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Impurity-defect interactions and radiation hardening and embrittlement in BCC metals

  • Symposium on Irradiation-Enhanced Materials Science and Engineering
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Abstract

The interaction of interstitial impurity atoms (IIA’s) with radiation-produced defects in bcc metals and its influence on radiation hardening and embrittlement are reviewed. Special emphasis is placed on the role of oxygen in vanadium and niobium and of nitrogen and carbon in iron and steel. Upon postirradiation annealing at temperatures where the IIA’s are mobile (about 50 °C to 250 °C), resistivity stages and decreases in internal friction (Snoek damping) are observed. Evidence is examined that leads to the conclusion that IIA’s are trapped at radiation-produced defects upon postirradiation annealing,which removes the IIA’s from solid solution. The consequences of this IIA trapping on mechanical properties are summarized, particularly in terms of the phenomena of radiation anneal hardening, static strain aging, and dynamic strain aging (DSA). Static and dynamic strain aging are shown to be retarded or suppressed in irradiated metals. Recent investigations, which demonstrate that the suppression of DSA in steel can lead to an increase in ductility upon irradiation, are described.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and of Nuclear Engineering, Iowa State University, 50011, Ames, IA

    M. S. Wechsler (Professor)

  2. Departments of Nuclear Engineering and of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, 27695-7909, Raleigh, NC

    K. L. Murty (Professor)

Authors
  1. M. S. Wechsler
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  2. K. L. Murty
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Additional information

This paper is based on a presentation made in the symposium “Irradiation-Enhanced Materials Science and Engineering” presented as part of the ASM INTERNATIONAL 75th Anniversary celebration at the 1988 World Materials Congress in Chicago, IL, September 25-29, 1988, under the auspices of the Nuclear Materials Committee of TMS-AIME and ASM-MSD.

For the materials discussed in this paper, the displacement cross section for fission neutrons may be estimated as 500 to 1500 barns. Thus, a fluence of 1018 neutrons/cm2 corresponds roughly to 10-3 displacements per atom (DPA). For electron irradiations, the indicated DPA’s are based on the displacement cross sections given by Oen[80] and the threshold displacement energies in the1986 Annual Book of ASTM Standards;[81] i.e., T d = 40 eV for Fe and V and 60 eV for Nb.

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Wechsler, M.S., Murty, K.L. Impurity-defect interactions and radiation hardening and embrittlement in BCC metals. Metall Trans A 20, 2637–2649 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02670157

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