Comparison of Small-Angle Neutron Scattering of δ' Precipitation in an Al–Li Alloy at a High-Flux Reactor and at a Pulsed-Neutron Source

Two different small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) facilities, the D11 camera at the Institut Laue–Langevin (ILL, Grenoble, France) and the LOQ time-of-flight diffractometer at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL, Didcot, Oxon, England), were used in the investigations of δ′-Al₃Li precipitation at 463 K in Al–Li 3% alloy. The results obtained from the steady-state reactor and from the pulsed source by using two different data-acquisition techniques and two different procedures for data analysis are compared. The SANS curves for the same set of samples investigated using the two different instruments are in good agreement within the experimental uncertainties. A check was also made on the metallurgically relevant quantities, namely the average size and the size-distribution function of the δ′ precipitates at the various stages of the ageing process, obtained from the two sets of SANS curves by applying the same numerical method. Good agreement was found between the results from the two data sets.