Predicting the Irradiation Swelling of Austenitic and Ferritic/Martensitic Steels, Based on the Coupled Model of Machine Learning and Rate Theory

As nuclear structural materials, austenitic and ferritic/martensitic (F/M) steels will face inevitable irradiation swelling when fulfilling a role in nuclear reactors, especially under high-dose irradiation. For this work, a coupled machine learning rate theory (ML-RT) model for the swelling of austenitic and F/M steels was developed. In this model, ML was introduced to predict the steady-state irradiation swelling onset dose (Donset), while the improved RT was developed to simulate the swelling behavior after the incubation period. More than 200 series of data on the Donset of different structures of steel were collected for the ML prediction. The coefficient of determination (R) of the results in ML is more than 0.9. In the RT, the evolutions of the dislocation loop and void were described and calculated rather than using the fitting parameters. Cascade efficiency was employed to describe the cascade process. The coupled ML-RT model was verified with the swelling data from neutron irradiation experiments for various steels. The theoretical results of the swelling peak temperatures and swelling behavior are more accurate and reasonable, compared with those from the previous RT model. Using the ML-RT model, the swelling performance of CLAM steel under neutron irradiation of up to 180 dpa was predicted. The differences between the swelling performance of austenitic steels and F/M steels were analyzed and the differences were mainly associated with the bias. These results will be helpful for evaluating the neutron irradiation swelling behavior of candidate structural materials.