Use of Microhardness to Determine the Strengthening and Microstructural Alterations of 14-MeV-Neutron-Irradiated Metals

摘要

Microhardness has been found to be an effective post-irradiation analytical tool. The hardening of recrystallized copper and type 316 stainless steel irradiated up to 1 x 10 exp 18 n/cm exp 2 , E = 14 MeV, at the Rotating Target Neutron Source (RTNS)-II has been studied. It was determined that for these metals the increase in hardness varies directly with the measured increase in the 0.2 percent offset yield strength. Furthermore the coupled use of microhardness and transmission electron microscope techniques provides an estimate of the defect population which was not resolved by TEM. This estimate in turn, was used to evaluate the magnitude of the proportionality constant used in the strong barrier model of radiation induced hardening.