Abstract
Ferritic/martensitic steels T91 and HT9 were irradiated with neutrons (BOR-60 reactor) and dual ions (9 MeV Fe3+ and 3.42 MeV energy degraded He2+) from 369 to 520 °C and damage levels of 16.6 to 72 dpa to quantify the possibility of using ion irradiation to simulate neutron irradiation in terms of microstructures and mechanical properties. Nanoindentation testing was performed to obtain the bulk equivalent hardness of the dual-ion irradiated samples. For the neutron irradiated samples, both nanoindentation and Vickers hardness testing were conducted. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) characterizations of the cavities, dislocation loops and precipitates were conducted to account for the strengthening contribution of each microstructure element. The good agreement between the microstructure-predicted (dispersed barrier hardening) and measured strength of the irradiated specimens demonstrated the accuracy of the strengthening model and the nanoindentation tests. The comparison of mechanical property and microstructure changes in ion and neutron irradiated structural materials indicated that ion irradiation replicated many neutron irradiation features. However, a single 70 °C temperature shift is insufficient to match all complex microstructures of neutron vs. ion irradiation over the irradiation temperature range of 369–520 °C.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 155211 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 599 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2024 |
Funding
This work was supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under contract DE-NE0000639 as part of the SNAP consortium research activities (PZ, SJZ), and under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07- 051D14517 as part of a Nuclear Science User Facilities award #22\u20134456. We thank Stu Maloy for coordinating BOR-60 irradiated specimen shipments, Jesse Werden for FIB preparation at LAMDA, Stephanie Curlin and Michael Mcalister for Vickers tests, Weicheng Zhong for the assistance in nanoindentation tests on neutron irradiated samples, and the staff members at LAMDA and the Irradiated Material Examination and Testing Facility for their efforts to make the specimens available for this study. This work was supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under contract DE-NE0000639 as part of the SNAP consortium research activities (PZ, SJZ), and under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07- 051D14517 as part of a Nuclear Science User Facilities award #22-4456 . We thank Stu Maloy for coordinating BOR-60 irradiated specimen shipments, Jesse Werden for FIB preparation at LAMDA, Stephanie Curlin and Michael Mcalister for Vickers tests, Weicheng Zhong for the assistance in nanoindentation tests on neutron irradiated samples, and the staff members at LAMDA and the Irradiated Material Examination and Testing Facility for their efforts to make the specimens available for this study. Note: This work has been authored by an employee of Triad National Security, LLC, operator of the Los Alamos National Laboratory under Contract No.89233218CNA000001 and by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting this work for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce this work, or allow others to do so for United States Government purposes.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Office of Nuclear Energy | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | 22-4456, DE-AC07- 051D14517, DE-NE0000639 |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| UT-Battelle | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
| UT-Battelle | |
| Los Alamos National Laboratory | 89233218CNA000001 |
| Los Alamos National Laboratory |
Keywords
- Dislocation obstacles
- Irradiation hardening
- Superposition model
- Temperature shift