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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Energy Res.
Sec. Nuclear Energy
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2024.1439489
This article is part of the Research Topic Novel Nuclear Reactors and Research Reactors View all 7 articles

Cluster dynamics study on nano damage of RPV steels under proton irradiation at 290 ℃

Provisionally accepted
Qiangmao WAN Qiangmao WAN 1*Guogang SHU Guogang SHU 2*Jiaxuan TANG Jiaxuan TANG 1*Jianjun PANG Jianjun PANG 3*Lisha CHEN Lisha CHEN 4*Duan WANG Duan WANG 1*Hui LIN Hui LIN 1*Hui DING Hui DING 5*
  • 1 China National Nuclear Corporation, Beijing, China
  • 2 China United Gas Turbine Technology Co.,Itd, beijing, China
  • 3 Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Hangzhou, China
  • 4 Zhejiang Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
  • 5 Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Irradiation-induced defects such as dislocation loops, cavities or solute clusters and chemical composition segregation of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel are the root causes of irradiation embrittlement. Combining two nucleation mechanisms namely the uniform nucleation and non-uniform nucleation of solute clusters (such as Cu-rich phase), a cluster kinetic simulation was established based on the reaction rate theory, and the co-evolution of matrix damage and Cu-rich phase in low-copper RPV steel was simulated under irradiation. And the average size and number density of defective clusters and solute clusters were established with irradiation dose. Compared with the average size and number density of dislocation loops observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of proton irradiated RPV steel at 290°C, the verification results show that the cluster dynamics model considering both the nucleation mechanism of interstitial dislocation loops and vacancy clusters can well simulate the irradiation damage behavior of materials.

    Keywords: Reactor pressure vessels, cluster dynamics, Proton irradiation, Dislocation loops, Solute clusters

    Received: 28 May 2024; Accepted: 24 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 WAN, SHU, TANG, PANG, CHEN, WANG, LIN and DING. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Qiangmao WAN, China National Nuclear Corporation, Beijing, China
    Guogang SHU, China United Gas Turbine Technology Co.,Itd, beijing, China
    Jiaxuan TANG, China National Nuclear Corporation, Beijing, China
    Jianjun PANG, Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Hangzhou, China
    Lisha CHEN, Zhejiang Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
    Duan WANG, China National Nuclear Corporation, Beijing, China
    Hui LIN, China National Nuclear Corporation, Beijing, China
    Hui DING, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, Jiangsu Province, China

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