The phonon drag force acting on a mobile crystal defect: full treatment of discreteness and non-linearity

Phonon scattering calculations predict the drag force acting on defects and dislocations rises linearly with temperature, in direct contradiction with molecular dynamics simulations that often finds the drag force to be independent of temperature. Using the Mori-Zwanzig projection technique, with no recourse to elasticity or scattering theories, we derive a general Langevin equation for a crystal defect, with full treatment of discreteness and non-linearity in the defect core. We obtain an analytical expression for the drag force that is evaluated in molecular statics and molecular dynamics, extracting the force on a defect directly from the inter-atomic forces. Our results show that a temperature independent drag force arises because vibrations in a discrete crystal are never independent of the defect motion, an implicit assumption in any phonon-based approach. This effect remains even when the Peierls barrier is effectively zero, invalidating qualitative explanations involving the radiation of phonons. We apply our methods to an interstitial defect in tungsten and solitons in the Frenkel-Kontorova model, finding very good agreement with trajectory-based estimations of the thermal drag force.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure

The Normal Zone Propagation in ATLAS B00 Model Coil

The B00 model coil has been successfully tested in the ATLAS Magnet Test Facility at CERN. The coil consists of two double pancakes wound with aluminum stabilized cables of the barrel- and end-cap toroids conductors for the ATLAS detector. The magnet current is applied up to 24 kA and quenches are induced by firing point heaters. The normal zone velocity is measured over a wide range of currents by using pickup coils, voltage taps and superconducting quench detectors. The signals coming from various sensors are presented and analyzed. The results extracted from the various detection methods are in good agreement. It is found that the characteristic velocities vary from 5 to 20 m/s at 15 and 24 kA respectively. In addition, the minimum quench energies at different applied magnet currents are presented

Hybrid mean field and real space model for vacancy diffusion-mediated annealing of radiation defects

In a fusion or advanced fission reactor, high energy neutrons induce the formation of extended defect clusters in structural component materials, degrading their properties over time. Such damage can be partially recovered via a thermal annealing treatment. Therefore, for the design and operation of fusion and advanced fission nuclear energy systems it is critical to estimate and predict the annealing timescales for arbitrary configurations of defect clusters. In our earlier paper [I. Rovelli, S. L. Dudarev, and A. P. Sutton, J. Mech. Phys. Solids 103, 121 (2017)] we extended the Green function formulation by Gu, Xiang et al. [Y. Gu, Y. Xiang, S. S. Quek, and D. J. Srolovitz, J. Mech. Phys. Solids 83, 319 (2015)] for the climb of curved dislocations, to include the evaporation and growth of cavities and vacancy clusters, and take into account the effect of free surfaces. In this work, we further develop this model to include the effect of radiation defects that are below the experimental detection limit, via a mean field approach coupled with an explicit treatment of the evolution of discrete defect clusters distributed in real space. We show that randomly distributed small defects screen diffusive interactions between larger discrete clusters. The evolution of the coupled system is modelled self-consistently. We also simulate the evolution of defects in an infinite laterally extended thin film, using the Ewald summation of screened Yukawa-type diffusive propagators

High energy collision cascades in tungsten: dislocation loops structure and clustering scaling laws

Recent experiments on in-situ high-energy self-ion irradiation of tungsten (W) show the occurrence of unusual cascade damage effects resulting from single ion impacts, shedding light on the nature of radiation damage expected in the tungsten components of a fusion reactor. In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of defect production in 150 keV collision cascades in W at atomic resolution, using molecular dynamics simulations and comparing predictions with experimental observations. We show that cascades in W exhibit no subcascade break-up even at high energies, producing a massive, unbroken molten area, which facilitates the formation of large defect clusters. Simulations show evidence of the formation of both 1/2 and interstitial-type dislocation loops, as well as the occurrence of cascade collapse resulting in vacancy-type dislocation loops, in excellent agreement with experimental observations. The fractal nature of the cascades gives rise to a scale-less power law type size distribution of defect clusters.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure