Carbon is one of the key component in steels and has a significant impact on the physical properties of steel. In addition to this carbon plays a very important role in the post irradiation evolution of steels. In this work, the ageing of reactor pressure vessel steel post irradiation has been studied using ab-initio based kinetic Monte Carlo approach. At a microstructure scale, the point defects generated by irradiation has been known to cause hardening and embrittlement of steel.
LAKIMOCA code has been used to carry out the AKMC (Atomistic Kinetic Monte Carlo) simulations. The study involves introducing Frenkel pairs in the Fe-C system followed by isochronal annealing. This helps us to identify various thermally activated events in the evolution of the irradiates system. In this seminar we will discussing about the impact of a particular carbon-vacancy complex and the formation and disassociation mechanism. Case studies involving experiments and simulations using other methods will be presented to further understand the underlying mechanisms. The seminar will conclude with discussion about the possible improvements expected to be completed in the model.
Laboratory for Scientific Computing and Modelling