Radiation-induced segregation at grain boundaries of alloy 800H: Experimentally-informed atomistic simulations

C Dai and Q Wang and A Prudil and WJ Li and L Walters, JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS, 579, 154395 (2023).

DOI: 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2023.154395

The irradiation of alloys can alter the spatial distribution of solute and impurity elements. The redistribu-tion of alloying elements can cause local chemical changes at surfaces and interfaces, which may degrade the mechanical and chemical properties of alloys. In this paper, a combination of microscopic experiments and atomistic simulations are employed to study the effect of irradiation damage on radiation-induced segregation (RIS) at grain boundaries (GBs) of the alloy 800H. The grain boundary character distribution in alloy 800H was determined by electron backscatter diffraction, and proton-irradiation-induced defects were identified by transmission electron microscopy. The experimentally- observed GBs were recreated in atomistic simulations to further study their atomistic structure, grain boundary energies, and local ele-ment concentration. The effects of radiation-induced defects on the redistribution of alloying elements at various GBs were investigated. A mechanism is proposed to explain the local chemical changes at GBs after the interaction with radiation-induced dislocation loops, which is of importance to nuclear reactor performance.(c) 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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