Parameter-free quantitative simulation of high dose microstructure and hydrogen retention in ion-irradiated tungsten

TL;DR

This paper introduces a parameter-free computational approach to model microstructure and hydrogen retention in highly irradiated tungsten, matching experimental data without adjustable parameters.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel, parameter-free simulation method for high dose microstructures and hydrogen retention in tungsten, applicable to fusion reactor conditions.

Findings

Simulated microstructures match experimental hydrogen retention data.

High dose tungsten retains 1.5-2.0 at.% deuterium.

Method accurately predicts defect content in highly damaged materials.

Abstract

Hydrogen isotopes are retained in materials for fusion power applications, changing both hydrogen embrittlement and tritium inventory as the microstructure undergoes irradiation damage. But modelling of highly damaged materials - exposed to over 0.1 displacements per atom (dpa) - where asymptotic saturation is observed, for example tungsten facing the plasma in a fusion tokamak reactor, is difficult because a highly damaged microstructure cannot be treated as weakly interacting isolated defect traps. In this paper we develop computational techniques to find the defect content in highly irradiated materials without adjustable parameters. First we show how to generate converged high dose (>1 dpa) microstructures using a combination of the creation-relaxation algorithm and molecular dynamics simulations of collision cascades. Then we make robust estimates of point defects and void regions with simple developments of the Wigner-Seitz decomposition of lattice sites. We use our estimates of the void surface area to predict the deuterium retention capacity of tungsten as a function of dose. This is then compared to 3He nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) measurements of tungsten samples self-irradiated at 290 K to different damage doses and exposed to deuterium plasma at low energy at 370 K. We show that our simulated microstructures give an excellent match to the experimental data, with both model and experiment showing 1.5-2.0 at.% deuterium retained in tungsten in the limit of high dose.