Effect of Damage Rate on the Cavity Swelling of Pure Nickel Irradiated with Triple Ion Beams
, Zhiying Gao 1, Haocheng Liu 2, Pengfei Ma 3, Yan Liu 3, Wei Ge 1, Fengping Luo 1, Liuxuan Cao 3, Jinchi Huang 3, Jianming Xue 1, Yugang Wang 1 and Chenxu Wang 1,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The topic of the article is very interesting and is in line with the goals and scope of the journal. The article is well structured and written. I suggest revising the article based on the comments below.
1-In the introduction, add information about the type of damage being studied: is it structural damage? If yes, describe the practical implications in a comprehensive and practical way.
2 - Please describe in more detail how the damage is measured and how it relates to structural integrity and structural failure. Also, describe the manner in which the rate of damage is assessed.
3 - In this study, irradiation at high temperatures is considered, was the creep effect also considered? The results obtained could be due to a combined effect of irradiation and temperature. How was this problem addressed?
4 - In the Material and Methods section, add the time period during which the irradiation was performed and the corresponding temperature. Time and temperature are closely related to creep.
5 - In many places, the authors state, "displacement production" and what is meant by this. Also, in other places it states "displacement" and "displacement doses." Please clarify the meaning of each, as it appears that the authors are performing mechanical tests on material samples.
6 - Was a standard used in the experiments? How can this study be replicated?
7 - In Figure 2, in the caption, describe the meaning of the red dotted line.
8 - Conclusions should be updated with further findings, limitations, and future extensions.
Author Response
Thank you very much for the comments. Please see the attached PDF file for the details of the revision.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors report an experimental study of the swelling of pure nickel under irradiation with a triple ion beam (Ni, hydrogen, and helium). They analyze the effect of the damage rate by changing the displacement-production rate. Although the analyzed damage rate range is several orders of magnitude higher than in fusion reactors, they get analyzable data that show that as the damage rate increases, swelling and pore size decrease, and the number of pores increases.
These results are important because they reveal the synergistic effects on swelling of H and He, which are formed in the materials of a thermonuclear reactor under the action of irradiation.
The paper may be recommended for publication in Metals.
Minor point:
In the first paragraph of Sec. 2, the authors use "um" distance units twice. I am not aware of such units. If these are microns, please correct, if not, please explain.
Author Response
Thank you very much for the comments. The "um" is a typo and the units should be microns. We have corrected them to "µm" in the revision.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
After analyzing the revised version of the article "Effect of Damage Rate on the Cavity Swelling of Pure Nickel
Irradiated with Triple Ion Beam", it can be stated that the authors have significantly improved the article.
In this sense, I believe that the article in the revised version meets the necessary requirements to be published in the journal Metals.
Sincerely,
