Aging Behavior of B₄C/6061Al Composite Materials under Irradiation Conditions

Irradiation test under the conditions of fast neutrons and γ ray were performed on B₄C/6061Al composite materials with 26% and 31% B₄C respectively, and the aging behavior of the B₄C/6061Al composite materials were analyzed. The results show that the surface color of the specimens darkened after irradiation test in deionized water with fast neutrons dose 3.99×10¹⁹ nvt and γ ray dose 3.30×10¹¹ rad, but no obvious localized corrosion and deformation occurred. The dimension of B₄C particles was stable and no B₄C particle was falling off from the base materials after irradiation. Yield strength, tensile strength and hardness increased slightly and the elongation decreased after irradiation, which indicated that there was certain irradiation effect. There was no obvious change on dimension of the specimen before and after irradiation, while the thickness was increased slightly, this indicated that certain aluminum oxide film was formed on the surface, the densities of the materials decreased after irradiation but they were still close to the theoretical densities. The ¹⁰B areal density was almost unchanged before and after irradiation.