Effect of concurrent grain growth on radiation-induced segregation in nanocrystalline Fe–Cr–Ni alloys

Irradiation of crystalline materials modifies their microchemistry and microstructure. This includes solute segregation toward defect sinks such as grain boundaries (GBs), a phenomenon commonly known as radiation-induced segregation (RIS). Unlike in coarse-grained alloys where GBs are nearly static, RIS is usually accompanied and affected by either thermal or irradiation-induced grain growth in nanocrystalline materials. This work presents a modeling study of concurrent grain growth and RIS in austenitic Fe–Cr–Ni adopting realistic 2D grain structures. RIS can be significantly affected by concurrent grain growth due to (i) increasing grain size, (ii) motion of GBs as defect sinks, and (iii) their combined effect. Consequently, RIS is enhanced by grain growth due to increased grain size and sink motion. More notably, RIS in nanocrystalline materials were found to induce grain-level compositional redistribution in addition to RIS at defect sinks, resulting in grain-size-dependent compositions in individual grains. Without concurrent grain growth, elements depleted at the sinks due to RIS, such as Cr in austenitic steels, will have lower concentrations in smaller grains than in larger grains. The opposite trend becomes true when concurrent grain growth takes place. The compositional difference in individual grains can be significant enough to affect local phase stability. These findings are not discernible with the classical 1D bicrystal model, and they highlight the different effects of RIS in nanocrystalline alloys compared to their coarse-grained counterparts.