Critical radius and critical number of gas atoms for cavities containing a van der waals gas

Abstract

The effect of gas on void nucleation and growth is particularly important for structural materials in fusion reactors because of the high production of helium by neutron-induced transmutation reactions. Gas reduces the critical radius for bias driven growth and there is a critical number of gas atoms, n ★ g, at which the critical radius is reduced essentially to zero. The significance of this is that the time interval to the accumulation of n ★ g gas atoms may determine the time to the onset of bias driven swelling where n ★ g is large. In previous papers these critical quantities were given for an ideal gas. Recently, we presented the results for a Van der Waals gas. Here the derivation of these relations is presented and further results of calculations are given. At low temperatures (high pressures) the results depart from those of the ideal gas, with the critical number affected more strongly than the critical radius. Comparisons are made with earlier calculations.