Internal friction studies in dilute zirconium alloys

Internal friction studies on zirconium and dilute zirconium alloys containing the interstitial impurities oxygen and nitrogen have indicated that the internal friction is caused by an interaction of substitutional and interstitial atoms. For all the alloying elements, oxygen gave two peaks, the relative intensity depending upon the concentration of oxygen. At low oxygen contents, the high temperature peak was the more prominent and was due to three oxygen atom jumps. At high oxygen concentrations, the low temperature peak was the more prominent and was due to a single oxygen jump. In the case of nitrogen, only alloying element larger in atomic size than zirconium gave internal friction peaks, the mechanisms being similar to those for oxygen.