In-situ neutron diffraction study of a heating treatment for Nb3Sn ITER superconducting wires

Jean-Louis Soubeyroux (1) , André Sulpice (2) , Chaowu Zhang (3) , Lian Zhou (3)

1 Laboratoire de Cristallographie
2 CRTBT - Centre de Recherches sur les Très Basses Températures
3 NIN - Northwest Institute for Nonferrous Metal Research

In-situ powder neutron diffraction studies have been performed during the heating treatment of a set of Nb3Sn wires obtained by the internal tin process. The different phases appearing during the process have been evidenced. A strong reorientation of the deformed copper and niobium metals induces an orientation on the Nb3Sn formed. Among the phases formed, the δ-CuSn phase is decomposed at 890K to form the γ-CuSn and Nb3Sn phases. The kinetics of these phases is in agreement with a diffusion-growth mechanism.

Mots clés: Nb3Sn; neutron diffraction; D1B spectrometer; internal tin

Domaines: Matériaux

Jean-Louis Soubeyroux, André Sulpice, Chaowu Zhang, Lian Zhou. In-situ neutron diffraction study of a heating treatment for Nb3Sn ITER superconducting wires. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2006, 43, pp.39-42. ⟨10.1088/1742-6596/43/1/010⟩. ⟨hal-00264958⟩