Kinetics of helium bubble formation in nuclear materials

The formation and growth of helium bubbles due to self-irradiation in plutonium has been modelled by discrete kinetic equations for the number densities of bubbles having k atoms. Analysis of these equations shows that the bubble size distribution function can be approximated by a composite of: (i) the solution of partial differential equations describing the continuum limit of the theory but corrected to take into account the effects of discreteness, and (ii) a local expansion about the advancing leading edge of the distribution function in size space. Both approximations contribute to the memory term in a close integrodifferential equation for the monomer concentration of single helium atoms. The present boundary layer theory for discrete equations is compared to the numerical solution of the full kinetic model and to the previous approximation of Schaldach and Wolfer involving a truncated system of moment equations.