Molecular dynamics simulations of neutron induced collision cascades in Zr - statistical modelling of irradiation damage and potential applications

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Hauptverfasser: Barzdajn, Bartosz, Race, Christopher P
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Barzdajn, Bartosz
Race, Christopher P
author_facet Barzdajn, Bartosz
Race, Christopher P
contents Understanding the nature of irradiation damage often requires a multi-scale and multi-physics approach, i.e. it requires a significant amount of information from experiments, simulations and phenomenological models. This paper focuses on the initial stages of irradiation damage, namely neutron-induced displacement cascades in zirconium, as nuclear-grade zirconium alloys are widely used in fuel assemblies. We provide results of large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations based on existing inter-atomic potentials and the two-temperature model to include the effect of electron-phonon coupling. Our data can be used directly in higher scale methods. Furthermore, we analysed summary statistics associated with defect production, such as the number of defects produced, their distribution and the size of clusters. As a result, we have developed a generative model of collision cascades. The model is hierarchical, as well as stochastic, i.e. it includes the variance of the considered features. This development had three main objectives: to establish a sufficient descriptor of a cascade, to develop an interpolator of data obtained from high-fidelity simulations, and to demonstrate that the statistical model of the data can generate representative distributions of primary irradiation defects. The results can be used to generate synthetic inputs for longer length- and time-scale models, as well as to build fast approximations relating dose, damage and irradiation conditions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_03332
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Molecular dynamics simulations of neutron induced collision cascades in Zr - statistical modelling of irradiation damage and potential applications
Barzdajn, Bartosz
Race, Christopher P
Materials Science
Understanding the nature of irradiation damage often requires a multi-scale and multi-physics approach, i.e. it requires a significant amount of information from experiments, simulations and phenomenological models. This paper focuses on the initial stages of irradiation damage, namely neutron-induced displacement cascades in zirconium, as nuclear-grade zirconium alloys are widely used in fuel assemblies. We provide results of large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations based on existing inter-atomic potentials and the two-temperature model to include the effect of electron-phonon coupling. Our data can be used directly in higher scale methods. Furthermore, we analysed summary statistics associated with defect production, such as the number of defects produced, their distribution and the size of clusters. As a result, we have developed a generative model of collision cascades. The model is hierarchical, as well as stochastic, i.e. it includes the variance of the considered features. This development had three main objectives: to establish a sufficient descriptor of a cascade, to develop an interpolator of data obtained from high-fidelity simulations, and to demonstrate that the statistical model of the data can generate representative distributions of primary irradiation defects. The results can be used to generate synthetic inputs for longer length- and time-scale models, as well as to build fast approximations relating dose, damage and irradiation conditions.
title Molecular dynamics simulations of neutron induced collision cascades in Zr - statistical modelling of irradiation damage and potential applications
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.03332