Irradiation creep of nano-powder sintered silicon carbide at low neutron fluences

The irradiation creep behavior of nano-powder sintered silicon carbide was investigated using the bend stress relaxation method under neutron irradiation up to 1.9 dpa. The creep deformation was observed at all temperatures ranging from 380 to 1180 °C mainly from the irradiation creep but with the increasing contributions from the thermal creep at higher temperatures. The apparent stress exponent of the irradiation creep slightly exceeded unity, and instantaneous creep coefficient at 380-790 °C was estimated to be ∼1 × 10−5 [MPa−1 dpa−1] at ∼0.1 dpa and 1 × 10−7 to 1 × 10−6 [MPa−1 dpa−1] at ∼1 dpa. The irradiation creep strain appeared greater than that for the high purity SiC. Microstructural observation and data analysis indicated that the grain-boundary sliding associated with the secondary phases contributes to the irradiation creep at 380-790 °C to 0.01-0.11 dpa.