A Brief Review of Radiation-Induced Cavity Swelling and Hardening in Copper and Copper Alloys

Influence of irradiation spectrum and implanted ions on the amorphization of ceramics

“…Beam fluxes ranged from 0.2 to 60x1016 ions/m2-s, which produced midrange ionizing and displacement per atom (dpa) dose rates of 0.1 to 10 MGy/s and 10-6 to 10-3 dpds, respectively, depending on the ion beam. Further details of the irradiation conditions are given elsewhere [13,30].…”

Physical and Mechanical Properties of Copper and Copper Alloys

“…The lower temperature limit for void swelling is $180 C, and the higher temperature limit $500 C. Low-dose irradiation (<0.2 dpa) often leads to inhomogeneous void formation and nonlinear swelling behavior. 60 A steady-state swelling rate of $0.5%/dpa is observed in copper at high doses, and the swelling level can be as high as 60%. 60,85 Variations in displacement damage rate can shift the peak swelling temperature.…”

“…The irradiation behavior of copper and copper alloys has been extensively studied up to high doses (>100 dpa) for irradiation temperatures of $400-500 C. 60 Most of the irradiation experiments of copper and copper alloys have been done in mixed spectrum or fast reactors, such as HFIR, Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF), or EBR-II. It should be noted that the accumulation rate of helium in copper in fusion reactors is significantly higher than in fission reactors ($10 appm dpa À1 in fusion reactors vs. 0.2 appm dpa À1 in fast reactors).…”

“…Radiation hardening at low temperatures (e.g., 60 C) is beneficial to the fatigue performance, while irradiation at high temperatures (e.g., 300 C) has no significant effect on the creep-fatigue life of irradiated CuCrZr. A number of in-reactor creep-fatigue experiments were performed on a CuCrZr alloy in the BR-2 reactor at Mol (Belgium) by Singh et al 77 The irradiation experiments were carried out at 70 and 90 C at the strain amplitude of 0.5% with hold times of 10 and 100 s. The key finding was that neither the irradiation nor the hold time has any significant effect on the fatigue life of CuCrZr during the in-reactor tests.…”

In-Vessel Coil Material Failure Rate Estimates for ITER Design Use

“…Fabritsiev and Pokrovsky (1997) also showed that electrical resistivity of copper only began to decline in the 1E+21 n/cm 2 and greater fluence range. Zinkle (1992) stated that § 0.1 dpa is about 1E+20 n/cm 2 fluence for copper. This gives radiation hardening, which is believed to increase the electrical resistivity.…”