Measurement of internal friction and shear modulus of aluminium-magnesium alloy after neutron irradiation at 78 K

The internal friction and shear modulus of polycrystalline Al + 3 at.% Mg was studied as a function of temperature after fast neutron irradiation, at liquid nitrogen temperature (78 K). The initial increase of shear modulus after irradiation is mainly due to the dislocation pinning of the irradiation induced defects. The further increase of shear modulus during annealing is caused by the bulk-effect. The recovery of shear modulus up to room temperature is similar to that of the residual electrical resistivity after a low temperature neutron irradiation. However, we may point out that in contrast to stage II, in stage III we observe a recovery of shear modulus that is distinctly more pronounced than that of electrical resistivity. The temperature dependence of internal friction, before irradiation, shows a peak at 230 K. After neutron irradiation we observe no peak in the temperature region, from 90 K to 300 K.