Journal of Nuclear Materials 573 (2023) 154112

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Journal of Nuclear Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jnucmat

Influence of loading orientation on deformation localization of

irradiated tungsten
Zhijie Li, Yinan Cui∗
Applied Mechanics Lab., School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The plasticity of tungsten in low or medium temperature regimes is dominated by the screw dislocation
Received 24 August 2022 mobility, which is well known to exhibit a strong non-Schmid effect and loading orientation dependence.
Revised 20 October 2022
As a typical plasma-facing material, many questions regarding the role of these plasticity features on the
Accepted 31 October 2022
irradiation degradation performance of tungsten remain unanswered. Considering that deformation local-
Available online 2 November 2022
ization is a continuing critical problem in the nuclear application, in the current work, a systematic set of
Keywords: crystal plasticity calculations is designed to quantify the degree of deformation localization in irradiated
Tungsten tungsten, which is found to be sensitive to the loading orientation. The underlying physical mechanisms
Irradiation are carefully analyzed, highlighting the important role of the number of active slip systems, the non-
Loading orientation Schmid effect controlled by the evolution of local stress state, and the high resistance stress induced by
Deformation localization irradiation defects. Based on the micro-scale physical mechanisms, two physical indicators are proposed
to provide guidance for predicting the orientation-dependent deformation localization in irradiated tung-
sten, which agrees well with the simulation results.
© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Previous work demonstrates that dislocation channels form

Irradiation with energetic particles leads to the formation of ir-
radiation defect clusters, which harden the materials by inhibiting
dislocation motion [1,2,3], but often promote the appearance of de-
formation localization [4,5]. This is a significant concern in nuclear
applications because it is one of the main origins of irradiation em-
brittlement [6] and stress corrosion cracking [7,8].
Deformation localization of irradiated metals continues to
receive considerable experimental and theoretical attention
[9,10,11,12]. The previous scenario has gained a consensus that
deformation localization in irradiated metals is induced through
the formation of dislocation channels due to the clearing of
radiation-induced obstacles by moving dislocations. Localization
is prone to occur at high irradiation doses [13,10]. Widening
dislocation channels prefer to be formed in high stacking fault
energy materials where the thermally activated processes of cross
slip [14] is easy, depending on dose and stress state [15]. How-
ever, a thorough understanding of deformation localization and
dislocation channel formation is still lacking due to its complex
nature and multiple contributing factors. One example is that the
loading orientation (LO) effect on the susceptibility and features of
localization remains poorly understood.
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: cyn@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn (Y. Cui).
along favorably oriented slip planes [16] and are controlled by
the slip system softening [17]. Considering that loading orienta-
tion plays a crucial role in influencing the plastic slip on a micro-
scopic scale, deformation localization is expected to develop in an
orientation-dependent manner [18]. Recent discrete dislocation dy-
namics (DDD) work discloses that dislocation channel formation is
inhibited for a loading orientation that activates multiple slip sys-
tems, which requires a very high irradiation dose for the transi-
tion from multi-slip mode to single-slip mode [13]. Barton et al.
observed that deformation localization develops very early in irra-
diated Fe single crystal at off-[100] orientation [9] due to the sup-
pression of even distribution of slip. For neutron-irradiated Zr alloy,
transmission electron microscope investigations show that dislo-
cation channels are observed along basal planes during transverse
tensile tests at 350 °C, while both prismatic and pyramidal dislo-
cation channels are observed during axial tensile tests [19,20].
Almost no studies, to date, have systematically explored the ori-
entation effect on deformation localization of irradiated tungsten,
even though W is considered as the most potential plasma-facing
material in the divertor of nuclear fusion devices [21] and the for-
mation of dislocation channels in W is observed [22,10]. It is in-
triguing to investigate this problem because many new physical in-
sights may appear. As a typical body center cubic (BCC) metal, the
plasticity of unirradiated tungsten is well-known to exhibit strong
orientation dependence, and the well-known Schmid law breaks

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.154112
0022-3115/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Z. Li and Y. Cui Journal of Nuclear Materials 573 (2023) 154112

down. The non-planar core structure of screw dislocations leads where a superposed dot means a time derivative. As for the ma-
to the non-Schmid effect [23,24], which means that the non-glide terials with the isotropic thermal expansion, the thermal deforma-
components of an applied stress tensor also affect the disloca- tion gradient F T can be expressed with the thermal stretch λ(T ),
tion behavior by modifying the dislocation core spreading pattern and the thermal velocity gradient LT and plastic velocity gradient
and affecting the critical shear stress for the onset of the disloca- L p can be simplified as [32,33],
tion slip. The deviations from the Schmid law can be quantified
F T = λ(T )I (6)
from the deviations of the screw dislocation trajectory away from
a straight path between equilibrium configurations, and a modi-
1 ∂λ
fied parameter-free Schmid law has been proposed by comparing LT = F e F˙ T F T,−1 F e,−1 = T˙ I = α T˙ I (7)
well with experimental variations and first-principles calculations λ (T ) ∂ T
of the dislocation Peierls stress as a function of crystal orienta-
tion [25]. Previous work suggests that the non-Schmid effect pro- L p = F e F T F˙ p F p,−1 F T,−1 F e,−1 = F e F˙ p F p,−1 F e,−1 = F e Lˆ p F e,−1 (8)
motes deformation localization [11,26]. However, how it affects the
orientation-dependent deformation localization under irradiation is Lˆ p = F˙ p F p,−1 (9)
far from well understood.
It is of great importance to answer these questions to im- where I is the second-order identity tensor, α is the linear expan-
prove the anti-localized deformation capacity of irradiated tung- sion coefficient.
sten structures. Firstly, a systematic set of crystal plasticity cal- In the current dislocation-based crystal plasticity model, it is
culations is designed to study the LO effect on the deformation assumed that all the plastic deformation is induced by dislocation
localization. The adopted crystal plasticity model is carefully val- slip. The plastic velocity gradient Lˆ p can be calculated as [32,34],
idated to be able to capture the loading orientation dependence  β
LˆP = PS γ˙ β (10)
of the mechanical properties of unirradiated tungsten. Afterwards,
β
the underlying mechanisms of deformation localization at different
β
loading orientations are studied. Finally, based on these insights, PS = mβ  nβ (11)
the deformation localization indicators are proposed.
β
where γ˙ β is the slip rate on the β th slip system, and PS is a geo-
2. Crystal plasticity model: description and validation metric projection tensor, representing the Schmid (geometric) pro-
jection of the strain rate contribution from the β th slip system de-
The investigations on the dislocation channel formation in irra- fined by the plane normal nβ and slip direction mβ (both unit vec-
diated tungsten requires a theoretical model, where several criti- tors). Based on the Orowan equation, the slip rate γ˙ β is calculated
cal and fundamental physical processes should be formulated rea- from the mobile dislocation density ρ β and dislocation velocity vβ
sonably, including the temperature and LO dependent plasticity of in β th slip system [32],
tungsten associated with the non-planar core structure of screw γ˙ β = bρ β vβ (12)
dislocations, the evolution of dislocation density, and the evolution
of irradiation defects and their collective interactions with moving As for tungsten, plastic deformation is dominated by screw dis-
dislocations. To achieve this goal, we have recently incorporated locations in the intermediate and low temperature regime [35,36].
all these physical processes into a crystal plasticity model [11] Edge dislocations mainly influence the initial micro-yielding defor-
based on the insights gained from molecular dynamics (MD) stud- mation stage at low temperature [29,11,37]. In the current work,
ies about the thermal-activated dislocation mobility law [27], DDD the contribution of both screw dislocation and edge dislocation is
studies about the evolution of dislocation and irradiation defects considered [11]. The slip rate γ˙ β is calculated as the sum of their
and their interactions [28], and the experimental studies about the contributions,
determinations of some model parameters [29,30]. We begin with
 
a streamlined presentation of the model for completeness. γ˙ β = b ρscβ vβsc + ρed
β β
ved (13)
For a given material point X in the reference configuration, it β β β β
can be mapped to x in the current configuration through a linear where ρsc , vsc , ρed and ved are the screw dislocation density, screw
transformation represented by the deformation gradient tensor F , dislocation velocity, edge dislocation density and edge dislocation
which can be multiplicatively decomposed into the elastic part F e , velocity, respectively.
the thermal part F T , and the plastic part F p [31], Dislocation mobility laws are established based on the mech-
anism of phonon drag mechanism for edge dislocations and the
∂x thermal-activated kink pair for screw dislocations [32,27],
F= = F eF T F p (1)
∂X ⎧  
⎨ τeβf f b Gkp (σ ,T )
where the superscripts e, T and p denote the elastic part, ther- B(σ ,T )
exp − if Gkp (σ , T ) > 0
vβ ( σ , T ) = 2kT
(14)
mal part and plastic part, respectively, in the following. The cor- ⎩ τeβf f b
if Gkp (σ , T ) ≤ 0
responding velocity gradient L can be obtained by taking time B(σ ,T )
derivative of Eq. (1), including the elastic part Le , the thermal part   Gkp (σ ,T )

a 2a exp − +L
LT and the plastic part L p , 2kT
Gkp (σ , T ) > 0
B (σ , T ) = 2hL
Bk if (15)
L = F˙ F −1 = Le + LT + L p (2) B0 + B1 T if Gkp (σ , T ) ≤ 0
p
q
T

Gkp (σ , T ) = β
H0 1− (σ ) − (16)
T0
Le = F˙ e F e,−1 (3)
 
T e ˙T T,−1 e,−1 τeβf f + a1 σ : mβ  nβ1
L =F F F F (4) β
(σ ) =   
β β
a0 τ p − a2 σ : nβ × mβ  nβ − a3 σ : n1 × mβ  n1

L p = F e F T F˙ p F p,−1 F T,−1 F e,−1 (5) (17)

2
Z. Li and Y. Cui Journal of Nuclear Materials 573 (2023) 154112

where Gkp (σ , T ) is the activation enthalpy of kink-pair as de- This model has been validated in our recent work [11] to be
fined in [27], which considers the non-Schmid effect. k is Boltz- able to accurately predict the mechanical properties of unirradi-
mann’s constant, a is the lattice constant, h is the kink height, L = ated and irradiated tungsten single crystals for different tempera-

( ρ β |nβ · mβ | )−1 is the length of dislocation segment. B0 and B1 tures and irradiation doses [29,48,49] by developing the user sub-
β routine in ABAQUS. In the current work, this model is further veri-
are two material constants, which adopt different values for screw fied to check its capability of capturing the LO dependence. Beard-
dislocations and edge dislocations [38]. 0 ≤ p ≤ 1 and 1 ≤ q ≤ 2, a0 , more and Hull [50] carried out a series of experiments to study
a1 , a2 and a3 are fitting parameters based on molecular dynamics the influence of LOs on the mechanical response of tungsten single
β
calculations [27]. n1 is a unit vector, which forms an angle of −60◦ crystals at 295 K. In their experiments, the tested strip specimens
with the reference slip plane defined by nβ . For screw dislocations, had the gage section of 0.034 inches width and 0.014 inches thick-
the velocity is highly depending on the temperature and increases ness. The LO was described through angles  and  , as indicated
with the temperature. The fitting constant T0 can be interpreted as in the inset in Fig. 1(a). Tensile tests were carried out at a strain
an athermal transition temperature, above which the energy bar- rate of 4 × 10−4 /s. Here, the simulation setup strictly follows the
rier for kink-pair nucleation is guaranteed to vanish independent experiments, and the corresponding element size is about 8 μm.
β
of stress [38]. τe f f is the effective shear stress, acting as the driv- The convergence of the mesh size is firstly verified by using a
ing force for the dislocation motion, smaller mesh size for a given LO, and we found that the deforma-
tion process and the stress-strain relationship is basically the same.
τeβf f = τapp
β β β
− τ f or − τirr (18) The engineering stress-stain curves for different LOs are calculated
based on this model. The predicted yield strength is plotted as
β β
τapp = σ : PS (19) a function of LO to clearly show the LO effect. Fig. 1(a) shows a
good agreement with the experimental data of the yield strength
 (defined as the proportionality limit) [50,51,52]. Fig. 1(b) further
β

NS
compares the predicted hardening modulus at different engineer-
τ f or = αd μb ρα (20)
ing strains with the experimental data [50], and a good agreement
α =1
β
 between simulation and experiments is also observed.
τirr = αi μb N di (21)
β β β 3. Model predictions for loading orientation effect on
where τapp is the applied shear stress, τ f or and τirr are the resis- deformation localization
tance stress due to the dislocation forest and irradiation defects,
respectively. σ is the stress tensor, and NS is the number of all After the careful validations, this model is adopted to explore
considered slip systems. αd and αi are the hardening coefficients how LO influences the deformation localization of irradiated tung-
induced by dislocation forest and irradiation defects, respectively. sten. To the best of our knowledge, this problem has not been sys-
N is the irradiation defect density, and di is the average diameter tematically investigated theoretically or experimentally in previous
of irradiation defects. studies. The simulated specimens are cylindrical dog-bone shaped
The evolution of screw dislocation density ρ˙ sc follows the law to minimize the boundary effect. The diameter and gage length
proposed by Mecking and Kocks [39] and further developed by are 30 μm and 60 μm, respectively. The mesh size is 500 nm,
Beyerlein and Tome [40,41]: which has been validated to meet the convergence requirements
√
ρ˙ sc (T ) = (k1 ρsc /b − k2 (ε˙ , T )ρsc )γ˙ (22) [11]. Testing temperature 373 K is taken as an example. A given
strain rate of 0.05/s is applied on the upper end to compress the
   sample. An irradiation dose of 0.6dpa is considered, and the corre-
k2 (ε˙ , T ) χ kT ε˙
= 1− ln (23) sponding irradiation defect density and average size are 7.2 × 1022
k1 g Db3 ε˙ 0 /m3 and 5.0 nm, respectively [53,54]. In the current work, the com-
pressive loading condition is chosen due to the following reasons.
D = D0 − φ ∗ T (24)
Firstly, a given tungsten structure is generally installed and fixed at
where k1 , k2 are the coefficients related to the generation and an- room temperature, and the higher working temperature is highly
nihilation process of dislocations, respectively. χ is the interaction possible to induce compressive loading state due to the thermal
parameter, g is the normalized activation energy, D is a proportion- expansion. Secondly, the compressive load will avoid the necking
ality constant, ε˙ 0 is a reference strain rate, ε˙ is the applied strain behavior of tungsten structures induced by tensile loading condi-
rate, D0 is the reference proportionality constant and φ is the ma- tion, and the deformation localization is mainly controlled by the
terial constant. In our recent work [11], the evolution of edge dis- irradiation condition. Lastly, recent experimental studies [10,22,55]
location density ρ˙ ed has been established and is expressed as, have indicated that the irradiated tungsten suffers from the local-
v √
 ized deformation under the nano-indentation (compression) con-
ρ˙ ed (T ) = sc
k1 ρed /b − k2 (ε˙ , T )ρed γ˙ (25) dition.
ved
Fig. 2 shows the plastic strain distribution of irradiated tung-
As for the evolution model of irradiation defects, the irradiation
sten single crystals under different LOs. Four kinds of deformation
defects can be either absorbed or swept away by the moving dis-
localization features are observed. (I) One clear shear band quickly
location within a prescribed capture distance y/2, which has been
appears across the whole body of samples, when the LO is [552],
verified by a wide range of numerical simulations, including DDD
[111], and [115]. The plastic strain in the deformation localization
[42,28,43] and MD [44,45,46]. Accordingly, the changing rate of ir-
zone is an order of magnitude larger than the applied engineering
radiation defect density N˙ is expressed as,
strain. (II) For [112], the deformation localization occurs until the
y
N˙ = N˙ p − λ N γ˙ (26) engineering strain achieves about 3%, much higher than type (I).
b (III) When the LO is [100], there are two local shear bands (marked
where N˙ p is the irradiation defect production rate and set as zero with "A" and "B" in Fig. 2(a-3)) near the transition zone of the
for post-irradiation deformation. λ describes the annihilation prob- sample. (IV) As for [210], no shear bands appear during the con-
ability. All the related parameters used in the model are listed in sidered engineering strain of 3%. The analysis above indicates that
Table 1 and have been discussed in our recent work [11]. deformation localization exhibits significant LO dependence.

3
Z. Li and Y. Cui Journal of Nuclear Materials 573 (2023) 154112

Table 1
Relevant parameters in the crystal plasticity model for the dislocation mobility law, resistance stress model and
the microstructure density evolution of tungsten [47,30,27,41].

Parameter[Units] a[Å] b[Å] h[Å] H0 [eV] p[-] q[-]

√
Value 3.16 2.72 a 2/3 1.63 0.86 1.69
Parameter[Units] α [/K] T0 [K] τ p [GPa] a0 [-] a1 [-] a2 [-]
Value 4.65 × 10−6 2956 2.03 1.50 1.15 2.32
Parameter[Units] a3 [-] Bk [Pa · s] 0 [Pa·s]
Bsc 1 [Pa · s/K]
Bsc 0 [Pa·s]
Bed 1 [Pa · s/K]
Bed
Value 4.29 8.3 × 10−5 9.8 × 10−4 0 4.26 × 10−4 8.7 × 10−5
Parameter[Units] αd [-] αi [-] k1 [-] χ [-] g[-] φ [MPa/K]
Value 0.6 0.2 0.2 0.9 0.01 16.0
Parameter[Units] D0 [MPa] ε˙ 0 [/s] λy/b[-]
Value 10,000 1.0 × 107 10

Fig. 1. Comparison of simulation results (marked with “Sim”) and experimental data (marked with “Exp”) on the loading-orientation dependence of yield strength and
hardening modulus at different engineering strains ε .

Fig. 2. Loading orientation effect on the deformation localization of irradiated tungsten single crystals at 373 K.

4
Z. Li and Y. Cui
Fig. 3. Deformation localization index (DLI) at three given engineering strains ε .  is the maximum slip rate ratio of the dominant slip system, and m is the strain rate
sensitivity coefficient. Different regimes describe different deformation localization mechanisms, as described in Section 4.1.
To further quantify the deformation localization extent for dif-
ferent LOs, a deformation localization index (DLI) is adopted. DLI is
defined as the volume percentage where the local plastic strain is
smaller than the volume-averaged plastic strain [56]. It is easy to
prove that DLI ranges from 0 to 1, and higher DLI means a greater
extent of localization. Systematic studies are carried out to under-
stand the LO effect on DLI, where LO is also described through
angles  and  , as indicated in the inset in Fig. 3. For different
LOs, the evolution of DLI is calculated at three different engineer-
ing strains (namely 1%, 2% and 3%) and shown in Fig. 3. DLI gen-
erally increases with the deformation before the formation of dis-
location channels if the plastic deformation gradually concentrates
in the dislocation channel region. Once the dislocation channel ap-
pears, DLI reaches a relatively stable value, because the subsequent
deformation basically converts into the plastic deformation of the
limited channel zone. It can be seen that the DLI evolution is con-
sistent with the evolution of the plastic strain distribution in Fig. 2.
By comparing with Fig. 2, a clear shear band appears when DLI is
higher than about 0.6. It is found that for all the considered LOs,
the evolution of the deformation localization is similar to the four
typical cases described in the previous paragraph and Fig. 2. There-
fore, it is reasonable to differentiate the four regimes, as indicated
in Fig. 3. In the following, the underlying mechanism of these dif-
ferent deformation localization features will be disclosed by taking
the typical cases shown in Fig. 2 as examples.
4. Discussions
4.1. Analysis of deformation localization mechanisms
Regarding the origin of LO dependence of deformation local-
ization, the natural idea is first to analyze the Schmid factor M
and the number of activated slip systems. Concerning tungsten, the
non-Schmid effect makes the non-glide components of an applied
stress tensor affect the dislocation motion. Therefore, the domi-
nated slip system may not have the maximum M. Without loss of
5
Journal of Nuclear Materials 573 (2023) 154112
generality, one can define a plastic contribution ratio ωβ to de-
scribe the contribution of β th slip system to the total plastic strain
along the loading direction at the yield point, which can be calcu-
lated as,

NS
ωβ = Mβ γ˙ β / Mα γ˙ α (27)
α =1
where the plastic slip rate γ˙ β can be theoretically evaluated
through Eq. (12). At the yield point, ρ β can be taken as the ini-
tial dislocation density, the dislocation velocity vβ is determined
by assuming that the total plastic strain rate is equal to the ap-
plied strain rate. According to Eq. (14), higher ωβ requires higher
β β
effective shear stress τe f f and lower activation enthalpy Gkp . τe f f
is positively correlated to |M|, while Gkp depends on the applied
stress tensor and considers the non-Schmid effect.
Table 2 summarizes the calculated absolute value of Schmid
factor |M| and the plastic contribution ratio of the active slip sys-
β β
tems for unirradiated tungsten (ωU ) and irradiated tungsten (ωI )
under different LOs. The subscripts "U" and "I" are used to describe
the unirradiated and irradiated tungsten, respectively. In order to
β
verify the theoretical calculation of ωI , the corresponding simu-
β
lation results ωI,S are further listed in Table 2. A good agreement
β β
between ωI and ωI,S is observed. Our results show several intrigu-
ing features.
• For the LO of [552], [111] and [115] in regime I, there are sev-
eral active slip systems with a high absolute value of Schmid
factor |M|, and the dominant slip system, contributing most to
β
the total plastic deformation, has a much higher ωI than that
of other slip systems. The dominant slip system of unirradiated
tungsten is consistent with that of irradiated tungsten.
• For the LO of [112] in regime II, despite there is also only one
dominant slip system, an unexpected phenomenon is observed.
The dominant slip system for unirradiated tungsten is differ-
ent from that of irradiated tungsten, and there is a great dif-
Z. Li and Y. Cui Journal of Nuclear Materials 573 (2023) 154112

Table 2
β β
The absolute value of Schmid factor |M| and the plastic contribution ratio ω of active slip systems under different loading orientations, ωU and ωI correspond to unirradi-
β
ated and irradiated tungsten, respectively, and ωI,S is the simulation results for irradiated tungsten.

loading Orientation Slip System |M| ωUβ ωIβ β

ωI,S loading Orientation Slip System |M| ωUβ ωIβ β
ωI,S
[100] [1̄11](101 ) 0.41 0.25 0.25 0.25 [210] [1̄1̄1](011 ) 0.24 0.11 0.00 0.00
(Regime Ⅲ) [11̄1](1̄01 ) 0.41 0.25 0.25 0.25 (Regime Ⅳ) [1̄1̄1](101 ) 0.49 0.22 0.50 0.50
[1̄11̄](110 ) 0.41 0.25 0.25 0.25 [111](1̄01 ) 0.49 0.22 0.50 0.50
[111](1̄10 ) 0.41 0.25 0.25 0.25 [111](1̄10 ) 0.24 0.43 0.00 0.00
[552] [1̄1̄1](011 ) 0.42 0.80 0.81 0.91 [111] [1̄1̄1](011 ) 0.27 0.92 0.92 0.96
(Regime Ⅰ) [1̄1̄1](101 ) 0.42 0.19 0.19 0.09 (Regime Ⅰ) [1̄11](101 ) 0.27 0.04 0.04 0.02
[111](1̄01 ) 0.27 0.01 0.00 0.00 [1̄1̄1](101 ) 0.27 0.04 0.04 0.02
[112] [11̄1](011 ) 0.41 0.04 0.15 0.10 [115] [11̄1](011 ) 0.45 0.09 0.14 0.13
(Regime Ⅱ) [1̄11](01̄1 ) 0.14 0.67 0.00 0.00 (Regime Ⅰ) [1̄1̄1](011 ) 0.27 0.06 0.00 0.00
[1̄11](101 ) 0.41 0.17 0.85 0.90 [1̄11](01̄1 ) 0.30 0.32 0.00 0.00
[111](1̄01 ) 0.27 0.11 0.00 0.00 [111](1̄01 ) 0.42 0.50 0.80 0.85

β β
ference between ωU and ωI . The slip system with the maxi-
β the {110} crystallographic plane [22,10]. Therefore, the dislocation
mum ωU has a lower absolute value of Schmid factor |M|, due
to the low activation enthalpy of kink-pair Gkp . However, the
β graphic plane of the dominant slip system. The formation of dis-
slip system with the maximum ωI is the same as that with
the maximum |M|, because the high resistance stress induced
by irradiation defects inhibits the dislocation motion in the slip
systems with a lower |M|. Therefore, only the slip system with
a higher |M| can develop into the dominant one in irradiated
tungsten, which further determines the orientation of the dis-
location channel. This phenomenon is consistent with the ex-
perimental observation [57,58] and simulation results [17,58,59]
that the local region suffering from deformation localization al-
ways has a higher |M|.
• For the LO of [100] in regime III, multiple dominant slip sys-
β can drive the gliding of dislocations to contribute to the required
tems are activated simultaneously, and the lower value of ωU
β
is close to that of ωI .
β plastic deformation stage, and the plastic slip rate γ˙ of the domi-
• For the LO of [210] in regime IV, ωU is substantially different
β
from ωI , and there is more than one dominant slip system.
In the following, we will first analyze the correlation between
deformation localization and the crystallographic slip plane of
the dominant slip system, and then disclose how these different
regimes contribute to different evolution features of deformation
localization in irradiated tungsten.
4.1.1. Crystallographic analysis on deformation localization
For different LOs, the normal direction of dislocation channel
plane can be calculated from the simulation results of the irradia-
tion defect density distribution. The calculated normal vectors are
plotted in the pole figure of crystallographic orientations, as shown
in Fig. 4(a). The large gray circles represent the region within 10°
with respect to the normal vector of the dominated slip plane for
each case. For a given LO, Fig. 4(a) shows that the normal direc-
tion of dislocation channel plane falls into the large gray circle,
proving that the dislocation channel plane is basically consistent
with the corresponding dominated slip plane. The LO of [552] is
taken as an example. It is known from Table 2 that the slip sys-
β
tem of [1̄1̄1](011 ) has the maximum plastic contribution ratio ωI
(0.81) for irradiated tungsten. Therefore, [1̄1̄1](011 ) is named as
the dominant slip system, and the corresponding normal vector
is (011 ). For this LO, the normal direction of dislocation channel
plane is (0.08 0.61 0.79) according to the simulation result, which
is indicated by the black circle point in Fig. 4(a). The angle be-
tween these two normal vectors is about 8°, so they are essen-
tially parallel. This agrees with the experimental observations that
the localized deformation appears in the crystallographic slip plane
for irradiated tungsten [22,10] and other bcc metals [60,61]. As
an example, Fig. 4(b) shows the nanoindentation experiment on
the helium-ion irradiated tungsten single crystals, which showed
that the orientation of dislocation channel plane agrees well with
channels of irradiated tungsten are basically along the crystallo-
location channels and the deformation localization have a strong
correlation with the parameter of maximum plastic contribution
ratio ω.
4.1.2. Regime Ⅰ: Single-slip
The characteristic feature of Regime I is that there is only one
dominant slip system, which has the high plastic contribution ratio
ωI and low activation enthalpy Gkp . Here, ωI and ωU means the
β β
maximum value of ωI and ωU , respectively, as shown in bold in
Table 2. When Gkp is low, relatively low effective shear stress τe f f
plastic strain rate. Taking LO of [552] as an example, Fig. 5(a-c)
shows that τe f f is on the order of several MPa during the initial
nant slip system [1̄1̄1](011 ) is much higher than the others.
During the initial deformation stage, higher τe f f is observed in
the near-surface region (such as point A in Fig. 5a), whose local
plastic strain is higher, which further leads to the change of the
local stress state. When ε reaches about 1.25%, the non-axial stress
component is found to increase τe f f in the internal region (see
point B in Fig. 5a) to catch up with that in the near-surface re-
gion (see Fig. 5c). Therefore, γ˙ becomes comparable for points A
and B. The continuous dislocation gliding along the dominated slip
plane dramatically absorbs or sweeps away the irradiation defects,
boosting the formation of the dislocation channel across the whole
sample (See Fig. 5a).
4.1.3. Regime Ⅱ: High kink-pair activation enthalpy
Regime II is also manifested as having only one dominant slip
system with the maximum plastic contribution ratio ωI . However,
this slip system has a high activation enthalpy of kink-pair Gkp ,
because the slip system with low Gkp cannot be effectively acti-
vated since its low absolute value of Schmid factor |M| means low
applied shear stress, which cannot overcome the high resistance
stress associated with irradiation defects. According to Eq. (14),
when Gkp is high, a remarkably high τe f f is required to drive the
plasticity. As expected, the simulation results in Fig. 5(f) for the LO
of [112] show that τe f f is on the order of one hundred MPa, much
higher than that for Regime I, while the plastic slip rate is compa-
rable in Fig. 5(b) and (e) around the yield point.
Similar to Regime I, the near-surface region has a higher τe f f
and plastic slip rate γ˙ initially. The difference between τe f f at
points A and B gradually diverges, as shown in Fig. 5(f). This dif-
ference is much higher than Fig. 5(c) and cannot be eliminated
by changing the local stress state during plastic deformation as
discussed for Regime I. The comparable plastic slip rate between

6
Z. Li and Y. Cui
Fig. 4. Crystallographic orientations of dislocation channels. (a) Pole figure showing the normal vectors of the dislocation channel planes under different LOs. “A” and “B” for
the LO of [100] represent the two local shear bands shown in Fig. 2(a-3). (b) Experimental observation on the formation of dislocation channel, reprinted with permission
from [10].
points A and B is achieved, until the non-glide components of the
applied stress tensor build up and decrease the kink-pair activa-
tion enthalpy Gkp at point B, as shown in Fig. 5(f). The required
engineering strain is about 2.2%, as marked by the dashed line in
Fig. 5(e). Afterward, the dislocation channel gradually appears, as
shown in Fig. 5(d).
4.1.4. Regime Ⅲ: Multi-slip
Regime III has the character of having multiple dominant slip
systems, which have a low kink-pair activation enthalpy Gkp and
low maximum plastic contribution ratio ωI . The LO of [100] is
taken as an example. There are four equivalent slip systems, so
the plastic contribution ratio ωI of each dominant slip system is
about 0.25, which is much lower than that with a single dominant
slip system. This promotes the relatively homogeneous plastic de-
formation, thus dramatically reducing the concentration of disloca-
tion activities and irradiation defect destruction in each slip sys-
tem. During the initial deformation period, four equal slip systems
contribute a similar amount to the total plastic strain. Afterward,
one slip system gradually prevails over due to non-uniform defor-
mation in the transition zone of samples, just as shown in Fig. 5(h).
This process leads to the gradual appearance of a tiny dislocation
channel in Fig. 5(g). This process is consistent with the simulation
results of the DDD observation [13] that the multi-slip mode can
gradually change into the single slip mode at a high irradiation
dose.
4.1.5. Regime Ⅳ: Mixed-mechanisms
Regime IV combines the mechanism of Regime II and Regime
III. There are multiple dominant slip systems, which has a low
maximum plastic contribution ratio ωI but high kink-pair acti-
vation enthalpy Gkp . For the LO of [210], two equal slip sys-
tems [1̄1̄1](101 ) and [111](1̄01 ) contribute most to the total plas-
tic strain, inhibiting the formation of dislocation channel compared
with the single slip system dominated case. High Gkp calls for
high effective stress for dislocation motion and makes it difficult
for the shear band to penetrate through the whole sample, com-
pared with the case with a low Gkp . Therefore, no dislocation
channel or shear band is observed in the considered strain range.
4.1.6. Two levels of competition mechanisms for the proposed four
regimes
Based on the discussion above, the underlying mechanism of
deformation localization regimes Ⅰ∼Ⅳ can be attributed to the two
levels of competition mechanisms, as shown in Fig. 6(a). The first
7
Journal of Nuclear Materials 573 (2023) 154112
level focuses on the dislocation motion behavior at a given slip sys-
tem, which is controlled by the irradiation resistance stress, the
applied shear stress and the non-Schmid effect. When the irradi-
ation dose is high, the resistance stress induced by irradiation de-
fects is high. Therefore, a high applied shear stress is required to
obtain a positive effective shear stress τe f f . Because the magnitude
of the applied shear stress is positively correlated with the abso-
lute value of Schmid factor |M|, it is easier for the dislocations in
the slip system with high |M| to active in irradiated tungsten. On
the other hand, the mobility of screw dislocation is controlled by
the kink-pair mechanism. The kink-pair activation enthalpy Gkp
represents the energy barrier to the dislocation motion. Therefore,
dislocation is prone to gliding in the slip system with the low
Gkp . The non-Schmid effect manifests itself through the value of
Gkp . As consequence the slip system with the low |M| and low
Gkp may serve as the dominant one for unirradiated tungsten. As
for irradiated tungsten, the competitions between Schmid effect,
non-Schmid effect, and irradiation barrier effect determine the dis-
location velocity for a given slip system. According to the analysis
above, the absolute value of Schmid factor |M| and the kink-pair
activation enthalpy Gkp can serve as key physical quantities to
control the dislocation mobility for a given slip system in high-
dose irradiated tungsten.
The second level focuses on the competition between differ-
ent slip systems. After the determination of dislocation mobility
of each slip system, the dominant slip system can be determined.
The contribution of β th slip system to the plastic deformation can
be represented by the plastic contribution ratio ωβ , as defined in
Eq. (27). Because the sum of ωβ for all slip systems is equal to one,
the value of the highest ωβ (namely ω) will be low if there are
multiple dominant slip systems, compared with the case having a
single dominant slip system. The simulation results have indicated
that the irradiated tungsten with multiple dominant slip systems
has better anti-deformation localization capability than that with a
single dominant slip system. Therefore, the quantity of the highest
plastic contribution ratio ω can also reflect the tendency of defor-
mation localization and is adopted as another key physical quan-
tity.
Accordingly, the proposed four regimes can be distinguished ac-
cording to these three key physical quantities, as shown in Fig. 6(b-
e), respectively.
• Regime Ⅰ: The largest plastic contribution ratio ω is high, repre-
senting the plastic deformation is concentrated in less number
of dominant slip systems. The high absolute value of Schmid
Z. Li and Y. Cui Journal of Nuclear Materials 573 (2023) 154112

Fig. 5. Simulation results for typical loading orientation (a-c) [552] in Regime I, (d-f) [112] in Regime II, (g-i) [100] in Regime III. (b-c), (e-f), (h-i) give the evolution of plastic
slip rate, irradiation defect density, effective shear stress, and activation enthalpy of kink-pair for the points A and B, marked in (a), (d), (g), respectively. The vertical dot
line in (b-c), (e-f), (h-i) indicates the critical engineering strain for the initial formation of dislocation channels, which corresponds to the moment shown in (a), (d), (g),
respectively.

Fig. 6. Schematic for the two levels of competition mechanisms contributing to the four regimes of dislocation channels for irradiated tungsten. (a) Competition mechanisms
at the two levels and the corresponding key physical quantity. (b)∼(e) The four regimes of dislocation channels are schematically shown with the key physical quantity.

8
Z. Li and Y. Cui
factor |M| and low kink-pair activation enthalpy Gkp promotes
the dislocation motion and the formation of dislocation chan-
nels.
• Regime Ⅱ: |M| and ω are high. However, the high kink-pair acti-
vation enthalpy Gkp inhibits dislocation motion, reducing the
tendency to localized deformation.
• Regime Ⅲ: High |M| and low Gkp promote the dislocation mo-
tion, but the low ω contributes to more homogeneous deforma-
tion.
• Regime Ⅳ: Compared to Regime Ⅲ, the high kink-pair acti-
vation enthalpy Gkp restricts the dislocation motion on the
multiple dominant slip systems, further improving the anti-
localized deformation capacity of irradiated tungsten.
Therefore, the LOs in Regime Ⅰ and Regime Ⅳ have the worst
and best capacity to suppress the formation of dislocation chan-
nels, and those in Regime Ⅱ and Regime Ⅲ have the medium ca-
pacity. They are plotted using different transparency in Fig. 3.
4.2. Deformation localization indicator
Irradiation experiments on tungsten are expensive and time-
consuming, especially for neutron irradiation. Therefore, it will
benefit a lot if some indicators can conveniently estimate the re-
sistance of irradiated tungsten to deformation localization.
Based on the insights gained in Section 4.1, for heavily irradi-
ated tungsten at relatively low temperature, deformation localiza-
tion prefers to occur when the dominant slip system has great de-
formation capacity and contributes more to the total deformation.
This means the dominant slip system on the one hand has a lower
activation enthalpy of kink-pair Gkp , and on the other hand leads
to the higher plastic slip rate γ˙ so as to destruct the irradiation
defects more rapidly according to Eq. (26) at a given applied strain
condition. Accordingly, a dimensionless indicator , representing
the maximum slip rate ratio of the dominant slip system, is pro-
posed and defined as follows,
 
 γ˙   ωI 

= =
ε˙ 0    M 
(28)
where ε˙ 0 is the applied strain rate, the plastic slip rate γ˙ and
the coefficient  are quantities corresponding to the dominant slip
system.  is a dimensionless factor describing the effect of high
activation enthalpy Gkp , which is set to 2.0 when the dominated
slip system with maximum plastic contribution factor ωI in irradi-
ated tungsten is different from that with maximum plastic contri-
bution factor ωU in unirradiated tungsten, and otherwise is set to
1.0. Obviously, higher  has a higher propensity to deformation lo-
calization. A similar idea of connecting the relative slip system ac-
tivities with deformation localization was previously proposed in
[19], but they did not consider the contribution of Gkp to dis-
location motion and the subsequent dislocation channel formation.
The calculation results of  according to Table 2 are given in Fig. 3,
which show good agreement with the trend of DLI with respect to
the LOs. This indicates that  can serve as an indicator to estimate
the tendency of deformation localization of irradiated tungsten un-
der different LOs, which can be theoretically calculated.
On the other hand, according to the Considere-Hart criterion,
the propensity of metal for deformation localization α can be es-
timated as α = (−SHR/σy − 1/m ) [62,63]. Here, SHR means strain
hardening rate. m is the strain rate sensitivity coefficient, which is
defined as ∂ (lnσy )/∂ (lnε˙ ) [64,62], where σy is the yield strength,
and ε˙ is the applied strain rate. Under the uniaxial loading con-
dition, m is obtained by calculating a series of yield strength σy
at different given applied strain rates through the crystal plasticity
model. Deformation localization prefers to occur when α is high,
due to the suppression of the stabilizing mechanisms of strain
9
Journal of Nuclear Materials 573 (2023) 154112
and strain rate hardening. The results in Fig. 1b shows that ori-
entation dependent SHR of unirradiated tungsten does not show
a good correlation with orientation dependent localization of irra-
diated tungsten, because the SHR of irradiated tungsten is domi-
nated by the interaction between irradiation defects and disloca-
tions, such as described by Eq. (41) [11]. However, it is found that
orientation-dependent strain rate sensitivity of unirradiated tung-
sten 1/m correlates well with the orientation-dependent deforma-
tion localization in irradiated tungsten, as shown in Fig. 3. This is
understandable, because the strain rate sensitivity at a given low
temperature (T<0.2Tm , Tm is the melting temperature) is controlled
by the thermally activated screw dislocation mobility [63], while
deformation localization is also sensitive to the screw dislocation
activities as discussed in Section 4.1. Therefore, 1/m can be used
to estimate the deformation localization resistance of irradiated
tungsten.
5. Conclusions
Understanding, predicting, and controlling deformation localiza-
tion in irradiated material promises significant benefits for nuclear
applications. However, it is still a challenging task due to the dif-
ficulty in unfolding the various contributions. In the current work,
the loading orientation effect on deformation localization is sep-
arated out and carefully examined in irradiated tungsten through
systematic crystal plasticity studies.
The loading orientation dependence of deformation localiza-
tion in irradiated tungsten is disclosed. It is found that the dom-
inated slip system in unirradiated tungsten is controlled by the
non-Schmid effect, but the dislocation channel in irradiated tung-
sten forms along favorably oriented slip planes with the maxi-
mum Schmid factor, because the resistance stress induced by the
high number of irradiation defects dominates the dislocation ac-
tivities. This finding can also help to understand the behavior of
irradiated polycrystalline tungsten, such as the preference of dis-
location channel formation in the grains with higher Schmid fac-
tor [59] and the orientation-dependent indentation response of
helium-implanted tungsten [55].
Careful analysis of the underlying mechanism shows that the
single-slip mode has the highest susceptibility to localization.
Whereas if the multi-slip mode is activated, and at the same
time the active slip systems are controlled by the high irradia-
tion resistance stress and hence have high activation enthalpy of
kink-pair, the best capacity to suppress localization is observed.
Based on these analyses, two deformation localization indicators,
namely the maximum slip rate ratio and strain-rate sensitivity co-
efficient, are proposed. The predicted orientation-dependent de-
formation localization extents using these two indicators agree
well with the deformation distribution features calculated by the
crystal plasticity model and the available experimental observa-
tions. This work provides the link between orientation-dependent
deformation localization and the key physical quantities, so as
to guide the prediction of deformation localization in irradiated
materials.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Zhijie Li: Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft.
Yinan Cui: Conceptualization, Supervision, Formal analysis, Writing
– original draft, Writing – review & editing.
Z. Li and Y. Cui
Data Availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgement
This material is based upon work supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 12172194,
12222205, 12102217, and National key laboratory of shock wave
and detonation physics JCKYS2021212004.
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