Effect of annealing temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties of laves phase reinforced FeCrAl alloy thin-walled tubes.

• Annealing at different temperatures was used on cold rolling fe-13cr-4al-2mo thin-walled tubes. • The microstructure and axial tensile properties of the samples before and after annealing were measured. • The annealed samples were embrittled by aging, and the enhanced particles and hardness were characterized. • The strengthening mechanism of FeCrAl alloy at room temperature and failure mechanism at high temperature were investigated. FeCrAl alloy has great application potential to replace traditional zirconium alloy as an accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) candidate material. In this study, Fe-13Cr-4Al-2Mo-0.65Nb-0.4Ta alloy was prepared into a thin-walled tube with a diameter of 9.5 mm and a wall thickness of 0.35 mm by cold rolling. The effects of different annealing temperatures on the microstructure morphology, texture growth direction, and mechanical properties of FeCrAl alloy were studied., alloy underwent recovery and recrystallization with increasing annealing temperature, and the grain size increased. The theoretical calculation showed that the pinning action of Fe2Mo4C and Fe2Nb increased the dislocation density, and the interaction with the dislocation increased the room temperature strength. The addition of Ta led to the formation of more second-phase precipitates at the grain boundary, which hindered the growth and refined grains. The high-temperature stable second phase provided sufficient temperature strength for the alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]