The Transformation in Zirconium-Niobium Alloys with an Appendix on Thermocouple Alloying with Zirconium

Abstract

AbstractTransformation temperatures at cooling rates to 5,500°C per sec have been determined for zirconium alloys with 1.0, 2.5, 3.0, and 5.0 weight per cent niobium, and for pure zirconium at cooling rates to 35.000°C per second. On the basis of the surface-rumpling criterion; the transformation (at rates greater than critical) is martensitic. in the alloys, and non-martensitic in pure zirconium. The suggestion is made that in pure zirconium the rumpling phenomenon is not an adequate criterion of martensite transformation.