• Development of a new irradiation-embrittlement prediction model for reactor pressure-vessel steels

    分类: 物理学 >> 核物理学 提交时间: 2024-03-07

    摘要: Predicting the transition-temperature shift (TTS) induced by neutron irradiation in reactor pressure-vessel (RPV) steels is important for the evaluation and extension of nuclear power-plant lifetimes. Current prediction models may fail to properly describe the embrittlement trend curves of Chinese domestic RPV steels with relatively low Cu content. Based on the screened surveillancedata of Chinese domestic and similar international RPV steels, we have developed a new fluence-dependent model for predicting the irradiation-embrittlement trend. The fast neutron fluence (E> 1 MeV) exhibited the highest correlation coefficient with the measured TTS data; thus, it is a crucial parameter in the prediction model. The chemical composition has little relevance to the TTSresidual calculated by the fluence-dependent model. The results show that the newly developed model with a simple power-law functional form of the neutron fluence is suitable for predicting the irradiation-embrittlement trend of Chinese domestic RPVs, regardless of the effect of the chemical composition.

  • Atomistic study on the microscopic mechanism of grain boundary embrittlement induced by small dense helium bubbles in iron

    分类: 物理学 >> 核物理学 分类: 核科学技术 >> 核聚变工程技术 提交时间: 2024-02-27

    摘要: The helium bubbles induced by 14 MeV neutron irradiation can cause intergranular fractures in reduced activation ferritic martensitic (RAFM) steel, which is a candidate structural material for fusion reactors. In order to elucidate the susceptibility of different grain boundaries (GBs) to helium-induced embrittlement, the tensile fracture processes of 10 types of GBs with and without helium bubbles in body-centered cubic (bcc) iron at the relevant service temperature of 600 K were investigated via molecular dynamics methods. The results indicate that in the absence of helium bubbles, the GBs studied here can be classified into two distinct categories: brittle GBs and ductile GBs. The atomic scale analysis shows that the plastic deformation of ductile GB at high temperatures originates from complex plastic deformation mechanisms, including the Bain/Burgers path phase transition and deformation twinning, in which the Bain path phase transition is the most dominant plastic deformation mechanism. However, the presence of helium bubbles severely inhibits the plastic deformation channels of the GBs, resulting in a significant decrease in elongation at fractures. For bubble-decorated GBs, the ultimate tensile strength increases with the increase of the misorientation angle. Interestingly, the coherent twin boundary Ʃ3{112} was found to maintain relatively high fracture strength and maximum failure strain under the influence of helium bubbles.