Self-healing is the ability of a material to repair damages automatically. Approaches to self-healing are separated into two major categories, those are: 1) autonomous healing methods that depend on intrinsic mechanisms, and 2) assisted healing methods that need an external intervention. Recently, computational methods have gained a wide application to study self-healing in metals using molecular dynamics (MD) and finite element (FE) methods. These methods can be used to demonstrate and optimize different metallic alloys potential to self-heal, and to further tailor these metallic structures toward improving their mechanical and fracture properties through self-healing. Computational studies of self-healing phenomenon in metals have been small in number and scope till recently. Therefore, the current paper starts with a general introduction of different mechanisms of intrinsic self-healing in metallic structures. The paper highlights previous studies using different experimental and computational approaches to explore self-healing in metallic systems, while focusing on Iron/Steel alloys. Furthermore, the paper present authors work to study self-healing and its impact on mechanical properties of Iron. Simulations are carried on bi-crystalline iron sample to investigate the effect of alloying elements diffusion on the fracture / healing properties of iron alloys and their impact on its mechanical properties. Then the effect of the alloying elements diffusion on healing is studied upon stress application after annealing. Different samples been compared to healthy samples and cracked samples without self-healing to demonstrate the effectiveness of self-healing in Iron alloys.

Hydrogen is produced in nuclear reactors as a by-product of the corrosion reaction between the pressure vessel and the cooling water, where hydrogen produced may enter the metal in atomic form. During operation a reactor vessel is exposed to avalanche of neutron irradiation fluxes, in addition to corrosion from cooling water. A novel cluster dynamics model that accounts for off-stoichiometry of clusters and matrix was developed and applied to investigate the clustering behavior of Hydrogen-vacancy and Hydrogen-interstitial clusters in proton irradiated stainless steel has been developed. The differences in point defect migration energies and binding energy of H to lattice defects, makes it possible to have vacancy and interstitial clusters having compositions different from those of pure iron. The model predicts populations of Defect-Hydrogen complexes in iron. The model is applied to the early stage formation of voids and dislocation loops in stainless steel in the presence of atomic hydrogen. This study investigates the effect of irradiation dose and temperature on the concentration of vacancy-Hydrogen (VmHn) and Intersitial Fe-H (FemHn) complexes on bulk α-Iron. The re

Understanding of the fission product transport in TRISO fuel particles is fundamental to improving the safety and performance of high temperature gas cooled reactors. Previous experiments showing silver release from TRISO fuel have focused on release measurements and not direct observation of the fission product transport. The possible diffusion of Ag via a grain boundary diffusion mechanism is being examined. By characterizing the SiC grain boundary structure according the coincidence site lattice scheme and detecting diffusion along specific grain boundaries, insight into the relationship between SiC microstructure and Ag release may be obtained. In addition computer modeling is being used to investigate the diffusion of silver through SiC. We employ a multi-scale approach based on ab initio techniques, molecular dynamics, and continuum rate equations in order to establish relationships between complex microstructures and diffusion rates. Initial work has begun on transport through bulk SiC and on building realistic models of grain boundaries in SiC.