Effects of dislocation network on radiation damage in iron investigated by molecular dynamics method

WH Li and W Setyawan and F Gao and XL Wang and N Gao, SCRIPTA MATERIALIA, 268, 116863 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2025.116863

Effects of dislocation networks on the evolution of displacement cascades and related mechanical properties and void swelling in BCC-Fe are investigated at atomic scale through molecular dynamics simulations. An atomistic model containing dislocation networks is built based on a coupled method developed in this work. Formation of more sub-cascades, strong biased absorption of interstitials, formation of more vacancies, and existence of pinned 1/2<111> interstitial loops are explored, which may be induced by inhomogeneous stress fields and related changes of dislocation network-defect interactions. The ultimate tensile and shear stresses of the dislocation network model are only slightly affected by multiple cascades, while void swelling is higher than that obtained in a perfect lattice under the same conditions. Thus, the effects of dislocation networks provide new understanding for some experimental results and should be considered in meso/macro-scale simulations to obtain more reliable results.

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