NSUF 17-912: Investigation of gas bubble behavior under ion irradiation
The development of He and Xe bubbles in structural and fuel materials could have large impact on material and fuel performance. It continues to be the active research in those areas for improved understanding of the gas bubble behavior and the effect on performance. In this rapid turnaround work, we propose to use the Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscopy (IVEM)-Tandem Facility at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), through special experimental design, achieve the irradiation objectives of developing the gas bubble superlattices (GBSs) with helium (He) and xenon (Xe) ions for selected metals. He and Xe ions with various energies (30 keV to 1 MeV) and irradiation temperatures ranging from room temperature to 600oC will be tested on selected metals (Fe, Mo and W) with various anisotropies. GBS is a highly desired microstructural feature particularly for nuclear fuels. A fundamental study in collaboration with modeling could lead to in-depth knowledge and better design for nuclear fuel which could have a broad impact to the DOE nuclear energy program. Optimal irradiation conditions for gas bubble self-organization will be indicated by the bubble alignment in TEM bright field imaging and the presence of satellite spots associated with the major spots in the selected area diffraction pattern. Once the gas-bubble superlattice is established, the irradiation condition will be modified to investigate the effects of irradiation condition on gas-bubble superlattice development. The thermal stability of the bubble superlattice will also be investigated using the TEM in-situ heating holder. The experimental microstructure characterization is to provide a fundamental foundation for the atomic-level modeling at Idaho National Laboratory. We will use a combination of state-of-the-art experimental and computational approaches to compare the differences for formation of GBSs in these specially selected metals. Using this approach, we expect that we will elucidate the role of anisotropy on self-organization of bubble superlattices. The knowledge gained from this work would help us use irradiation as a tool to tune materials microstructures and design materials with desired properties in a controllable way through a “materials-by-design” approach. This rapid turnaround project includes in situ TEM observation using IVEM-Tandem facility at ANL, experimental data analysis and final report, which will take about 5 months in total. The proposed research will be performed within 10 days at ANL.
Additional Info
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Awarded Institution | Idaho National Laboratory |
| Embargo End Date | 2026-02-27 |
| Facility Tech Lead | Jeff Terry, Wei-Ying Chen |
| NSUF Call | FY 2017 RTE 2nd Call |
| PI | Lingfeng He |
| Project Member | Dr. Jian Gan, Research Scientist - Idaho National Laboratory (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9121-4164) |
| Project Member | Dr. Daniel Olive, staff - Los Alamos National Laboratory |
| Project Member | Dr. Lingfeng He, Associate Professor - North Carolina State University (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2763-1462) |
| Project Member | Dr. Cheng Sun, Associate Professor - Clemson University (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4104-8898) |
| Project Notes | Awarded on 04/24/2017 |
| Project Type | RTE |
| Publication | Bubble evolution in Kr-irradiated UO2 during annealing Lingfeng He, Xianming Bai, Janne Pakarinen, Brian Jaques, Jian Gan, Andrew Nelson, Anter EL-AZAB, Todd Allen Journal of Nuclear Materials 496 2017-09-27 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2017.09.036 |
| Publication | Irradiation-Dependent Helium Gas Bubble Superlattice in Tungsten David Sprouster Scientific Reports 9 2019-02-19 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39053-0 |
| Publication | Analysis Techniques for Large Data sets from the National Synchrotron Light Source-II David Sprouster Transactions of the American Nuclear Society 118 2018-06-17 http://ansannual.org/wp-content/2018/Data/pdfs/641-25055.pdf |
| Publication | Self-Organization of Gas Bubble Superlattices David Sprouster TMS 2018 2018-03-11 - 2018-03-16 |
| RTE Number | 912 |