Estimation of different calculation models for evaluating heavy ion-induced damage in plasma facing materials

In a fusion reactor, plasma-facing materials are bombarded by various energetic particles (such as neutrons) from fusion reactions, leading to inevitable irradiation damages. These damages can significantly affect the material servicing life time and threaten the safety of fusion reactors. Accurate and consistent evaluation of irradiation damage is quite important to investigate the evolution mechanism of irradiation defect. In this study, the irradiation damage of tungsten caused by high-energy particles were evaluated using the SRIM code and molecular dynamics simulations. The accuracy of three atomic displacements calculation models, i.e., VAC model, NRT model, and arc-dpa model, under two computational modes of SRIM (the K-P mode and F-C mode) were discussed. It was found that with the increase of the incident particle atomic number, the peak depth of displacement moved to the shallow layer and increased in peak height, while the trend was opposite with the increase of the incident particle energy. As to the different calculation modes, the F-C and K-P modes produced a ratio of vacancies of about 1.8 times in the VAC model. What's more, the VAC model and NRT model predicted results consistent with molecular dynamics simulation results at lower energy ranges (approximately <100 eV), but deviated from them as the energy increased. In contrast, the arc-dpa model exhibited good consistency with the molecular dynamics simulations and had higher accuracy. Therefore, it is recommended to use the arc-dpa model under the K-P mode for the calculation of atomic displacement. This model can accurately and quickly calculate the irradiation damage level caused by high-energy particle irradiation in fusion reactors.

Automated summary

In a fusion reactor, it is important to accurately evaluate the irradiation damage caused by high-energy particles on plasma-facing materials. This study used the SRIM code and molecular dynamics simulations to evaluate the irradiation damage of tungsten. Different atomic displacement calculation models and computational modes were compared and analyzed. The results show that the arc-dpa model under the K-P mode is recommended for accurately and quickly calculating the irradiation damage level.