Strengthening of tungsten by coherent rhenium precipitates formed during low fluence irradiation

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Abstract

Experimental data show that the accumulation of rhenium and osmium from transmutation reactions severely affect the microstructural evolution and property degradation of tungsten-based materials under neutron irradiation. Theory and modeling have confirmed that Re atom transport in W is by irradiation-produced migrating self-interstitial atoms. With this diffusion mode in operation, a specific microstructure evolution is realized when at relatively low neutron fluence the Re-rich precipitates are formed, while the void and interstitial loop population development is suppressed, affecting the mechanical properties. This research shows the effect of small coherent Re-rich precipitates on the dislocation glide under stress, investigated using the molecular dynamics approach with empirical interatomic potentials. The results are compared with an earlier simulation of void hardening in W. It is demonstrated that small coherent Re-rich precipitates of less than 6 nm diameter represent relatively weak obstacles for moving edge dislocations. The implication of these results on the interpretation of experimental results is discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)20-27
Number of pages8
JournalTungsten
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2022

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. The author thanks Drs. F.W. Wiffen and L.M. Garrison for valuable discussions and comments. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).

Keywords

  • Dislocation dynamics
  • Dislocation obstacle interaction
  • Molecular dynamics
  • Obstacle strength
  • Re-rich precipitates
  • Tungsten-rhenium alloys

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