In-Situ Cyclic Stress Experiment at the Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) For Determining the Effect of Dislocation Vibration on Void Growth in Metals During Irradiation

摘要

Experience is reported with the first in-situ cyclic-stress irradiation at LAMPF. A proton beam ion current of 3 to 6 mu A of 800 MeV protons was utilized for 24 days irradiation. Radiation damage effects of 800 MeV protons incident on a 1-cm thick Cu target were calculated using the nucleon-meson transport code to determine the nuclear reactions produced by the protons, the theory of Lindhard to evaluate the resultant damage energy deposited in the target. These calculations have been extended to Al. Damage effects were nearly uniform through a 1-cm target thickness, and the results obtained can be expressed in cross section form. The calculation yielded a damage energy cross section of about 63 barn-keV, a nuclear transmutation cross section of 0.44 barns, and indicated copious hydrogen, helium, and neutron production. Analysis of the effect of dislocation vibration on the efficiency of a dislocation line as a sink for point defects predicted that dislocation vibration should suppress void growth. The effect results from the fact that the dislocation will sweep up vacancies, which diffuse less rapidly than interstitials. The growth rate of voids in Al under simultaneous proton irradiation and cyclic stressing are compared to that of samples irradiated at the same time but without any stressing. The samples are placed one behind the other along the proton path so that identical irradiation histories can be achieved. The temperature of the samples is controlled, known and uniform. The initial preirradiation state is a prestrained state of a few hundred stress cycles. The samples are irradiated without stress through the incubation period for void nucleation before the cyclic stress is applied. (ERA citation 04:047017)