Molecular dynamics simulations of phosphorus migration in a grain boundary of -iron

Ebihara, Kenichi; Suzudo, Tomoaki

TMS 2020; 149th Annual Meeting & Exhibition Supplemental Proceedings, p.995 - 1002, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36296-6_93

Phosphorus (P) is known as an element which causes grain boundary (GB) embrittlement in steels. In addition, GB P segregation is promoted by the increase of vacancies and self interstitial atoms due to irradiation. Thus, the diffusion rate theory model for estimating irradiation-induced GB P segregation has been developed based on the atomic processes. Since the present model does not include the trapping and de-trapping processes at GBs, however, it cannot calculate the value which is directly compared with experimental results. In this study, we simulated the migration of a P atom in the 3(111) symmetrical tilt GB. In addition, by tracking the migration of the P atom, the diffusion barrier energy was evaluated. As a result, the diffusion barrier energy was almost the same as the P segregation energy of an interstitial site in the GB, and it was found that P atoms migrate via interstitial sites in the GB.