Thursday, October 25, 2018
Dr. Huijuan (Jane) Zhao
Clemson University
2:00 - 3:00pm
SEH, B1220
Abstract
The rapid development of advanced materials and structures with high-performance material properties requires a thorough understanding and characterization of the material through computational and theoretical modeling techniques. A nano-structured ferretic alloy with oxygen-enriched nanoclusters has been developed as the potential structure materials of nuclear energy applications. It has excellent strength, stiffness and hardness at both room temperature and elevated temperature. The creep rate is 106 lower than the traditional iron alloy. It also displays high radiation resistance. In this nano-structured ferretic alloy, high-density ultra-stable, self-assembled oxygen-enriched nanoclusters have been observed. These nanoclusters show remarkable stability with various temperature, pressure and irradiation conditions and play an important role in the material property enhancement. In this talk, first principles theory calculations and theoretical modeling techniques will be discussed to characterize the formation and stability of O-enriched nanoclusters in these nano-structured ferretic alloys, and the helium cluster formation and growth near the O-enriched nanoclusters under the irradiation conditions. This study will guide the further design of high-performance alloys for extreme environmental conditions.
Biography
Huijuan (Jane) Zhao received her B.S. and M.S. in Engineering Mechanics from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 2000 and 2002, respectively. She received her Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Science &Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010. She had postdoctoral training in the Material Theory Group of MS&T Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She joined the Mechanical Engineering Department at Clemson University in 2012. Her research area has been focusing on the material and structure characterizations through computational multi-scale, multi-physics modeling techniques. She is currently funded by DOE/NEUP, DOE/EERE and ONR.