核能发电辐射材料科学.pdfVIP

738 14 Irradiation Creep and Growth and P is the probability of climb of j or greater. The term, R is the probability of j j finding a dislocation a distance jb from the unpinning point, and is given by: R = ρ /ρ . (14.103) j j The release frequencies, and hence the creep rates determined using this model are comparable to those from preferred absorption-driven climb or swelling-driven climb [18]. 14.2.6 Loop Unfaulting Another possible interaction between an applied stress and interstitial loops that could produce creep strain is loop unfaulting. As discussed in Chap. 7, dislocation loops grow in size and eventually become unstable and unfault to become part of the dislocation network. This process is equivalent to the production of mobile dis- locations which may then participate in the creep process by SIPA, PAG or climb and glide driven by interstitial bias. The maximum radius to which a loop can grow, Rmax , is governed by the loop density and is given by: 4π 3 ρ R = 1 . (14.104) max 3 When loops interact, they coalesce and contribute to the network dislocation density. Interaction between individual dislocations and loops results in loop un- faulting that also contributes to the network (see Chap. 12, Sect. 12.3). As the dis- location density increases, the rate of loop interaction with the network increases and the loop radius is limited to a value of the order of the network mesh length, −1/2 ρN , where ρN is the network dislocation density. Loop unfaulting can contribute to irradiation creep strain since the presence of a stress will assist the nucleation of the unfaulting dislocations with favorable orientations re