A Hierarchical Upscaling Method for Predicting Strength of Materials under Thermal, Radiation and Mechanical loading - Irradiation Strengthening Mechanisms in Stainless Steels
Stainless steels based on Fe-Cr-Ni alloys are the most popular structural materials used in reactors. High energy particle irradiation of in this kind of polycrystalline structural materials usually produces irradiation hardening and embrittlement. The development of predictive capability for the influence of irradiation on mechanical behavior is very important in materials design for next-generation reactors. Irradiation hardening is related to structural information crossing different length scale, such as composition, dislocation, crystal orientation distribution and so on. To predict the effective hardening, the influence factors along different length scales should be considered. A multiscale approach was implemented in this work to predict irradiation hardening of iron based structural materials. Three length scales are involved in this multiscale model: nanometer, micrometer and millimeter. In the microscale, molecular dynamics (MD) was utilized to predict on the edge dislocation mobility in body centered cubic (bcc) Fe and its Ni and Cr alloys. On the mesoscale, dislocation dynamics (DD) models were used to predict the critical resolved shear stress from the evolution of local dislocation and defects. In the macroscale, a viscoplastic self-consistent (VPSC) model was applied to predict the irradiation hardening in samples with changes in texture. The effects of defect density and texture were investigated. Simulated evolution of yield strength with irradiation agrees well with the experimental data of irradiation strengthening of stainless steel 304L, 316L and T91. This multiscale model we developed in this project can provide a guidance tool in performance evaluation of structural materials for next-generation nuclear reactors. Combining with other tools developed in the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program, the models developed will have more impact in improving the reliability of current reactors and affordability of new reactors.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1023737
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-20534; FCRD-MDSM-2011-000272; AF5831060
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
BCC LATTICES
BUILDING MATERIALS
CHROMIUM ALLOYS
DEFECTS
DISLOCATIONS
EDGE DISLOCATIONS
EMBRITTLEMENT
HARDENING
IRON ALLOYS
IRRADIATION
MOLECULAR DYNAMICS METHOD
NICKEL ALLOYS
NUCLEAR ENERGY
ORIENTATION
RADIATIONS
REACTORS
RELIABILITY
SHEAR
STAINLESS STEEL-304L
STAINLESS STEELS
TEXTURE
YIELD STRENGTH
irradiation hardening
multiscale modeling
polycrsytalline
stainless steel