2Zr2O7 and SrZrO3 for thermal barrier coatings are presented. The deposits exposed at 1200 degrees C up to 100 h showed a stable microstructure of large pores. Medium-size (approximate to 10-50 nm) intragranular pores sinter during the exposure. The in situ SANS revealed that this process starts at 1000 degrees C. In contrast to La2Zr2O7, the creation of nanopores starting at 900 degrees C was detected in the SrZrO3 layer. These nanopores began to disappear at 1100 degrees C. (c) 2006 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Neutron diffraction study of Ti-Zr alloy microstructure evolution during annealing after severe plastic deformation

The evolution of the Ti-Zr alloy microstructure (residual stresses, as well as microstress) during annealing after severe plastic deformation is reported. A strong residual macro-stresses relief starts at temperature of 530-540 degrees C. A steep decrease continues up to 580 degrees C and a further slight decrease up to 600 degrees C. Microstrain (caused by the high dislocation density created by equal channel angular pressing) is almost constant up to 300 degrees C, and then begins to decrease gradually due to recovery. The microstrain decrease accelerates at 560 degrees C and is finished at 580 degrees C. Most probably, this is caused by recrystallization. The information obtained is important for possible microstructure modifications and tuning via post-process heat treatment.Web of Science14SUPPL 1S230S22