Stress Measurement of Thin Film Oxide on The Zirconium Metal Using Steam Beam

It is well-known that tetragonal ZrO2 forms in the metal-oxide interface in the early stage of zirconium oxidation that is protective against further oxidation. However, as the oxide grows the stress built up during the oxidation process relieves then the tetragonal phase turns into the monoclinic phase which is non-protective and stable at low stress. Therefore, it is believed that the zirconium oxidation kinetics depends on the phase transformation that take place at 3.0 GPa according to the earlier works. In other words, if the transformation is related by holding the oxide stress above the threshold stress, the kinetics would be slow. Nevertheless, so far no one has succeeded to measure the stress of thin film oxide above 3.0 GPa. In this study, the stress has been measured using steam beam apparatus successfully above the threshold stress level