Abstract
High-energy x-ray diffraction is employed to gain insight into the irradiation-induced creep behavior of silicon carbide (SiC). Polycrystalline β-SiC specimens were simultaneously exposed to elevated temperature neutron-irradiation and mechanically applied stresses. The structural disordering was subsequently examined using two-dimensional x-ray diffraction. The intensity of the (111) shoulder peak, an indication of stacking disorder, increased when the specimens were irradiated under tensile stress. This is the first observation of nanoscale stress-induced stacking disorder in SiC at low neutron fluences. These findings suggest stress-induced preferential nucleation and/or growth of defect clusters as a key creep mechanism in neutron irradiated SiC.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 113785 |
| Journal | Scripta Materialia |
| Volume | 197 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 2021 |
Funding
This study was supported by the US. Department Energy ( DOE ), Office of Nuclear Energy, for the Advanced Fuels Campaign of the Nuclear Technology R&D program under contact DE-AC05-00OR22725 with ORNL, managed by UT Battelle, LLC. The XRD experiments were supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07-051D14517 as part of a Nuclear Science User Facilities experiment. This research used the X-ray Powder Diffraction beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source-II, a U.S. DOE, Office of Science User Facility, operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DESC0012704 . The irradiation experiments and analysis were also supported by the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle LLC and DE-SC0018322 with the Research Foundation for the State University of New York at Stony Brook. A portion of this research used resources at the HFIR, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by ORNL. Notice: 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 ) . This study was supported by the US. Department Energy (DOE), Office of Nuclear Energy, for the Advanced Fuels Campaign of the Nuclear Technology R&D program under contact DE-AC05-00OR22725 with ORNL, managed by UT Battelle, LLC. The XRD experiments were supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07-051D14517 as part of a Nuclear Science User Facilities experiment. This research used the X-ray Powder Diffraction beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source-II, a U.S. DOE, Office of Science User Facility, operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DESC0012704. The irradiation experiments and analysis were also supported by the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle LLC and DE-SC0018322 with the Research Foundation for the State University of New York at Stony Brook. A portion of this research used resources at the HFIR, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by ORNL.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences | |
| US Department of Energy | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | DE-AC07-051D14517 |
| Battelle | |
| Office of Science | |
| Office of Nuclear Energy | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Brookhaven National Laboratory | DESC0012704 |
| UT-Battelle | DE-SC0018322 |
Keywords
- Irradiation creep
- Neutron irradiation
- Silicon carbide
- X-ray diffraction