Precipitation during irradiation: an experimental example

Neutron damage can significantly alter the process of precipitation from supersaturated solid solution. This is demonstrated by a series of experiments using a precipitation strengthened superalloy, Nimonic PE16 irradiated with fast neutrons over the temperature 400 to 6500C. In disagreement with earlier predictions, precipitate development is found to be controlled by the competing processes of Ostwald coarsening and solute segregation due to drag by point defects to point defect sinks. Analysis of the kinetics of Ostwald coarsening reveals significant enhancement of diffusion rates due to irradiation in agreement with predictions and involving an activation energy on the order of one quarter that of thermal diffusion. Unusual precipitate morphologies were observed such as void shells, linear precipitate arrays and Archimedes' screw configurations. However, predicted temperature dependencies for solute segregation are not obeyed. An explanation is presented involving the coupling of the Ostwald coarsening mechanism with the solute segregation process