Production of ODS steels

The University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) has a world-class advanced powder metallurgy lab. I will be taking small particles of steel (iron) and using a heated hydraulic press combine the fine powder into a hard sheet. I’ll be adding into the mix a small amount (much like adding chocolate chips to a muffin mix) of special namometer sized oxide particles (think like ceramic beads) that will improve the steels mechanical properties (strength, temperature resistance, etc.). This is called oxide dispersion-strengthened (ODS). These ODS steels are new and upcoming, very promising for surviving highly radioactive environments in the next generation of nuclear power plants. I’ll be further studying this freshly fabricated ODS steel using very high resolution electron microscopy at USTB, to see even the smallest molecular defects that would have arised from the powder metallurgy process.

Faculty Supervisor:

Zhongwen Yao

Student:

Adam J Brooks

Partner:

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

University:

Queen's University

Program:

Globalink