High Temperature Radiation Induced Creep in Graphite

The irradiation creep of graphite has been determined at 600, 800, 900 and 1200°C by successive irradiations in the High Flux Reactor Petten, of specially designed assemblies in which two or more graphites having differing shrinkage rates are used in opposition to provide tensile or compressive stress in a specimen. The experimental technique is described and the results are compared with the predicted calculated behaviour of the assemblies, Tensile Creep strain in excess of 2% have been obtained. Attempts are made to correlate the observed creep constants with other physical properties. (author)