Molecular dynamics analysis of volume change in a nuclear glass model subjected to a displacement cascade

Abstract

In previous work, we presented the structural modifications induced in a simplified nuclear glass by a displacement cascade generated by an heavy ion. In this work, we try to have a link between the macroscopic volume change of the nuclear glass and the structural modifications at the atomic scale. The analysis of the Voronoı̈ cell volumes distribution for different species in our simplified nuclear glass, highlights that the swelling consecutive to a displacement cascade is concentrated around network modifiers. This observation corroborates well the experimental results where it is observed that an alkalino boro silicate glass shrinks under α radiations in the absence of any alkali oxide, and it swells as long as the [Na 2O]/[SiO 2] ratio increases.