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The strain-rate sensitivity exponent m and activation volume υ∗ are often used to characterize the strain-rate sensitivity of strength behavior in metals and alloys. Complications can arise when the m and υ∗ values become indeterminate, due to factors such as an inherent scatter in the mechanical property data. The study of commercial Ti-alloy wires is considered wherein to overcome this limitation, the formulation of the Kocks–Mecking (K–M) model is modified to provide a parameter cb that characterizes the microstructural scale responsible for the observed plasticity and work hardening behavior. The softening factor cb is found to be independent of strain-rate for the Ti-alloy wires of this study. It is proposed that cb !can offer a versatile and complementary computation to the activation volume υ∗ since its formulation includes the yield and ultimate strength values along with the plastic strain. For the tensile testing of Ti-alloy wires, a low cb-value of 14 is calculated for Ti-6Al-4V that is consistent with >10 % plasticity during work hardening whereas a high cb-value of 135 for Ti-6Al-7Nb corresponds with <4 % plasticity.

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An associated particle neutron generator is described that employs a negative ion source to produce high neutron flux from a small source size. Negative ions produced in an rf-driven plasma source are extracted through a small aperture to form a beam which bombards a positively biased, high voltage target electrode. Electrons co-extracted with the negative ions are removed by a permanent magnet electron filter. The use of negative ions enables high neutron output (100% atomic ion beam), high quality imaging (small neutron source size), and reliable operation (no high voltage breakdowns). The neutron generator can operate in either pulsed or continuous-wave (cw) mode and has been demonstrated to produce 10 6 D-D n/s (equivalent to ~10 8 D-T n/s) from a 1-mm-diameter neutron source size to facilitate high fidelity associated particle imaging.

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