Hydrogen diffusion in the elastic fields of dislocations in iron

Abstract

The effect of dislocation stress fields on the sink efficiency thereof is studied for hydrogen interstitial atoms at temperatures of 293 and 600 K and at a dislocation density of 3 × 10¹⁴ m^–2 in bcc iron crystal. Rectilinear full screw and edge dislocations in basic slip systems 〈111〉{110}, 〈111〉{112}, 〈100〉{100}, and 〈100〉{110} are considered. Diffusion of defects is simulated by means of the object kinetic Monte Carlo method. The energy of interaction between defects and dislocations is calculated using the anisotropic theory of elasticity. The elastic fields of dislocations result in a less than 25% change of the sink efficiency as compared to the noninteracting linear sink efficiency at a room temperature. The elastic fields of edge dislocations increase the dislocation sink efficiency, whereas the elastic fields of screw dislocations either decrease this parameter (in the case of dislocations with the Burgers vector being 1/2〈111〉) or do not affect it (in the case of dislocations with the Burgers vector being 〈100〉). At temperatures above 600 K, the dislocations affect the behavior of hydrogen in bcc iron mainly owing to a high binding energy between the hydrogen atom and dislocation cores.