The correlation of electron, heavy-ion and fast-neutron irradiation damage in M316 steel

A new sink strength for a straight-edge dislocation is presented that incorporates the long-range field interactions with interstitials and vacancies and has rate limitation at the core. This sink strength is used in conjunction with appropriate sink strengths for vacancy loops, voids and foil surfaces to describe the losses of point defects to these sinks within the rate theory representation of radiation damage. The parameters in the theory are obtained by calibration against electron and nickel-ion swelling data for M316 steel and the theory is then tested by predicting the swelling in this steel under neutron irradiation. Satisfacotry agreement with the observed neutron swelling data is obtained and provides considerably optimism for the future use of simulation techniques for predicting the response of materials subjected to neutron irradiation. (orig.)