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

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.