Muitiscale modeling of irradiation induced hardening in a-Fe, Fe-Cr and Fe-Ni systems

Structural materials in the new Generation IV reactors will operate in harsh radiation conditions coupled with high levels of hydrogen and helium production, thus experiencing severe degradation of mechanical properties. The development of structural materials for use in such a hostile environment is predicated on understanding the underlying physical mechanisms responsible for microstructural evolution along with corresponding dimensional instabilities and mechanical property changes. As the phenomena involved are very complex and span in several length scales, a multiscale approach is necessary in order to fully understand the degradation of materials in irradiated environments. The purpose of this work is to study the behavior of Fe systems (namely a-Fe, Fe-Cr and Fe-Ni) under irradiation using both Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Dislocation Dynamics (DD) simulations. Critical information is passed from the atomistic (MD) to the microscopic scale (DD) in order to study the degradation of the material under examination. In particular, information pertaining to the dislocation-defects (such as voids, helium bubbles and prismatic loops) interactions is obtained from MD simulations. Then this information is used by DD to simulate large systems with high dislocation and defect densities.