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Title: Defect-specific strength factors and superposition model for predicting strengthening of ion irradiated Fe18Cr alloy

Journal Article · · Journal of Nuclear Materials
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA-Saclay), Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France)

Here, a high-purity binary alloy Fe18Cr was subjected to heavy-ion irradiation in order to provide improved understanding of the irradiation effect on radiation hardening associated with dislocation loop and network formation, α’ precipitation. The specimens were irradiated with 8 MeV Fe ions (~2 μm ion range) to midrange doses of 0.37 and 3.7 dpa at 300, 350 and 450 °C using dose rates of ~10–5–10–3 dpa/s. Nanoindentation testing was performed to extract the bulk equivalent hardness at low depth from these ion irradiated specimens. High-quality transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images were acquired by utilizing a flash electropolishing method on the Focused Ion Beam (FIB) prepared liftouts. An accurate calculation of the strength factor was provided based on detailed TEM characterization of the irradiated microstructures. A newly refined hardening superposition method was applied to combine the strengthening components from each microstructure. The good agreement between microstructure predicted strength and measured strength further demonstrated the fidelity to use hardening model to quantify the mechanical properties of ion irradiated materials.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001; NE0000639; SC0023293; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
2222632
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2282932
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-23-31489; TRN: US2407192
Journal Information:
Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 588; ISSN 0022-3115
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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