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Volume and pressure of helium bubbles inside liquid Pb16Li. A molecular dynamics study

Volume and pressure of helium bubbles inside liquid Pb16Li. A molecular dynamics study
Volume and pressure of helium bubbles inside liquid Pb16Li. A molecular dynamics study

The behaviour of helium impurities inside metals has been well studied in the last 30 years, however, little attention has been devoted to helium atoms inside liquid metals. Here we have investigated the nucleation and coalescence processes of helium atoms inside liquid eutectic lithium-lead alloys using atomistic simulations. Several key findings regarding He bubbles inside liquid PbLi eutectic are presented. The radius versus the number of atoms has been calculated in the temperature range 600-1000 K. The trend can be fitted and likely extrapolated to larger bubbles (micrometer size). The value of thermal expansion of He bubbles is given as well and compared to the thermal expansion of bulk He. The pressure inside He bubbles has been calculated as a function of bubble size. Finally, the importance of accurate interatomic potentials for the He-metal interaction is discussed.

Breeding blankets, Eutectic PbLi, Helium bubbles, Molecular dynamics
0029-5515
Fraile, Alberto
a5360fc0-5002-4410-85fc-d0af55e36b8a
Polcar, Tomas
c669b663-3ba9-4e7b-9f97-8ef5655ac6d2
Fraile, Alberto
a5360fc0-5002-4410-85fc-d0af55e36b8a
Polcar, Tomas
c669b663-3ba9-4e7b-9f97-8ef5655ac6d2

Fraile, Alberto and Polcar, Tomas (2020) Volume and pressure of helium bubbles inside liquid Pb16Li. A molecular dynamics study. Nuclear Fusion, 60 (4), [046018]. (doi:10.1088/1741-4326/ab73c2).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The behaviour of helium impurities inside metals has been well studied in the last 30 years, however, little attention has been devoted to helium atoms inside liquid metals. Here we have investigated the nucleation and coalescence processes of helium atoms inside liquid eutectic lithium-lead alloys using atomistic simulations. Several key findings regarding He bubbles inside liquid PbLi eutectic are presented. The radius versus the number of atoms has been calculated in the temperature range 600-1000 K. The trend can be fitted and likely extrapolated to larger bubbles (micrometer size). The value of thermal expansion of He bubbles is given as well and compared to the thermal expansion of bulk He. The pressure inside He bubbles has been calculated as a function of bubble size. Finally, the importance of accurate interatomic potentials for the He-metal interaction is discussed.

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More information

Published date: 2020
Additional Information: Funding Information: This work was supported by The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports from the Large Infrastructures for Research, Experimental Development and Innovations project 'IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center?LM2015070'. The study was supported by the project Novel nanostructures for engineering applications No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_026/0008396 and by the project MSCA-IF II CZ.02.2.69/0.0/ 0.0/18_070/0010457 Publisher Copyright: © 2020 IAEA, Vienna. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords: Breeding blankets, Eutectic PbLi, Helium bubbles, Molecular dynamics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 453991
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/453991
ISSN: 0029-5515
PURE UUID: 3a387c4a-b357-461a-9f54-6ee500d5018c
ORCID for Tomas Polcar: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0863-6287

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 27 Jan 2022 18:09
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:19

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Contributors

Author: Alberto Fraile
Author: Tomas Polcar ORCID iD

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