Phase instability of alloys caused by transmutation effects during neutron irradiation

A theory of the phase changes in a two-phase binary A-B alloy in the coarsening condition caused by burnout of solute B due to nuclear reactions is presented. It is shown that this burnout process introduces diffusion redistribution of solute between second phase precipitates and solid solution. The burnout induced solute flux away from second phase precipitates to solid solution maintaining the concentration of element B in the vicinity to its solubility limit and stimulates, thus, the second phase particle dissolution. This occurs in addition to a process decreasing their sizes as a result of direct burnout of atoms B in the precipitates. In the framework of the theory developed here, analytical expressions describing time evolution of the precipitate size distributions, changes of mean radius and number density of the precipitates, and second phase dissolution times are obtained. On the basis of these results and numerical calculations for aluminium-scandium alloy, it is shown that the burnout processes can induce essential phase changes, and thus cause significant changes of the properties of irradiated materials at high neutron fluences. ((orig.))