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Volume 11, Issue 4
Computer Simulation of Helium Effects in Plutonium During the Aging Process of Self-Radiation Damage

Bingyun Ao, Piheng Chen, Peng Shi, Xiaolin Wang, Wangyu Hu & Liang Wang

Commun. Comput. Phys., 11 (2012), pp. 1205-1225.

Published online: 2012-04

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  • Abstract

Due to α radioactive decay Pu is vulnerable to aging. The behavior of He in Pu is the foundation for understanding Pu self-radiation damage aging. Molecular dynamics technique is performed to investigate the behavior of defects, the interaction between He and defects, the processes of initial nucleation and growth of He bubble and the dependence of He bubble on the macroscopical properties of Pu. Modified embedded atom method, Morse pair potential and the Lennard-Jones pair potential are used for describing the interactions of Pu-Pu, Pu-He and He-He, respectively. The main calculated results show that He atoms can combine with vacancies to form He-vacancy cluster (i.e., the precursor of He bubble) during the process of self-radiation as a result of high binding energy of an interstitial He atom to vacancy; He bubble's growth can be dominated by the mechanism of punching out of dislocation loop; the swelling induced by He bubble is very small; grain boundaries give rise to an energetically more favorable zone for the interstitial He atom and self-interstitial atom accumulation than for vacancy accumulation; the process of He release can be identified as the formation of release channel induced by the cracking of He bubble and surface structure. 

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@Article{CiCP-11-1205, author = {}, title = {Computer Simulation of Helium Effects in Plutonium During the Aging Process of Self-Radiation Damage}, journal = {Communications in Computational Physics}, year = {2012}, volume = {11}, number = {4}, pages = {1205--1225}, abstract = {

Due to α radioactive decay Pu is vulnerable to aging. The behavior of He in Pu is the foundation for understanding Pu self-radiation damage aging. Molecular dynamics technique is performed to investigate the behavior of defects, the interaction between He and defects, the processes of initial nucleation and growth of He bubble and the dependence of He bubble on the macroscopical properties of Pu. Modified embedded atom method, Morse pair potential and the Lennard-Jones pair potential are used for describing the interactions of Pu-Pu, Pu-He and He-He, respectively. The main calculated results show that He atoms can combine with vacancies to form He-vacancy cluster (i.e., the precursor of He bubble) during the process of self-radiation as a result of high binding energy of an interstitial He atom to vacancy; He bubble's growth can be dominated by the mechanism of punching out of dislocation loop; the swelling induced by He bubble is very small; grain boundaries give rise to an energetically more favorable zone for the interstitial He atom and self-interstitial atom accumulation than for vacancy accumulation; the process of He release can be identified as the formation of release channel induced by the cracking of He bubble and surface structure. 

}, issn = {1991-7120}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.4208/cicp.290610.210111s}, url = {http://global-sci.org/intro/article_detail/cicp/7407.html} }
TY - JOUR T1 - Computer Simulation of Helium Effects in Plutonium During the Aging Process of Self-Radiation Damage JO - Communications in Computational Physics VL - 4 SP - 1205 EP - 1225 PY - 2012 DA - 2012/04 SN - 11 DO - http://doi.org/10.4208/cicp.290610.210111s UR - https://global-sci.org/intro/article_detail/cicp/7407.html KW - AB -

Due to α radioactive decay Pu is vulnerable to aging. The behavior of He in Pu is the foundation for understanding Pu self-radiation damage aging. Molecular dynamics technique is performed to investigate the behavior of defects, the interaction between He and defects, the processes of initial nucleation and growth of He bubble and the dependence of He bubble on the macroscopical properties of Pu. Modified embedded atom method, Morse pair potential and the Lennard-Jones pair potential are used for describing the interactions of Pu-Pu, Pu-He and He-He, respectively. The main calculated results show that He atoms can combine with vacancies to form He-vacancy cluster (i.e., the precursor of He bubble) during the process of self-radiation as a result of high binding energy of an interstitial He atom to vacancy; He bubble's growth can be dominated by the mechanism of punching out of dislocation loop; the swelling induced by He bubble is very small; grain boundaries give rise to an energetically more favorable zone for the interstitial He atom and self-interstitial atom accumulation than for vacancy accumulation; the process of He release can be identified as the formation of release channel induced by the cracking of He bubble and surface structure. 

Bingyun Ao, Piheng Chen, Peng Shi, Xiaolin Wang, Wangyu Hu & Liang Wang. (2020). Computer Simulation of Helium Effects in Plutonium During the Aging Process of Self-Radiation Damage. Communications in Computational Physics. 11 (4). 1205-1225. doi:10.4208/cicp.290610.210111s
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