Plastic instability behavior of bcc and hcp metals after low temperature neutron irradiation

Plastic instability in uniaxial tensile deformation has been investigated for the body centered cubic (bcc) and hexagonal close packed (hcp) pure metals, V, Nb, Mo, and Zr, after low temperature (60–100 °C) neutron irradiation up to 0.7 dpa. Relatively ductile metals, V, Nb, and Zr, experienced uniform deformation prior to necking at low doses and prompt plastic instability at yield at high doses. Mo failed in a brittle mode within the elastic limit at doses above 0.0001 dpa. V showed a quasi-brittle failure at the highest dose of 0.69 dpa. In the ductile metals, plastic instability at yield occurred when the yield stress exceeded the plastic instability stress (PIS), which was nearly independent of dose. The PIS values for V, Nb, Mo, and Zr were about 390, 370, 510, and 170 MPa, respectively. The coincidence of plastic instability at yield and dislocation channeling cannot be generalized for all metallic materials.