Interaction of displacement cascades with 1012 and 1011 twin boundaries in zirconium: A molecular dynamic study

HL Wang and YX Zhou and LL Dai and XX Mi and CY Sun and Q Dong and L Wu and J Tan and AT Tang, JOURNAL OF MATERIALS RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY- JMR&T, 27, 3362-3373 (2023).

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmrt.2023.10.155

Twinning is a significant deformation mode in zirconium (Zr). Here we investigated the primary displacement cascades near the twin boundary (TB) and mechanical properties in Zr using molecular dynamics simulations. The results show that 10 12 and 10 11 TBs can act as an effective sink for point defects to enhance irradiation resistance in Zr. The 10 12 TB exhibits better sink efficiency than 10 11 TB. Hence, it's recommended to employ Zr alloys with more 10 12 deformation twinning microstructure in irradiation conditions. The present work predicts the introduction of TBs may contribute to a decrease in the density of large-sized clusters and clustered fraction. Further, irradiation leads to localized deformation of the two TBs even in one single collision cascade. The tensile loading of the unirradiated and irradiated samples indicates that the stacking faults serve as an important deformation mechanism in two TB models. The results not only present a reference for under-standing the TB structure in the displacement cascades of Zr and its alloys but also provide further support for the design of irradiation-resistant nanotwinned metals.

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