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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 181 records · Page 10

Simulated Irradiation of Samples in HFIR for use as Possible Test Materials in the MPEX (Material Plasma Exposure Experiment) Facility

The importance of Plasma Material Interaction (PMI) is a major concern in fusion reactor design and analysis. The Material-Plasma Exposure eXperiment (MPEX) facility will explore PMI under fusion reactor plasma conditions. Samples with accumulated displacements per atom (DPA) damage produced by irradiations in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will be studied in the MPEX facility. The project presented in this paper involved performing assessments of the induced radioactivity and resulting radiation fields of a variety of potential fusion reactor materials. The scientific code packages MCNP and SCALE were used to simulate irradiation of the samples in HFIR; generation and depletion of nuclides in the material and the subsequent composition, activity levels, gamma radiation fields, and resultant dose rates as a function of cooling time. These state-of-the-art simulation methods were used in addressing the challenge of the MPEX project to minimize the radioactive inventory in the preparation of the samples for inclusion in the MPEX facility.

Ellis, Ronald James↗

Numerical simulations of wave propagation in long bars with application to Kolsky bar testing

Material testing using the Kolsky bar, or split Hopkinson bar, technique has proven instrumental to conduct measurements of material behavior at strain rates in the order of 10 3 s -1 . Test design and data reduction, however, remain empirical endeavors based on the experimentalist's experience. Issues such as wave propagation across discontinuities, the effect of the deformation of the bar surfaces in contact with the specimen, the effect of geometric features in tensile specimens (dog-bone shape), wave dispersion in the bars and other particulars are generally treated using simplified models. The work presented here was conducted in Q3 and Q4 of FY14. The objective was to demonstrate the feasibility of numerical simulations of Kolsky bar tests, which was done successfully.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Equivalent radiation damage in zirconium irradiated in various reactors - 2016-0101

The physical properties and in-reactor performance of core components made from zirconium alloys are a function of the radiation-induced atomic displacements that occur during service. The vacancy and interstitial point defects and their clusters created by the atomic displacements modify the microstructure, and therefore physical properties such as strength and ductility, by forming dislocation loops. The rate of production of point defects also affects time-dependent properties such as creep and diffusion (mass transport). To simulate the effect of irradiation on core components, researchers have used materials test reactors for many years to irradiate and test materials. Such reactor tests can target an accumulated displacement damage dose to simulate the state of a material at a given stage in reactor life but at an accelerated rate. Each nuclear reactor has a specific neutron energy spectrum that also depends on the in-reactor location. Therefore, to use test reactor data to determine the effect of radiation damage on power reactor materials, one must convert the accumulated dose into a unit that is common in its effect on the material properties. For many property changes in nuclear reactor cores, this unit is displacements per atom. This paper compares the damage production for zirconium irradiated under differing neutron energy spectra in various power and test reactors. The damage rates as a function of different measures of neutron flux were used to relate atomic displacements in various materials test reactors to CANDU and light-water reactor conditions. (authors)

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗