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Title: Irradiation creep of dilute nickel alloys

Conference · · Am. Soc. Test. Mater., Spec. Tech. Publ.; (United States)
OSTI ID:5709612

Proton irradiation tonsreep tests have been conducted on pure nickel, commercial purity nickel and a 2.48 wt % silicon alloy. The irradiation creep compliance at 623K was found to be only weakly dependent on alloying, less than a factor of two reduction in creep compliance occurring due to the addition of silicon to pure nickel. Interestingly, the commercial purity nickel possessed the lowest irradiation creep compliance at all temperatures. Considering this weak dependence of the creep compliance upon alloying the difference in microstructure was marked. In the pure nickel an inhomogeneous dislocation loop distribution formed. This consisted of a high dislocation loop density concentrated around existing network dislocations. Areas away from dislocation lines were devoid of visible irradiation damage. The commercial purity nickel and nickel-silicon alloy formed a relatively uniform distribution of dislocation loops throughout the specimen, with some rafting occurring in the commercial purity nickel at line dislocations. A pronounced effect of stress on loop size and density was observed. The irradiation creep compliance was weakly dependent upon temperature and alloying, while the dislocation microstructure was markedly altered. A survey of these experiments suggests that the wide variation of irradiation creep moduli obtained in other studies arises from the use of this concept under conditions where nonlinear stress dependences prevail. Linear stress dependence regime results in literature are in agreement with the present findings. The results of the present study appear to be in excellent agreement with the Stress Induced Preferred Absorption (SIPA) model of irradiation creep.

Research Organization:
Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, England
OSTI ID:
5709612
Report Number(s):
CONF-820628-
Journal Information:
Am. Soc. Test. Mater., Spec. Tech. Publ.; (United States), Vol. 782; Conference: 11. international symposium on effects of radiation on materials, American Society for Testing and Materials, Scottsdale, AZ, USA, 28 Jun 1982
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English