7 research outputs found
Measurement of swelling-induced residual stress in ion implanted SiC, and its effect on micromechanical properties
Ion implantation is widely used as a surrogate for neutron irradiation in the
investigation of radiation damage on the properties of materials. Due to the
small depth of damage, micromechanical methods must be used to extract material
properties. In this work, nanoindentation has been applied to ion irradiated
silicon carbide to extract radiation-induced hardening. Residual stress is
evaluated using HR-EBSD, AFM swelling measurements, and a novel microcantilever
relaxation technique coupled with finite element modelling. Large compressive
residual stresses of several GPa are found in the irradiated material, which
contribute to the significant hardening observed in nanoindentation
measurements. The origin of these residual stresses and the associated
hardening is the unirradiated substrate which constrains radiation swelling.
Comparisons with other materials susceptible to irradiation swelling show that
this effect should not be neglected in studying the effects of ion irradiation
damage on mechanical properties. This constraint may also be influencing
fundamental radiation defects. This has significant implications for the
suitability of ion implantation as a surrogate for neutron irradiations. These
results demonstrate the significance of swelling-induced residual stresses in
nuclear reactor components, and the impact on structural integrity of reactor
components.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figure
Raman spectroscopy of ion irradiated SiC: chemical defects, strain, annealing, and oxidation
Raman spectroscopy has been used to identify defective bonding in neon and
silicon ion irradiated single crystals of 6H-SiC. Observable differences exist
in the C-C bonding region corresponding to different defect structures for neon
and silicon ion implantations. Raman spectra of ion irradiated SiC show less
tensile strain than neutron irradiations, explained by a residual compressive
stress caused by the swelling constrained by the undamaged substrate. Evidence
of oxidation during high temperature ion implantation is observed as C-O and
Si-O Raman signals. Annealing irradiated SiC while acquiring Raman spectra
shows rapid recovery of Si-C bonding, but not a complete recovery of the
unirradiated structure. Annealing irradiated SiC causes surface oxidation where
unirradiated SiC does not oxidise. Comparisons are made to the apparent
radiation resistance of diamond and silicon which have similar crystal
structures, but are monatomic, leading to the suggestion that chemical defects
are responsible for increased radiation damage in SiC.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure
Measurement of residual stresses in surrogate coated nuclear fuel particles using ring-core focussed ion beam digital image correlation
Coated fuel particles, most commonly tri-structural isotropic (TRISO), are intended for application in several designs of advanced nuclear reactors. A complete understanding of the residual stresses and local properties of these particles through their entire lifecycle is required to inform fuel element manufacturing, reactor operation, accident scenarios, and reprocessing. However, there is very little experimental data available in the literature on the magnitude of residual stresses in the individual coating layers of these particles. This work applies ring-core focussed ion beam milling combined with digital image correlation analysis (FIB-DIC) to cross-sections of TRISO and pyrolytic carbon coatings in surrogate coated fuel particles to evaluate the residual stresses. Tensile residual hoop stresses are identified in both pyrolytic carbon layers, while silicon carbide experiences a compressive residual hoop stress. Note that these residual stresses, which were not accounted for in the models reported in open literature, have magnitudes comparable to the stresses predicted to arise in real fuel particles during service. A 2D linear-elastic continuum-based finite element analysis has been conducted to investigate the stress relaxation phenomena caused by sectioning stressed coatings on spherical particles. The FIB-DIC method established here is independent of radiation defects and can be applied to irradiated TRISO particles to retrieve first-hand information regarding the residual stress evolution during service
Raman spectroscopy of ion irradiated SiC:chemical defects, strain, annealing, and oxidation
The role of chemical disorder and structural freedom in radiation-induced amorphization of silicon carbide deduced from electron spectroscopy and ab initio simulations
Chemical disorder has previously been proposed as an explanation for the anomalously facile amorphization of silicon carbide (SiC), on the basis of topological connectivity arguments alone. In this exploratory study, âamorphousâ (formally, aperiodic) SiC structures produced in ab initio molecular dynamics simulations were assessed for their connectivity topology and used to compute synthetic electron energy-loss spectra (EELS) using the ab initio real-space multiple scattering code FEFF. The synthesized spectra were compared to experimental EELS spectra collected from an ion-amorphized SiC specimen. A threshold level of chemical disorder Ï (expressed as the ratio of the number of carbon-carbon bonds to the number of carbon-silicon bonds) was found to be ÏâŻââŻ0.38, above which structural relaxation resulted in formally aperiodic structures. Different disordering methodologies resulted in identifiably different aperiodic structures, as assessed by local-cluster analysis and confirmed by collecting near-edge electron energy-loss spectra (ELNES). Such structural differences are predicted to arise for SiC crystals amorphized by irradiations involving different damage mechanismsâand therefore differing disordering mechanismsâfor example, when contrasting the respective amorphized products of ion irradiation, neutron irradiation, and high-energy electron irradiation. Evidence for sp2-hybridized carbon bonding is observed, both experimentally in the irradiated sample and in simulations, and related to connectivity topology-based models for the amorphization of silicon carbide. New information about the probable intermediate-range structures present in amorphized silicon carbide is deduced from enumeration of primitive rings and evolution of local cluster configurations during the ab initio-modelled amorphization sequences