Radiation damage is a critical problem for the alloys serving under irradiation circumstances where the numerous defects is induced by the cascade collision of radiation particles, the microstructure and mechanical properties will be damaged by the irradiation. By combination of rate theory (RT) and multi-phase-field (MPF) model, the influences of neutron irradiation dose rate (DR) and irradiation temperature are studied on the radiation-enhanced precipitation, vacancies and interstitial atoms in Fe-35Cr-10Al (at.%) alloys. The RT coupled with phase-field simulations capture the radiation induced nanoscale precipitates, clustering of vacancies and interstitial atoms. With the increase of DR, the diffusion of solute atoms is accelerated for the generation of vacancies and interstitial atoms, and the growth and coarsening rate of α′ phase is quickened. The DR affects the distribution of elements between α/α′ phases, high DR promotes the Fe and Al to partition into α phase, Cr into α′ phase in the formation of α′ phase. Therefore, in the steady-state coarsening stage, the high DR leads to the α′ phase to reach the equilibrium composition earlier. As the increase of neutron irradiation temperature, the separation and coarsening rate of α′ phase are accelerated. The simulation morphology and quantitative characteristics are consistent with the experimental results. The coupling of RT and MPF simulation in alloys with point defects and nanophase under neutron irradiation put forward the study tactics and theory understanding for radiation-enhanced multiple microstructure evolutions.
Read full abstract