Master-equation for cascade damage modeling

Abstract This paper is a continuation of our effort to understand and model irradiation effects under cascade damage. The conventional master equation for the evolution of a void ensemble is reformulated to include the stochastic effects due to the random cascade initiation. Numerical solution of the modified master equations to model the evolution of an ensemble of voids explicitly shows that stochastic fluctuations due to random cascade initiation produce important effects that cannot be accounted for by the conventional mean-field rate theory approach. The results are in good agreement with those derived previously using the Fokker–Planck equation.