Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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The investigation of the carbon on irradiation hardening and defect clustering in RPV model alloy using ion irradiation and OKMC simulation

  • Yitao Yang (Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Jianyang Li (Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Chonghong Zhang (Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
  • Received : 2023.08.31
  • Accepted : 2024.01.10
  • Published : 2024.06.25
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Abstract

The precipitation of solutes is a major cause of irradiation hardening and embrittlement limiting the service life of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels. Impurities play a significant role in the formation of precipitation in RPV materials. In this study, the effects of carbon on cluster formation and irradiation hardening were investigated in an RPV alloy Fe-1.35Mn-0.75Ni using C and Fe ions irradiation at 290 ℃. Nanoindentation results showed that C ion irradiation led to less hardening below 1.0 dpa, with hardening continuing to increase gradually at higher doses, while it was saturated under Fe ion irradiation. Atom probe tomography revealed a broad size distribution of Ni-Mn clusters under Fe ion irradiation, contrasting a narrower size distribution of small Ni-Mn clusters under C ion irradiation. Further analysis indicated the influence of carbon on the cluster formation, with solute-precipitated defects dominating under C ion irradiation but interstitial clusters dominating under Fe ion irradiation. Simulations suggested that carbon significantly affected solute nucleation, with defect clusters displaying smaller size and higher density as carbon concentration increased. The higher hardening at doses above 1.0 dpa was attributed to a substantial increase in the number density of defect clusters when carbon was present in the matrix.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This study is supported by the National Key Research and Development Programs of China (Grant No.2022YFE03120001 and 2017YFB0702202). The authors gratefully acknowledge the operation team of the 320 kV platform for their help in the ion irradiation experiments.

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