Standard Practice for Investigating the Effects of Neutron Radiation Damage Using Charged-Particle Irradiation

Importancia y uso:

4.1 A characteristic advantage of charged-particle irradiation experiments is the precise, individual control over most of the important irradiation conditions such as dose, dose rate, temperature, and quantity of gases present. Additional attributes are the lack of induced radioactivation of specimens and, in general, a substantial compression of irradiation time, from years to hours, to achieve comparable damage as measured in displacements per atom (dpa). An important application of such experiments is the investigation of radiation effects that may occur in materials exposed to environments which do not currently exist, such as in first wall materials used in fusion reactors.

4.2 The primary shortcoming of ion bombardments stems from the damage rate, or temperature dependences of the microstructural evolutionary processes in complex alloys, or both. It cannot be assumed that the time scale for damage evolution can be comparably compressed for all processes by increasing the displacement rate, even with a corresponding shift in irradiation temperature. In addition, the confinement of damage production to a thin layer just (often ∼1 μm) below the irradiated surface can present substantial complications. It must be emphasized, therefore, that these experiments and this practice are intended for research purposes and not for the certification or the qualification of materials.

4.3 This practice relates to the generation of irradiation-induced changes in the microstructure of metals and alloys using charged particles. The investigation of mechanical behavior using charged particles is covered in Practice E821.

Subcomité:

E10.05

Referida por:

E3084-17R22E01, E0942-25, E0821-16R23, E0693-23

Volúmen:

12.02

Número ICS:

27.120.10 (Reactor engineering)

Palabras clave:

accelerators; beam heating; charged-particle irradiation; damage calculations; dosimetry; ion irradiation; metallography; microstructure; radiation damage correlation; radiation damage simulation; transmission electron microscopy; void swelling;