About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2026 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Steels in Extreme Conditions
|
| Presentation Title |
Mesoscale Simulation of Plastic Hardening due to Mn-Ni Rich Precipitate Decoration on Dislocations in Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels |
| Author(s) |
Ashley Foster, Douglas E. Spearot |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Ashley Foster |
| Abstract Scope |
Light water reactor (LWR) pressure vessel (RPV) steels are irreplaceable structural components. With an aging reactor fleet and growing global energy demand, the life extension of LWRs is crucial while new generations of reactors are developed. Hardening mechanisms at high fluence (>1 x 1020 n/m2) are still being studied to allow for life extensions. In RPV steels, the coarsening of Mn-Ni rich precipitates (MNPs) on and around dislocation networks hinders stress relaxation and increases the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature. Pinning of dislocations by MNPs in a “string of pearls” fashion has been experimentally observed, but the quantitative implications of this mechanism have not been studied. The objective of this work is to evaluate the contribution of MNP-pinned dislocations to hardening of RPV steels at high fluence. Discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD) will be used to elucidate the mesoscale dislocation-precipitate interaction mechanisms with varying precipitate size, density, and spacing along dislocations. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Computational Materials Science & Engineering, Nuclear Materials, Mechanical Properties |