Study on irradiation effect in stress-strain response with CPFEM during nano-indentation

Abstract

Abstract The influence of irradiation on the constitutive stress-strain response of A508-3 steel is investigated by a series of nano-indentation simulations with Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Model (CPFEM). In this regard, the crystal plasticity constitutive model based on the densities of dislocations and irradiation defects for body-centered cubic (BCC) crystal of concern is summarized and numerically implemented at first. Moreover, the method that converts hardness vs. half-angle (θ) into stress vs. strain is introduced briefly. Based on the model, numerical results are challenged in comparison with experimental data and found in excellent agreement with the reported results, from which, the validity is verified. Meanwhile, we further analyze the depth-dependent irradiation damage distribution of ion irradiation and offer the equivalent value of irradiation damage in terms of displacement per atom (dpa) in the uniform fashion, which can definitely deepen the comprehension of the depth-dependent irradiation hardening of ion-irradiated A508-3 steel and guide relevant experimental work.