Study on Irradiation Damage of RPV Steels Based on Coupling Cluster Dynamics and Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Method

Abstract

Irradiation hardening is one of the most important aging effects of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel in long-term service. A number of studies have indicated that irradiation hardening is mainly caused by irradiation induced defects, such as dislocation loops and precipitates. In this paper, we have simulated the irradiation damage of low-copper reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel. The generation of Mn-Ni-Si precipitates is simulated by the cluster dynamics model based on rate theory. On this basis, the crystal plasticity finite element method based on modified crystal plasticity model is used to simulate the effect of Mn-Ni-Si precipitates on the mechanical properties of RPV steels. The simulated results has been compared with the experimental results from the literature. By coupling the cluster dynamics and the crystal plastic finite element method, we suggest a multi-scale simulation method to simulate and predict irradiation damage of RPV steel.