• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.2071-2078
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• 2024

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.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.907-914
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• 2018

In this article, we conducted molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the effect of applied strain and temperature on irradiation-induced damage in alpha-zirconium. Cascade simulations were performed with primary knock-on atom energies ranging between 1 and 20 KeV, hydrostatic and uniaxial strain values ranging from -2% (compression) to 2% (tensile), and temperatures ranging from 100 to 1000 K. Results demonstrated that the number of defects increased when the displacement cascade proceeded under tensile uniaxial hydrostatic strain. In contrast, compressive strain states tended to decrease the defect production rate as compared with the reference no-strain condition. The proportions of vacancy and interstitial clustering increased by approximately 45% and 55% and 25% and 32% for 2% hydrostatic and uniaxial strain systems, respectively, as compared with the unstrained system, whereas both strain fields resulted in a 15-30% decrease in vacancy and interstitial clustering under compressive conditions. Tensile strains, specifically hydrostatic strain, tended to produce larger sized vacancy and interstitial clusters, whereas compressive strain systems did not significantly affect the size of defect clusters as compared with the reference no-strain condition. The influence of the strain system on radiation damage became more significant at lower temperatures because of less annealing than in higher temperature systems.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.156-161
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• 1998

We have measured changes of the non-stoichiometry, $\Delta\delta$, in Fe-doped nicked oxide , by thermogravimetry for four iron fractions, x=0.01, 0.031, 0.057 and 0.10, and three temperatures, T=1273, 1373 and 1473 K. The obtained data can be modelled by a defect structure in which substitutional trivalent iron ions, FeNi, are compensated by cation vacancies, $V_{Ni}$", and (4:1)-clusters. These clusters consist of tetravalent interstitial iron, $Fe_i\;^4$

• Proceedings of the Korean Society Of Semiconductor Equipment Technology
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.59-62
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• 2004

The defect formation energy of boron nitride (BN) nanotubes is investigated using molecular-dynamics simulation. Although the defect with tetragon-octagon pairs (4-88-4) is favored in the flat cap of BN nanotubes, BN clusters, and the growth of BN nanotubes, the formation energy of the 4-88-4 defect is significantly higher than that of the pentagon-heptagon pairs (5-77-5) defect in BN nanotubes. The 5-77-5 defect reduces the effect of the structural distortion caused by the 4-88-4 defect, in spite of homoelemental bonds. The instability of the 4-88-4 defect generates the structural transformation into BNNTs with no defect at about 1500 K.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.23-25
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• 2004

The defect formation energy of boron nitride (BN) nanotubes is investigated using molecular-dynamics simulation. Although the defect with tetragon-octagon pairs (4-88-4) is favored in the flat cap of BN nanotubes, BN clusters, and the growth of BN nanotubes, the formation energy of the 4-88-4 defect is significantly higher than that of the pentagon-heptagon pairs (5-77-5) defect in BN nanotubes. The 5-77-5 defect reduces the effect of the structural distortion caused by the 4-88-4 defect, in spite of homoelemental bonds.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.958-967
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• 2023

This work studies the defect features in a dilute FeMnNi alloy by an Object Kinetic Monte Carlo (OKMC) model based on the "grey-alloy" method. The dose rate effect is studied at 573 K in a wide range of dose rates from 10^-8 to 10^-4 displacement per atom (dpa)/s and demonstrates that the density of defect clusters rises while the average size of defect clusters decreases with increasing dose rate. However, the dose-rate effect decreases with increasing irradiation dose. The model considered two realistic mechanisms for producing <100>-type self-interstitial atom (SIA) loops and gave reasonable production ratios compared with experimental results. Our simulation shows that the proportion of <100>-type SIA loops could change obviously with the dose rate, influencing hardening prediction for various dose rates irradiation. We also investigated ways to compensate for the dose rate effect. The simulation results verified that about a 100 K temperature shift at a high dose rate of 1×10^-4 dpa/s could produce similar irradiation microstructures to a lower dose rate of 1×10^-7 dpa/s irradiation, including matrix defects and deduced solute migration events. The work brings new insight into the OKMC modeling and the dose rate effect of the Fe-based alloys.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.941-942
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• 2004

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.131-152
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• 2015

Easy detection and evaluation of defect in the tube structure is a continuous problem and remains a significant demand in tube inspection technologies. This study is aimed to automate defect detection using the pattern recognition approach based on the classification of high frequency stress wave signals. The stress wave signals from vibrational impact excitation on several tube conditions were captured to identify the defect in ASTM A179 seamless steel tubes. The variation in stress wave propagation was captured by a high frequency sensor. Stress wave signals from four tubes with artificial defects of different depths and one reference tube were classified using the autoregressive (AR) algorithm. The results were demonstrated using a dendrogram. The preliminary research revealed the natural arrangement of stress wave signals were grouped into two clusters. The stress wave signals from the healthy tube were grouped together in one cluster and the signals from the defective tubes were classified in another cluster. This approach was effective in separating different stress wave signals and allowed quicker and easier defect identification and interpretation in steel tubes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.221.1-221
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• 2002

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.321-327
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• 1991

A defect model e)[plaining the oxygen potential of Gadolinia doped urania based on the defect structure of pure urania has been developed. Gd-dopants are assumed to stay in the cation sites pushing away nearby oxygen interstitials reducing the number of interstitial sites. Gd-dopants also form dopant-vacancy clusters in the abundance of oxygen vacancies. This model explains the discontinuous change of the oxygen potential at O/M= as well as the increase of the potential with the dopant concentration.