TY - JOUR A1 - Guo, Y. A1 - Ren, K. A1 - Wei, A. A1 - Tao, C. A1 - Huang, W. A1 - Zhao, Peng A1 - Wu, Dejian T1 - Iron dust explosion characteristics with small amount of nano-sized Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 particles N2 - Iron powder, as one of the most abundant metal fuels that can be used as recyclable carriers of clean energy, is a promising alternative to fossil fuels in a future low-carbon economy. It may pose a potential explosion hazard during the process of processing, storage, transport, and reduction/oxidation (redox). The explosion characteristics of iron dust in air were undertaken via a 20 L spherical explosion chamber with an emphasis on minimum explosion concentration (MEC) of iron dust. The alternative method of combustion duration time (tc) was used to determine MEC and compared with the standardized over pressure method. Two kinds of nano-sized iron oxides (Fe2O3 and Fe3O4) were used as inertants to determine the inhibition effect of different oxidation products. The iron dust explosion products with various shapes and sizes were found to be able to grow up 4–6 times of the iron dust for the first time. Adding small amount of Fe2O3 or Fe3O4 could reduce the explosion severity and sensitivity of iron dust. The MEC data determined by both methods were comparable. The addition of 5 % oxide has obvious inhibition effect under 1500 g/m3 concentration. With the increase of oxide concentration to 10 %, the inerting effect increases, and the MEC of iron dust increases more than 3 times. The increase of dust concentration will weaken the inerting effect. When the concentration increases from 500 g/m3 to 3000 g/m3, the weakening effect of 10 % Fe2O3 on the explosion pressure decreases from 38.45 % to 2.24 %, and 10 % Fe3O4 decreases from 46.21 % to 10.63 %. Unlike coal, biomass or aluminum dusts, the iron dust explosion was found to have a unique secondary acceleration of pressure rise rate for the first time. These results provide a fundamental basis to mitigate the iron dust explosion via solid inerting method without adding extra elements. KW - Iron dust KW - Iron oxides KW - MEC KW - Combustion duration time KW - Explosion products KW - Pressure rise rate PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2022.124786 SN - 0016-2361 VL - 324, Part C SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-55057 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Xu, Alan A1 - Moschetti, Michael A1 - Miskovic, David A1 - Wei, Tao A1 - Ionescu, Mihail A1 - Wang, Zhiyang A1 - Palmer, Tim A1 - Bhattacharyya, Dhriti A1 - He, Peidong A1 - Li, Xiaopeng A1 - Gludovatz, Bernd A1 - Ferry, Michael T1 - Improved irradiation resistance of a low activation refractory medium entropy alloy, VCrFeW0.2, for fusion applications demonstrated by micro-tensile testing N2 - An, as cast, VCrFeW0.2 refractory medium entropy alloy (RMEA) was designed for fusion reactor divertor applications, focusing on reduced cost, low activation and compositional stability (low transmutation rates). The as-cast alloy was irradiated to a fluence of 5.6 × 10^17 ions/cm^2 at room temperature with 5 MeV helium ions whose energy have been uniformly attenuated to 0.4 MeV and 5 MeV via energy degradation device prior to sample irradiation. Pre and post irradiation, its mechanical properties were evaluated micro-tensile testing. Prior to irradiation, the VCrFeW0.2 alloy demonstrated good strength and ductility, with a yield strength of 1464 MPa and strain to UTS (\sigma_UTS) of 4.6 %, maintaining comparable strength to pure tungsten (1403 MPa) but with greater strain to UTS (1.3 %). Post irradiation, the VCrFeW0.2 alloy exhibited remarkable damage resistance; its strength increased by only ∼160 MPa, and it retained strain to UTS with a \sigma_UTS of 2.9 %. It performed better than pure tungsten tested under identical irradiation conditions where there was ∼1800 MPa increase in yield strength and a complete loss of plasticity. The micro-tensile results were supported by nanoindentation tests and Vickers hardness testing was also undertaken to show the yield strength values are representative of macro scale, bulk behavior. TEM and comparison with existing literature on RMEA/RHEA are presented here to understand the reason for difference in performance between VCrFeW0.2 alloy and pure tungsten. KW - Refractory medium entropy alloys KW - Fusion reactor materials KW - Irradiation resistance KW - Micro-tensile testing KW - Helium ion damage PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-645322 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2025.107481 SN - 0263-4368 VL - 134 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Elsevier Ltd. CY - Netherlands AN - OPUS4-64532 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -