A combination method for simulation of secondary knock-on atoms of boron carbide induced by neutron irradiation in SPRR-300

A multiscale sequence of simulation should be used to predict properties of materials under irradiation. Binary collision theory and molecular dynamics (MDs) method are commonly used to characterize the displacement cascades induced by neutrons in a material. In order to reduce the clock time spent for the MD simulation of damages induced by high-energy primary knock-on atoms (PKAs), the damage zones were split into sub-cascade according to the sub-cascade formation criteria. Two well-known codes, Geant4 and TRIM, were used to simulate high-energy PKA-induced cascades in B4C and then produce the secondary knock-on atom (SKA) energy spectrum. It has been found that both high-energy primary knock-on B and C atoms move a long range in the boron carbide. These atoms produce sub-cascades at the tip of trajectory. The energy received by most of the SKAs is <10 keV, which can be used as input to reduce the clock time spent for MD simulation.