Slowness surfaces study of the ferroelastic phase transition of LiCsSO4 crystal
The method of slowness surface is used to study the ferroelastic phase transition of LiCsSO4. The slowness surfaces of the crystal have been plotted between 202K and 293K. The direction of the maximum slowness is on the XZ plane and the angle of it and X axis is -49.5 degree when temperature is above 206K. At 206K, the direction of the maximum slowness is along X axis. As the temperature decreases from 206K to 202K, the direction of the maximum slowness doesn't change anymore but the slowness surfaces change dramatically. According to the soft mode theory and the elastic constitutive relations, we obtained that LiCsSO4 crystal is in the same symmetry between 202K and 206K.
Acoustic study of the ferroelastic phase transition in LiCsSO4 crystal
The paper reports on an acoustic study of the temperature dependences of the ultrasonic-wave velocity and attenuation in a LiCsSO4 crystal within the 190–295 K temperature region, which includes the interval of the pseudoproper second-order ferroelastic phase transition (202 K). The velocity of the transverse xy acoustic mode is found to decrease by more than six times at the phase transition. The possibility of performing ultrasonic studies both in the region of the ferroelastic phase transition temperature and below it is demonstrated. The results are treated in terms of Landau’s theory. Waves not associated with the soft mode are shown to exhibit anomalies which are supposedly due to an intermediate phase, whose existence was suggested in a number of publications.
Phase characterisation of simulated high burn-up UO2 fuel
Abstract To determine the lattice constant variation with burn-up and the oxidation behaviour at high temperatures, simulated UO2-spent fuels with burn-ups up to 200 GWd tM−1 were prepared by cold pressing and sintering and characterised by X-ray diffraction analysis and thermogravimetry. The fcc-lattice parameter of the sintered samples determined at room temperature, showed a continuous decrease with the simulated burn-up. During oxidation the conversion of the simulated fuels to the (U,FP)4O9 and (U,FP)3O8-type phases was strongly delayed when the simulated burn-up exceeded 80 GWd tM−1. Also, at high burn-ups (>100 GWd tM−1), large fractions of the (U,FP)4O9-type phase remained untransformed to (U,FP)3O8 after prolonged exposure to air at 950–1000°C. This suggests a marked widening of the (U,FP)4O9-phase field when the amount of substituted uranium atoms exceeds values of about 8%.