Constitutive description of flow behaviour of post-irradiated type 316 austenitic stainless steel at low dpa

•Tensile flow behaviour of irradiated 316 SS has been examined.•Annihilation of network dislocations and dislocation loops at 623 K.•Insignificant influence of annihilation of dislocation loops at 300 K.

Tensile flow behaviour of type 316 austenitic stainless steel irradiated at 623 K up to 2.57 dpa has been examined in the framework of internal-variable approach based on the evolution of network dislocation and irradiation induced defect (dislocation loops) densities with plastic strain at 300 and 623 K. Apart from network dislocation annihilation, the dominance of the annihilation of dislocation loops on strain softening at 623 K has been demonstrated. Insignificant influence of dislocation loops annihilation was observed during deformation at 300 K. Dominance of network dislocation annihilation on strain softening at 300 K was observed.