Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1739867 | Nuclear Engineering and Technology | 2016 | 7 Pages |
Specimens of stainless steel reactor internals were irradiated with 240 keV protons and 6 MeV Xe ions at room temperature. Nanoindentation constant stiffness measurement tests were carried out to study the hardness variations. An irradiation hardening effect was observed in proton- and Xe-irradiated specimens and more irradiation damage causes a larger hardness increment. The Nix-Gao model was used to extract the bulk-equivalent hardness of irradiation-damaged region and critical indentation depth. A different hardening level under H and Xe irradiation was obtained and the discrepancies of displacement damage rate and ion species may be the probable reasons. It was observed that the hardness of Xe-irradiated specimens saturate at about 2 displacement/atom (dpa), whereas in the case of proton irradiation, the saturation hardness may be more than 7 dpa. This discrepancy may be due to the different damage distributions.