A Molecular Dynamics Study of Tungsten’s Interstitial Dislocation Loops Formation Induced by Irradiation under Local Strain

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this work, a molecular dynamic study of tungsten’s interstitial dislocation loops formation induced by irradiation under local strain was conducted. The effects of different applied strain on the formation of primary defects and the probability of IDLs formation of tungsten during a collision cascade event were studied. The topic is interesting. However, there are also some specific points needed to be addressed.

1. What is the purpose and significance of this work?
2. Page 1, the abbreviation in the abstract is not reader-friendly.
3. Page 2, line 67. The first letter should be capitalized.
4. Page 3, line 131. Two energies appear in Fig.1, please depict Fig.1 (a) and (b) respectively. Why are the cascade energies of 1 and 6 keV not shown?
5. Page 5, Fig.2. The title of Fig. 2 does not agree with the content of Fig. 2, please vertify. What are the numbers of FPs survived in cases of 1-10 keV?
6. Page 6, line 190. Fig. 3(b) is not the same image of Fig. 3(a), please vertify.
7. The description of Fig. 4(a) is missed.
8. It is better to make out the meaning of different color in Fig. 5.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer’s Comments

 We would like to thank reviewers for the generous comments on this manuscript. We addressed the raised concerns and reflected them in the main manuscript. Our response to the comments kindly stated in attached file.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript presented a molecular dynamics simulation on the Tungsten’s Interstitial Dislocation Loops Formation Induced by Irradiation Under Local Strain. The simulation was performed to investigate the effect of applied strain on the formation of primary defects and the probability of interstitial dislocation loops (IDLs) formation of Tungsten during a collision cascade event. Overall this paper contains good simulation work. However, the manuscript contains some significant issues to be addressed, such as:

1. The manuscript used a lot of abbreviations of technical terms. Those abbreviations must be claimed in full form when it is used for the first time—for example, FPs, SIP, etc. Please, check this appropriately.
2. Section 1, line 27-28: “The interaction of irradiation sources with the typical material affects the structural and mechanical properties of these composites” which composite is the authors referring to? Is tungsten (W) a composite? Please ensure an accurate description of the material.
3. The authors should provide more details of the material model and MD process. Initial configuration of the model should be provided with the dimension in nm? Why is the initial temperature so low (30 K)? what are the initial boundary conditions?
4. In section 3, line 148: “When the W structure is compressed, the atoms become closer together, allowing the PKA energy to be dissipated over a smaller structure volume, resulting in fewer collisions without the generation of defects…” can the author provide a schematic diagram in support of this claim?
5. In section 3.2, line 221: “The dislocation lines show that no embedded atoms interfere with the FP's point defects, and the defects formed are classified as monovacancy, cluster, and dislocation loops. Does this statement infer that it is impossible to produce divacancy in Tungsten during this process? What do you mean by cluster?
6. 5 should be replaced with an optimized figure
7. The whole text should be checked with regard to the comprehensibility and completeness of individual sentences and the tense used.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer’s Comments

 We would like to thank reviewers for the generous comments on this manuscript. We addressed the raised concerns and reflected them in the main manuscript. Our response to the comments kindly stated in attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The article by Jaser an coworkers presents a computational study of the strain effects in tungsten. The latter is a particularly prominent material in the design of nuclear reactors which on the other hand makes the material prone to radiation damage leading inter alia to the formation of interstitial dislocation loops. The authors applied a many-body potential of the embedded atom method family (EAM) to describe the interatomic forces and several settings in the primariy knock-on atom energies as well as the strain magnitude have been considered. Systems sizes of several hundred thousands atoms have been treated in this study.

 

Owing to the increased progress in experimental fusion reactors achieved recently, the topic is highly relevant. The employed methodology as well as the preparation of the manuscript is adequate.

 

Acceptance of the manuscript for publication can be recommended after the following minor points have been addressed by the authors (no further review necessary):

 

1) While the level of English is for the most part highly adequate, there are still individual passages that would benefit from a linguistic overhaul (such as the first sentence in the abstract: "A Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation STUDY was performed ..." or the first sentence in the Conclusion: "We have begun work on tungsten using molecular dynamics simulationS ...).

 

2) While the methodology contains most details to reproduce the simulation, key information such as the employed thermostat and pressure coupling algorithms (and their respective settings) are not given. The authors should consider adding this information.

 

3) While the references for the dislocation extraction algorithm is given in the results section, the author should consider to also include the reference at first occurrence in the methodology section.

 

4) Figure 1: The x-label is given as Timestep, but the range is given as 20 ps. It might be better to re-label the x-axis as "Simulation time".

 

5) In line 226 reference [47] is given two times.

 

Author Response

Response to Reviewer’s Comments

 We would like to thank reviewers for the generous comments on this manuscript. We addressed the raised concerns and reflected them in the main manuscript. Our response to the comments kindly stated in attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The revision much improves the quality of this manuscript. The manuscript has now been well-written, and the authors have attempted all the comment raised during the revision stage. Therefore, it can be published as it is in Solids