The interaction between atomic displacement cascades and tilt symmetrical grain boundaries in α-zirconium

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe atomic displacement cascade simulations near symmetric tilt grain boundaries (GBs) in hexagonal close packed-Zirconium were considered in this paper. Further defect structure analysis was conducted. Four symmetrical tilt GBs –∑14, ∑14 with the axis of rotation [0 0 0 1] and ∑32, ∑32 with the axis of rotation – were considered. The molecular dynamics method was used for atomic displacement cascades’ simulation. A tendency of the point defects produced in the cascade to accumulate near the GB plane, which was an obstacle to the spread of the cascade, was discovered. The results of the point defects’ clustering produced in the cascade were obtained. The clusters of both types were represented mainly by single point defects. At the same time, vacancies formed clusters of a large size (more than 20 vacancies per cluster), while self-interstitial atom clusters were small-sized.