Irradiation creep transients in Ni-4 at.% Si

In the course of irradiation creep experiments on Ni-4 at.% Si alloy, two types of creep transients were observed on the termination of irradiation. The short term transient was completed within one minute while the long term transient persisted for nearly ten hours. A change in the temperature distribution was excluded from the possible causes, partly because the stress dependence of the observed transient strains was not linear, and partly because the strain increase expected from the temperature change was much smaller than the observed value. Transient behavior of point defects was examined in conjunction with the climb-glide mechanism and the steady-state irradiation creep data. Calculated creep transient due to excess vacancy flux to dislocations was in good agreement with the observed short term transient. The long term transient appears to be a result of dislocation microstructure change. The present results suggest an enhanced irradiation creep under cyclic irradiation conditions which will be encountered in the early generations of fusion reactors. (orig.)