High temperature stability of dispersion strengthened copper alloys irradiated with fast neutrons

Two heavily cold-worked dispersion strengthened copper alloys, GlidCop CuAl25 and GlidCop-Nb, were irradiated at three different conditions to study their response to high temperature neutron irradiation. The results revealed that the GlidCop-Nb possesses a greater resistance to irradiation-induced changes in the mechanical properties than GlidCop CuAl25. Although the CuAl25 exhibited significant decreases in ultimate strength and increases in elongation, the minimum strength was still higher than that of unirradiated as-wrought CuAl25. For all of the alloys the changes in mechanical properties were independent of displacement rate and temperature. (orig.)