1. Ultrafast annihilation of irradiation-induced defects using pulsed electric current for damage performance regeneration.
- Author
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Li, Biqian, Ma, Rui, Li, Shu, and Zhang, Xinfang
- Subjects
POSITRON annihilation ,ELECTRIC currents ,NEUTRON irradiation ,DISLOCATION loops ,PRESSURE vessels ,ELECTRIC fields ,SERVICE life - Abstract
• Compared with conventional annealing, pulsed electric current can rapidly restore material damaged performance by 95 % at lower temperature. • The number of vacancy-type defects and solute-enriched clusters is significantly reduced under the pulsed electric current. • The irradiated dislocation loops and copper-rich nanoclusters were obviously removed by the electric pulse. • The preferential annihilation of dislocation loop by the electric pulse will make the nanoclusters dissolve faster due to the lack of nucleation particles. As the most important irradiation-induced defects, dislocation loop and copper-rich nanocluster are the major contributors to the embrittlement of the neutron-irradiated reactor pressure vessel steels. In this study, such nano-defects were introduced into the material by 3 MeV Fe ions up to the dose of 1 dpa at high temperature (290 °C) to simulate neutron irradiation. It was found that pulsed electric current can effectively reduce 95 % of irradiation-induced hardening. Correspondingly, the characterization results showed that almost all the dislocation loops disappeared and the quantity of copper-rich nanoclusters also reduced greatly at relatively low temperature (450 °C), and the process took only 20 min. Meanwhile, it was qualitatively proved by positron annihilation spectroscopy that the number of irradiation-induced vacancy-type defects and solute-enriched clusters was significantly decreased after electropulsing. Furthermore, under the pulsed electric field, the rapid annihilation of the dislocation loops due to their accelerated collision with vacancies can remove the nucleation sites of the copper-rich nanoclusters and make them become dispersed, further promoting the nanoclusters that lack nucleation sites dissolving faster. Therefore, this electropulsing treatment provides a practical "in-situ" performance repair technology to extend the service life of reactor pressure vessel steels by regulating the interaction between vacancies, interstitial atoms and irradiation-induced defects. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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