Correlation between shear punch and tensile data for neutron-irradiated aluminum alloys

As part of a study to determine the potential for using aluminum alloys as structural components in accelerators used to produce tritium, tensile specimens and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) disks of two aluminum alloys in two tempers were irradiated with neutrons from spallation reactions in the Los Alamos Spallation Radiation Effects Facility (LASREF) at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) at 90 to 120°C to a fluence of ∼4 × 10²⁰ n/cm². Tensile and shear punch tests were performed on the irradiated alloys as well as on a similar unirradiated control matrix with a larger number of specimens, and a correlation between shear and tensile properties was developed for the unirradiated alloys and the irradiated alloys. Comparison of the correlations for the unirradiated and irradiated alloys showed that small differences in the correlations existed, however for purposes of estimation of uniaxial tensile properties, either correlation was found to be adequate.