Mechanical Alloying: An Advanced Processing Route for Development of Iron-Based Oxide-Dispersion-Strengthened Alloys

The mechanical alloying (MA) process involving cold welding, fracture, and rewelding of powder particles is a powder metallurgy powder processing technique. Currently, MA technique is one of the most widely used methods to produce oxide-dispersion-strengthened (ODS) alloys. ODS steels are considered as potential candidate materials for high-temperature applications, such as blanket materials for fusion reactors, fuel cladding for Generation IV fission reactors, and blades for gas and ultra-super critical steam turbines due to excellent properties, such as high-temperature strength and resistance to creep, corrosion, oxidation, and neutron irradiation. It is also possible to synthesize alloys with unique constitutional effects, such as supersaturated solid solutions, metastable quasicrystalline and crystalline phases, and amorphous alloys, with this technique. This article reviews recent developments in Fe-based ODS alloys through MA.