The effect of copper and/or nickel nanoclusters, generally formed by neutron irradiation, on fracture mechanisms of ferrite iron was investigated by using molecular statics simulation. The equilibrium configuration of nanoclusters was obtained by using a combination of an on-lattice annealing based on Metropolis Monte Carlo method and an off-lattice relaxation by molecular dynamics simulation. Residual stress distributions near the nanoclusters were also calculated, since compressive or tensile residual stresses may retard or accelerate, respectively, the propagation of a crack running into a nanocluster. One of the nanoclusters was located in front of a straight crack in ferrite iron with a body-centered cubic crystal structure. Two crystallographic directions, of which the crack plane and crack front direction are (010)[001] and View the MathML source, were considered, representing cleavage and non-cleavage orientations in ferrite iron, respectively. Displacements corresponding to pure opening-mode and mixed-mode loadings were imposed on the boundary region and the energy minimization was performed. It was observed that the fracture mechanisms of ferrite iron under the pure opening-mode loading are strongly influenced by the presence of nanoclusters, while under the mixed-mode loading the nanoclusters have no significant effect on the crack propagation behavior of ferrite iron.
Research Abstract
Research Department
Research Journal
Journal of Nuclear Materials
Research Member
Research Publisher
Elsevier
Research Rank
1
Research Vol
472
Research Website
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022311515304153
Research Year
2016
Research Pages
20-27