Mechanical properties of radiation damaged geomaterials

• Applicant: Dr. Tobias Beirau
• Subject Area: Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 374360049

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

In the frame of the present research project a better understanding of the radiation damage related crystallin-to-amorphous transition and thermally induced recrystallization in minerals could be achieved. By using global and local probes, e.g., nanoindentation, Raman and Mössbauer spectroscopy, calorimetry and electron microscopy, intrinsic structural process could be better resolved and understood. This includes the successful description as a percolation problem with two percolation thresholds, the demonstration of discontinuous transformation effects (e.g., avalanches) during the thermal treatment, the detection of the behavior of the mechanical properties (e.g., Young's modulus, hardness and fracture toughness) with increasing structural order/disorder and the significant influence of interfaces. A catalytic influence of OH- could be shown in connection with the recrystallization behavior. By means of mechanical modelling, the experimentally obtained data could be verified and a suitable model for simulating the reaction of the mechanical material properties to intrinsic and extrinsic radiation could be developed.

Publications

• Locally preservedα → βphase transition in natural radiation-damaged titanite (CaTiSiO5): evidence from laser-induced photoluminescence and dielectric measurements. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 30(3), 035403.
  Beirau, Tobias; Murawski, Dawid; Behrens, Harald; Salje, Ekhard K. H.; Groat, Lee A.; Kaden, Ronny; Pöllmann, Herbert & Bismayer, Ulrich
  
• Radiation-induced effects on the mechanical properties of natural ZrSiO4: double cascade-overlap damage accumulation. Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, 45(5), 435-442.
  Beirau, Tobias; Nix, William D.; Pöllmann, Herbert & Ewing, Rodney C.
  
• Radiation-damage-induced transitions in zircon: Percolation theory applied to hardness and elastic moduli as a function of density. Applied Physics Letters, 112(20).
  Beirau, Tobias; Nix, William D.; Ewing, Rodney C.; Pöllmann, Herbert & Salje, Ekhard K. H.
  
• Avalanches during recrystallization in radiation-damaged pyrochlore and allanite: Statistical similarity to phase transitions in functional materials. Applied Physics Letters, 115(23).
  Beirau, Tobias; Shelyug, Anna; Navrotsky, Alexandra; Pöllmann, Herbert & Salje, Ekhard K. H.
  
• Mechanical and structural properties of radiation-damaged allanite-(Ce) and the effects of thermal annealing. Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, 46(10), 921-933.
  Reissner, Claudia E.; Bismayer, Ulrich; Kern, Daniel; Reissner, Michael; Park, Sulgiye; Zhang, Jiaming; Ewing, Rodney C.; Shelyug, Anna; Navrotsky, Alexandra; Paulmann, Carsten; Škoda, Radek; Groat, Lee A.; Pöllmann, Herbert & Beirau, Tobias
  
• Radiation-damage in multi-layered zircon: Mechanical properties. Applied Physics Letters, 115(8).
  Beirau, Tobias; Oliver, Warren C.; Reissner, Claudia E.; Nix, William D.; Pöllmann, Herbert & Ewing, Rodney C.
  
• Iron sites in radiation-damaged allanite-(Ce): the effects of thermally induced oxidation and structural reorganization. Hyperfine Interactions, 241(1).
  Reissner, Claudia Eva; Reissner, Michael; Kern, Daniel; Pöllmann, Herbert & Beirau, Tobias
  
• Mechanical and structural response of radiation-damaged pyrochlore to thermal annealing. Materialia, 14, 100950.
  Reissner, Claudia E.; Roddatis, Vladimir; Bismayer, Ulrich; Schreiber, Anja; Pöllmann, Herbert & Beirau, Tobias
  
• Mechanical properties of zircon for varying degree ofamorphization predicted by finite element simulations. TUHH Universitätsbibliothek.
  Huber, N. & Beirau, T.
  
• Fracture toughness of radiation-damaged zircon studied by nanoindentation pillar-splitting. Applied Physics Letters, 119(23).
  Beirau, Tobias; Rossi, Edoardo; Sebastiani, Marco; Oliver, Warren C.; Pöllmann, Herbert & Ewing, Rodney C.
  
• Modelling the effect of intrinsic radiation damage on mechanical properties: The crystalline-to-amorphous transition in zircon. Scripta Materialia, 197, 113789.
  Huber, Norbert & Beirau, Tobias
  
• Percolation transitions in pyrochlore: Radiation-damage and thermally induced structural reorganization. Applied Physics Letters, 119(13).
  Beirau, Tobias & Huber, Norbert
  
• A modeling approach to predict the mechanical response of materials to irradiation damage from external sources: Nanoindentation of Pb-implanted ZrSiO4. Materialia, 24, 101506.
  Huber, Norbert & Beirau, Tobias
  
• High-temperature resonant ultrasound spectroscopy of highly radiation-damaged pyrochlore: Structural reorganization and high acoustic loss. Applied Physics Letters, 120(23).
  Beirau, Tobias & Carpenter, Michael A.
  
• Partially disordered pyrochlore: time-temperature dependence of recrystallization and dehydration. Zeitschrift für Kristallographie - Crystalline Materials, 237(8-9), 287-291.
  Beirau, Tobias; Reissner, Claudia E.; Pöllmann, Herbert & Bismayer, Ulrich
  
• Probing structural disorder in zircon by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD): Radiation damage and Kikuchi pattern. Journal of Nuclear Materials, 581, 154440.
  Beirau, Tobias; Kilian, Rüdiger; Stipp, Michael & Ewing, Rodney C.