The effects of damage structures on mechanical properties of neutron irradiated vanadium

Abstract

Abstract Pure V and a carbon-containing vanadium alloy (V-0.3 at.% C) were irradiated with 14 MeV neutron in RTNS-II. Irradiations were performed at room temperature to fluences between 1.44 × 10 21 and 4.72 × 10 22 n/m 2 . In specimens of both pure V and V-0.3 at.% C cascade damage structures were observable. The observable cluster density in V-C alloy was higher than that in pure V, and increased with increasing fluence. The mean size of the clusters was smaller in the V-C alloy compared with V. These differences between V and V-C alloy are caused by the effect of interaction between carbon atoms and point defects, which may stabilize the cascade damage regions. The hardening rate with irradiation fluences was greater in V-C than in V. This suggests that the higher density, smaller damage structures in V-C alloy produces the greater strengthening.