Pressure-based Helium Bubble Bursting Modeling

Molecular dynamics is employed to simulate the growth of a helium bubble in tungsten sub-surfaces at until the bubble bursts. Simulations are performed at 933 K for W{100} and W{110} surface orientations. During the growth, a bubble moves towards the surface after punching a loop when the loop can glide towards the surface. For a given initial depth and surface orientation, a bubble must reach a critical size and gas density to burst. The critical size increases with depth. A bubble bursts more easily in W{100} than W{110}, presumably due to the more number of loop glide directions towards the surface in W{100}. Additionally, targeted simulations are performed at higher temperatures up to 2500 K. An equation-of-state is employed to model bubble pressure as a function of gas density and temperature. Subsequently, the data are used to develop a pressure-based bubble bursting model for kinetic Monte Carlo and cluster dynamics simulations.