Cr-Vacancy Elastic and Chemical Interactions in Irradiated Stainless Steels

Interactions between point defects and major solute strongly influence grain boundary concentrations during heat treatment, irradiation and annealing of austenitic stainless steels. Previous approaches to nonequilibrium segregation emphasize only elastic defect-solute interactions. The present evaluation of nonequilibrium concentrations at grain boundaries indicates chemical interactions unique to solution annealing and cooling during thermal nonequilibrium segregation (TNES). Subsequent to TNES, radiation-induced segregation and post-irradiation annealing are modeled and compared with measured changes in grain boundary composition. The latter two mechanisms are controlled by exchanges between vacancies and major solute such as Cr.