Inhomogeneous microstructural growth by irradiation

In the present paper we discuss the development of heterogeneous microstructure for uniform irradiation conditions. It is shown that microstructural inhomogeneities on a scale of 0.1 μm can develop purely from kinematic considerations because of the basic structure of the rate equations used to describe such evolution. Two aspects of the growth of such inhomogeneities are discussed. Firstly, it is shown that a local variation in the sink densities of the various microstructural defects will tend to enhance the inhomogeneity rather than remove it. Secondly, such inhomogeneities will lead to point defect fluxes that result in a spatial growth of the inhomogeneous region, which will be stopped only when the microstructural density around this region becomes large. The results have important implications in the formation of denuded zones and void formation in metals.