Dislocation bias in an anisotropic diffusive medium and irradiation growth

Abstract

The anisotropic diffusion of irradiation-generated point defects to an isotropic distribution of dislocations is described. By solving the boundary-value problem in an anisotropic diffusion field of cylindrical symmetry, the sink strength of a dislocation in an hcp crystal is calculated as a function of the line-direction orientation with respect to the c- axis . The rate theory approach is then used to derive the irradiation growth rate. The theory is found to give a good semiquantitative description of irradiation growth in zirconium.