The research in this thesis covers the design and implementation of a depleted uranium (DU) powder production system and the initial results of a DU-Zr-Mg alloy alpha phase sintering experiment where the Mg is a surrogate for Pu and Am. The powder production system utilized the uranium hydrogen interaction in order to break down larger pieces of uranium into fine powder. After several iterations, a successful reusable system was built. The nominal size of the powder product was on the order of 1 to 3 mm. The resulting uranium powder was pressed into pellets of various compositions (DU, DU-10Zr, DU-Mg, DU-10Zr-Mg) and heated to approximately 650?C, just below the alphabeta phase transition of uranium. The dimensions of the pellets were measured before and after heating and in situ dimension changes were measured using a linear variable differential transducer (LVDT). Post experiment measurement of the pellets proved to be an unreliable indicator of sintering do the cracking of the pellets during cool down. The cracking caused increases in the diameter and height of the samples. The cracks occurred in greater frequency along the edges of the pellets. All of the pellets, except the DU-10Zr-Mg pellet, were slightly conical in shape. This is believed to be an artifact of the powder pressing procedure. A greater density occurs on one end of the pellet during pressing and thus leads to gradient in the sinter rate of the pellet. The LVDT measurements proved to be extremely sensitive to outside vibration, making a subset of the data inappropriate for analysis. The pellets were also analyzed using electron microscopy. All pellets showed signs of sintering and an increase in density. The pellets will the greatest densification and lowest porosity were the DU-Mg and DU-10Zr-Mg. The DU-Mg pellet had a porosity of 14 +or- 2.%. The DU-10Zr-Mg porosity could not be conclusively determined due to lack of clearly visible pores in the image, however there were very few pores indicating a high degree of sintering. In the DU-10Zr-Mg alloy, large grains of DU were surrounded by Zr. This phenomena was not present in the DU-10Zr pellet where the Zr and DU stayed segregated. There was no indication of alloying between the Zr and DU in pellets.

Titanium is well known for its excellent properties, such as high strength-to-weight ratio and outstanding corrosion resistance. However the high cost of this metal has confined its applications to those mostly within the aerospace and military industries. The high purchase price of titanium is primarily driven by the need for intricate metal extraction processes, as well as the sensitivity towards conventional metal working operations. Among the potential solutions, powder metallurgy (P/M) technology provides an economical approach to bring down the price of finished titanium products. However, there are still many problems, such as the residual porosity in the sintered body, that need to be overcome. In this thesis, a fundamental study was carried out focusing on the P/M press-and-sinter technique, using commercially pure titanium (CP Ti) as well as two binary titanium alloys, namely Ti-Ni and Ti-Sn. The influence of several processing parameters including compaction pressure, lubricant type/concentration, sintering time/temperature were performed on both the CP and binary systems. The principal tools utilized for mechanical characterization were hardness and tensile testing, whereas optical microscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy were employed to identify the microstructural features present. Press-and-sinter P/M strategies were successfully developed for all of the blends studied. For CP-Ti, a maximum tensile strength >750MPa and near full theoretical density (~99%) were achieved. Transitions in the size and the size distribution of pores and ?-Ti grains were also observed and quantified. It was found these transitions, as well as the powder impurities present (i.e. oxygen and carbon), greatly influenced the final mechanical properties. In the case of the binary alloys, it was shown that liquid phase sintering (LPS) significantly improved the sintered density for the Ti-10%Ni composition, when sintered at l100°C. A eutectic microstructure (CP-Ti + Ti2Ni), coupled with grains of CP-Ti, were identified as the principal phases present. On the other hand, the Ti-Sn alloys only showed a modest increase in sintered density compared to the CP-Ti, owing to the high solubility of Sn in Ti. In terms of crystal structure, XRD highlighted that the Sn containing samples were fully CP-Ti.