Study on displacement cascade and tensile simulation by molecular dynamics: Formation and properties of point defects

The molecular dynamics method is used to investigate the formation and properties of irradiation-induced damage (point defects). Displacement cascade simulations are performed to study the effects of primary knock-on atom (PKA) energy, temperature, vacancy concentration and tensile pre-strain on irradiation-induced damage in [Formula: see text]-Fe. An increase in PKA energy, vacancy concentration and tensile pre-strain can lead to an increase in defect numbers. In contrast, an increase in temperature decreases the defect numbers. After cascade collisions, tensile tests are performed to investigate the effect of point defects on mechanical properties. The yield stress and corresponding strain of irradiated Fe decrease with an increase in the number density of Frenkel pairs. Results show that irradiation accelerates damage of the internal structure, decreases the number of slip bands and increases the instability of the structure during plastic deformation.

A toehold-mediated strand displacement cascade-based DNA assay method via flow cytometry and magnetic separation

A novel Flow Cytometry Assay (FCA) that combines amplification cascade is proposed for the detection of EGFR T790M.

Study on the Effect of Different Factors of Displacement Cascades in Alpha-Fe by Molecular Dynamics Simulations

As the key component of RPV steel, α-Fe is under neutron irradiation during its long-term service, and lattice atoms of α-Fe are knocked by neutrons, which leads to irradiation damage. In this paper, molecular dynamics method is conducted to investigate the effect of temperature, vacancy concentration and tensile strain on irradiation-induced damage by displacement cascade simulations in α-Fe. The simulations are performed with primary knock-on atom energies ranging from 0.1 to 5 keV, temperature ranging from 100 to 500K, vacancy concentration ranging from 0% to 1% and applied tensile strain ranging from 0 to 5%. The time evolution of defects produced during displacement cascade can be obtained where the surviving number of Frenkel pairs increases rapidly at first, then decrease and comes to stability finally. The influence of these factors on defect production can be concluded as following: The increase of PKA energy, vacancy concentration and applied tensile strain can lead to the increase of defect numbers. In contrast, the increase of temperature decreases the defect numbers. Vacancies and interstitials cluster size distributions are varied in different case. The results are meaningful to describe some microcosmic mechanisms of RPV steels in nuclear system.

Cascades Damage in γ-Iron from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

The degradation of austenitic stainless steels under irradiation environment is a known problem for nuclear reactors, which starts from atoms displacement cascade. Here, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been used to investigate the formation of atomic displacement cascade in γ-iron for energies of the primary knock-on atom (PKA) up to 40 keV at 300 K. The number of Frenkel pairs increased sharply until a peak value was reached, which occurred at a time in the range of 0.1-2 ps. After that, a number of defects gradually decreased and became stabilized. Compared with α-iron, there was less defects in the stable stage, and more clustered defects were produced in γ-iron. Within the range of PKA energies, two regimes of power-law energy-dependence of the defect production were observed, which converge on 16.8 keV. The transition energy also marks the onset of the formation of large self-interstitial atom (SIA) clusters and vacancy clusters. Interstitial and vacancy clusters were in the form of Shockley, Frank dislocation loops and Stir-Rod dislocation loops.