Title: Void swelling of conventional and composition engineered HT9 alloys after high-dose self-ion irradiation

Abstract

Ferritic/martensitic (F/M) steels are being considered as potential structural materials for next generation nuclear reactors, and variants of the alloy HT9 are some of the most promising candidates. In this study, two conventional and two composition engineered HT9 alloys were irradiated using 3.5 MeV Fe²⁺ up to 600 peak displacement-per-atom (dpa) at 450 °C. Void swelling and microstructure evolution were characterized for each alloy and compared. The two conventional HT9 alloys (INL and ACO3) showed similar void swelling behavior due to their similar elemental composition and processing conditions. The INL HT9 exhibited a maximum of 2.4% swelling and the ACO3 HT9 showed a maximum of 2.8% swelling at 342 and 393 average local dpa, respectively. On the other hand, the two-composition engineered HT9 alloys with varying N contents (10 ppm for low N and 440 ppm for high N) showed disparate swelling behavior. The low N HT9 exhibited a maximum of 4.6% swelling, while the high N HT9 showed a maximum of 0.7% swelling at 342 average local dpa. Changes in the N content also affected Ni/Si rich G-phase formation. The low N HT9 showed a larger size and lower density of G-phase precipitates compared with the high N HT9more » after 600 peak dpa irradiation. This study compares the void swelling behavior of the ion irradiated four current HT9 alloys to extremely high doses, with the void swelling data from neutron irradiated HT9 alloys. Furthermore, the comparison lends critical insights into how well these current alloys can withstand high neutron fluxes in future reactors, especially since the low N and high N HT9 alloys have never been exposed to such high doses before.« less

Authors:

Kim, Hyosim  ^[1];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-7473-1530"

Gigax, Jonathan Gregory  ^[2];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-0456-6066"

Rietema, Connor J. ^[3]; El Atwani, Osman  ^[1];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-1862-7018"

Chancey, Matthew Ryan  ^[1];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-9689-3736"

Baldwin, Jon Kevin Scott  ^[2];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-9834-3201"

Wang, Yongqiang  ^[1];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-2938-5640"

Maloy, Stuart Andrew  ^[1]

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-8037-1319"

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT)
3. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)

Publication Date:

Fri Dec 24 00:00:00 EST 2021

Research Org.:

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program

OSTI Identifier:

1839354

Report Number(s):

LA-UR-21-27368
Journal ID: ISSN 0022-3115; TRN: US2301477

Grant/Contract Number:  

89233218CNA000001

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Journal of Nuclear Materials

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 560; Journal ID: ISSN 0022-3115

Publisher:

Elsevier

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE