THE PROPERTIES AND HEAT TREATMENT OF URANIUM-TITANIUM ALLOYS
The heat treatnnent and mechanical properties of three uranium-titanium alloys rargirg in composition from 8.5 to 50 at.% titanium were investigated. The hardness of heat-treated alloys was correlated with microstructure and x-ray- diffraction results. From this study the following important observations were made: (1) a direct quench of gamma uranium-titanium solid solution resulted in the formation of a hard martensitic phase in low-titanium alloys, (2) subsequent tempering increased the hardness further by the rejection of a fine dispersion of U/sub 2/Ti, (3) similar hardness levels were obtained by isothermal transformation of an 8.5 at.% titanium alloy at 400 and 500 deg C, and (4) the crystal structure of the phases present at the solutiontreating temperature, and the effect of temperature within a given equilibrium phase field, affected the hardness of both quenched and isothermally transformed alloys. (auth)