Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T23:19:02.262Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Modeling Cascade Aging in Dilute Fe-Cu Alloys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2011

B. D. Wirth
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551
G. R. Odette
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Get access

Abstract

The continued safe operation of nuclear reactors and their potential for lifetime extension depends on ensuring reactor pressure vessel integrity. Reactor pressure vessels and structural materials used in nuclear energy applications are exposed to intense neutron fields that create highly non-equilibrium defect concentrations, consisting of a shell of self-interstitial atom and clusters surrounding a vacancy-rich core, over picosecond time scales. This spatially correlated defect production initiates a long chain of events responsible for microstructure evolution and hence irradiation embrittlement. In this paper, we describe the combined use of molecular dynamics (MD) and kinetic lattice Monte Carlo (KMC) to simulate the long-term rearrangement (aging) of displacement cascades in dilute Fe-Cu alloys. The simulations reveal the formation of a continuous distribution of three dimensional cascade vacancy-Cu cluster complexes and demonstrate the critical importance of spatial, as well as short and long-time correlated processes that mediate the effective production of primary defects. Finally, this approach can generate production cross-sections for vacancy-Cu clusters that can then be used in rate theory type models of long term global micro and microstructural evolution.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Odette, G.R., Wirth, B.D., Bacon, D.J. and Ghoniem, N.M., “Multiscale-Multiphysics Modeling of Radiation-Damaged Materials: Embrittlement of Pressure Vessel Steels”, Materials Research Society Bulletin, 26 (2001) 176.Google Scholar
2. Seeger, A., Proc. 2nd UN Int. Conf. on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Geneva, Vol. 6, United Nations, New York (1958) 20 Google Scholar
3. Robinson, M.T., J. Nucl. Mat. 216 (1994) 1.Google Scholar
4. Stoller, R.E., MRS Soc. Symp. Proc. 373 (1995) 21.Google Scholar
5. Calder, A.F. and Bacon, D.J., J. Nucl. Mat. 207 (1993) 25.Google Scholar
6. Odette, G.R., Scripta Met. 11, (1983) p. 1183.Google Scholar
7. Odette, G.R., in Microstructure of Irradiated Materials, edited by Robertson, I.M., Rehn, L.E., Zinkle, S.J., and Phythian, W.J. (Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 373, Pittsburgh, Pa, 1995) p. 137.Google Scholar
8. Odette, G.R. and Lucas, G.E., Radiation Effects & Defects in Solids 144 (1998) p. 189.Google Scholar
9. Wirth, B.D., Odette, G.R., Maroudas, D., and Lucas, G.E., J. Nucl. Mat. 244 (1997) 185.Google Scholar
10. Soneda, N., and Rubia, T. Diaz de la, Phil Mag A 78 (1998) p. 995.Google Scholar
11. Osetsky, Y.N., Bacon, D.J., Serra, A., Singh, B.N., and Golubov, S.I.Y., J. Nucl. Mat. 276 (2000) p. 65.Google Scholar
12. Wirth, B.D., Odette, G.R., Maroudas, D. and Lucas, G.E., J. Nuc. Mat. 276 (2000) p. 33.Google Scholar
13. Jenkins, M.L., Kirk, M. A. and Phythian, W. J., J. Nucl. Matrl. 205 (1993) 16.Google Scholar
14. Caturla, M.J., Soneda, N., Alonso, E.A., Wirth, B.D. and Rubia, T. Diaz de la, J. Nuc. Mat., 276 (2000) p. 13.Google Scholar
15. Finnis, M.W. and Sinclair, J.E., Phil. Mag. A 50 (1) (1984) 45.Google Scholar
16. Ackland, G. J., Tichy, G. I., Vitek, V., and Finnis, M. W., Phil. Mag. A 56 (1987) 735.Google Scholar
17. Wirth, B.D. and Odette, G.R., MRS Soc. Symp. Proc. 481 (1998) 151.Google Scholar
18. Domain, C. and Becquart, C.S., personal communication.Google Scholar
19. Wirth, B.D. and Odette, G.R., MRS Soc. Symp. Proc. 540 (1999) 637.Google Scholar
20. Mader, E.V., Kinetics of Irradiation Embrittlement and the Post-Irradiation Annealing of Nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California Santa Barbara (1995).Google Scholar