Radiation damage behavior and mechanism in RAFM steel: Orientation effect

The experiments and molecular dynamics simulations were performed to obtain the orientation effect on the behavior and mechanism of irradiation resistance in the RAFM steel. The irradiation surface morphologies, Frenkel defects, and clusters analysis reveal that the irradiation resistance of different orientations is as follows, (110) > (100) > (112) > (233) > (111) orientation. Additionally, the (233) orientation is easier to form vacancy defect clusters, while the (111) orientation is easy to form a large number of small clusters, which are determined by the clustering rates of interstitial atomic and vacancy clusters. Surface energy, atomic arrangement density, and atomic bonds play a significant role in the orientation effect on the radiation damage resistance. The radiation damage resistance of different orientations increased with the increase of atomic arrangement density and atomic bonding strength, while it decreased with the increase of surface energy.