Observation and possible mechanism of irradiation induced creep in ceramics

Stress relaxation of elastically strained silicon carbide samples during high flux neutron irradiation to ∼2 displacements per atom at intermediate (390-540 °C) to high (790-1180 °C) temperatures is presented. The magnitude of stress relaxation normalized to the initial stress magnitude is independent of the initial stress magnitude, indicating a stress exponent of unity for irradiation creep in SiC. The creep strain increases with the increasing fluence while the strain rate significantly decreases. A linear relationship was found between the creep strain and the transient swelling that occurs due to irradiation defect accumulation. The apparent irradiation creep compliances for silicon carbide are substantially smaller than those associated with pure metals and alloys. Microstructural examination suggests that incoherent grain boundaries likely play a major role in determining the primary transient irradiation creep of these materials at high temperatures with a potential additional contribution from basal slip at very high temperatures.