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Analysis of Radiation Damage in Light Water Reactors: Comparison of Cluster Analysis Methods for the Analysis of Atom Probe Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2017

Jonathan M. Hyde ,
Gérald DaCosta ,
Constantinos Hatzoglou ,
Hannah Weekes ,
Bertrand Radiguet ,
Paul D. Styman ,
Francois Vurpillot ,
Cristelle Pareige ,
Auriane Etienne  and
Giovanni Bonny
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Jonathan M. Hyde
Affiliation:
National Nuclear Laboratory, Culham Science Centre, Building D5, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3DB, UK Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PH, UK
Gérald DaCosta
Affiliation:
UNIROUEN, INSA Rouen, CNRS, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Normandie Université, 76000 Rouen, France
Constantinos Hatzoglou
Affiliation:
UNIROUEN, INSA Rouen, CNRS, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Normandie Université, 76000 Rouen, France
Hannah Weekes
Affiliation:
National Nuclear Laboratory, Culham Science Centre, Building D5, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3DB, UK
Bertrand Radiguet
Affiliation:
UNIROUEN, INSA Rouen, CNRS, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Normandie Université, 76000 Rouen, France
Paul D. Styman*
Affiliation:
National Nuclear Laboratory, Culham Science Centre, Building D5, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3DB, UK Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PH, UK
Francois Vurpillot
Affiliation:
UNIROUEN, INSA Rouen, CNRS, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Normandie Université, 76000 Rouen, France
Cristelle Pareige
Affiliation:
UNIROUEN, INSA Rouen, CNRS, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Normandie Université, 76000 Rouen, France
Auriane Etienne
Affiliation:
UNIROUEN, INSA Rouen, CNRS, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Normandie Université, 76000 Rouen, France
Giovanni Bonny
Affiliation:
Studiecentrum voor Kernenergie—Centre d’Etudes de l’Energie Nucléaire (SCK—CEN), Institute of Nuclear Materials Science, Expert Group of Structural Materials, Boeretang 200, B-2400 Mol, Belgium
Nicolas Castin
Affiliation:
Studiecentrum voor Kernenergie—Centre d’Etudes de l’Energie Nucléaire (SCK—CEN), Institute of Nuclear Materials Science, Expert Group of Structural Materials, Boeretang 200, B-2400 Mol, Belgium
Lorenzo Malerba
Affiliation:
Studiecentrum voor Kernenergie—Centre d’Etudes de l’Energie Nucléaire (SCK—CEN), Institute of Nuclear Materials Science, Expert Group of Structural Materials, Boeretang 200, B-2400 Mol, Belgium
Philippe Pareige
Affiliation:
UNIROUEN, INSA Rouen, CNRS, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, Normandie Université, 76000 Rouen, France
*
*Corresponding author.paul.styman@materials.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

Irradiation of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels causes the formation of nanoscale microstructural features (termed radiation damage), which affect the mechanical properties of the vessel. A key tool for characterizing these nanoscale features is atom probe tomography (APT), due to its high spatial resolution and the ability to identify different chemical species in three dimensions. Microstructural observations using APT can underpin development of a mechanistic understanding of defect formation. However, with atom probe analyses there are currently multiple methods for analyzing the data. This can result in inconsistencies between results obtained from different researchers and unnecessary scatter when combining data from multiple sources. This makes interpretation of results more complex and calibration of radiation damage models challenging. In this work simulations of a range of different microstructures are used to directly compare different cluster analysis algorithms and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Keywords

atom probe field ion microscopystatistical analysissolute clustering
Type
Materials Science (Metals)
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 23 , Special Issue 2: Atom Probe Tomography & Microscopy 2016 , April 2017 , pp. 366 - 375
Copyright
© Microscopy Society of America 2017 

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