Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T07:00:55.544Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Atomistic Study of Helium Bubbles in Fe: Equilibrium State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

David M. Stewart ,
Yury N. Osetskiy  and
Roger E. Stoller
David M. Stewart
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6138, United States. Center for Materials Processing, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-0750, United States.
Yury N. Osetskiy
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6138, United States.
Roger E. Stoller
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6138, United States.
Get access

Abstract

In the fusion irradiation environment, helium created by transmutation will play an important role in the response of structural materials to neutron radiation damage. Recently we have developed a new 3-body potential to describe the Fe–He interaction in an Fe matrix. We have used this potential to investigate the equilibrium state of He bubbles embedded into the bcc Fe matrix. We have investigated bubble size, He content and temperature effects. It was found that the equilibrium He content is rather low and at a room temperature it is ~0.38 to 0.5 He per vacancy for bubble diameters from 1 to 6 nm. At constant bubble size, the equilibrium He/vacancy ratio decreases with temperature increase. For bubbles of 6 nm diameter it goes down as low as ~0.25 at 900K. The results are compared with the capillarity model often used for estimating the equilibrium pressure of He bubbles.

Keywords

defectsradiation effectsHe
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1298: Symposium Q/R/T – Advanced Materials for Applications in Extreme Environments , 2011 , mrsf10-1298-q08-04
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

[1] Golubov, S.I., Stoller, R.E., Zinkle, S.J., and Ovcharenko, A.M., Kinetics of coarsening of helium bubbles during implantation and post-implantation annealing, Journal of Nuclear Materials 361, 149 (2007)Google Scholar
[2] Trinkaus, H. and Singh, B., Helium accumulation in metals during irradiation–where do we stand? Journal of Nuclear Materials 323, 229 (2003)Google Scholar
[3] Seletskaia, T., Osetsky, Y.N., Stoller, R.E., and Stocks, G.M., Magnetic Interactions Influence the Properties of Helium Defects in Iron, Physical Review Letters 94, 046403 (2005)Google Scholar
[4] Seletskaia, T., Osetsky, Y.N., Stoller, R.E., and Stocks, G.M., Calculation of helium defect clustering properties in iron using a multi-scale approach, Journal of Nuclear Materials 351, 109 (2006)Google Scholar
[5] Seletskaia, T., Osetsky, Y.N., Stoller, R.E., and Stocks, G.M., Development of a Fe He interatomic potential based on electronic structure calculations, Journal of Nuclear Materials 367, 355 (2007)Google Scholar
[6] Aziz, R., Janzen, A., and Moldover, M., Ab Initio Calculations for Helium: A Standard for Transport Property Measurements, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 1586 (1995)Google Scholar
[7] Ackland, G.J., Bacon, D.J., Calder, A.F., and Harry, T., Computer simulation of point defect properties in dilute Fe-Cu alloy using a many-body interatomic potential, Philosophical Magazine A-Physics of Condensed Matter Structure Defects and Mechanical Properties 75, 713 (1997)Google Scholar
[8] Stewart, David M., Osetsky, Yuri N. and Stoller, Roger E., Atomistic studies of formation and diffusion of helium clusters and bubbles in BCC iron, In Press, Journal of Nuclear Materials Google Scholar
[9] Trinkaus, H., Energetics and formation kinetics of helium bubbles in metals, Radiation Effects 78, 189 (1983)Google Scholar
[10] Brearley, I.R. and MacInnes, D.A., An improved equation of state for inert gases at high pressures, Journal of Nuclear Materials 95, 239 (1980)Google Scholar
[11] Adams, M.A., Mayers, J., Kirichek, O. and Down, R.B.E., Measurement of the Kinetic Energy and Lattice Constant in hcp Solid Helium at Temperatures 0.07–0.4K, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 085301 (2007)Google Scholar
[12] Beck, D.E., A new interatomic potential function for helium, Mol. Phys. 14, 311 (1968)Google Scholar
[13] Stewart, D.M., Osetsky, Yu.N., Stoller, R.E., Golubov, S.I., Seletskaia, T. and Kamenski, P.J., Atomistic studies of helium defect properties in bcc iron: Comparison of He–Fe potentials, Philosophical Magazine 90, 935–944, (2010)Google Scholar
[14] Stoller, R.E., Golubov, S.I., Kamenski, P.J., Seletskaia, T. and Osetsky, Yu.N., Implementation of a new Fe–He three-body interatomic potential for molecular dynamics simulations, Philosophical Magazine, 90, 923–934 (2010)Google Scholar