Crack resistance curve determination of zircaloy-4 cladding

Fracture mechanics properties of fuel claddings are of relevance with respect to fuel rod integrity. The integrity of a fuel rod, in turn, is important for the fuel performance, for the safe handling of fuel rods, for the prevention of leakages and subsequent dissemination of fuel, for the avoidance of unnecessary dose rates, and for safe operation. Different factors can strongly deteriorate the mechanical fuel rod properties: irradiation damage, thermo-mechanical impact, corrosion or hydrogen uptake. To investigate the mechanical properties of fuel rod claddings which are used in Swiss nuclear power plants, PSI has initiated a program for mechanical testing. A major issue was the interaction between specific loading devices and the tested cladding tube, e.g. in the form of bending or friction. Particular for Zircaloy is the hexagonal closed packed structure of the zirconium crystallographic lattice. This structure implies plastic deformation mechanisms with specific, preferred orientations. Further, the manufacturing procedure of Zircaloy claddings induces a specific texture which plays a salient role with respect to the embrittlement by irradiation or integration of hydrogen in the form of hydrides. Both, the induced microstructure as well as the plastic deformation behaviour play a role for the mechanical properties. At PSI, in a first step inactive thin walled Zircaloy tubes and, for comparison reasons, plates were tested. The validity of the mechanical testing of the non standard tube and plate geometries had to be verified. The used Zircaloy-4 cladding tube sections and small plates of the same wall thickness have been notched, fatigue pre-cracked and tensile tested to evaluate the fracture toughness properties at room temperature, 300 oC and 350 oC. The crack propagation has been determined optically. The test results of the plates have been further used to validate FEM calculations. For each sample a complete crack resistance (J-R) curve could be generated and characteristic values as JQ (crack onset) or the slope of the J-R curve have been determined. The deformation behaviour and the applicability of the ASTM standard for fracture toughness determination have been elucidated in detail with respect to a) the non-standard small (wall-) thickness, b) the non standard geometry (especially tube) and c) the special testing conditions (e.g. friction). As a first result it can be stated that at elevated temperatures the J values of the plates do not fall anymore in the interval, which is suggested by the ASTM standard and which is valid for the J-R curve construction; the values of the tubes fulfil this condition only partly. However, at all applied temperatures the differences in behaviour of tubes and plates could be very well identified. The plates exhibit a stronger crack resistance than the tubes. But the crack onset JQ of the plates increases with higher temperature whereas that of the tubes slightly decreases. The reason for that can be found in the higher constraints for the tube samples with respect to the deformation path. The tubes with their bent surface are forced to glide along the curvature of the deformation equipment which consists of two half cylinders fitted in the rod section. Because of these constraints blunting is reduced. In contrary, stronger blunting can be expected for free (non-contact) surfaces, i.e. for thin plates. This behaviour becomes more pronounced at higher temperatures which effect higher ductility of the tested material. Blunting consumes energy without significantly driving cracks and consequently, the plates deliver increased JQ values and J-R curves compared to the tubes. Another result is that the J-R curves at different temperatures look, for tube and plate separately, quite similar. Higher temperatures lead to lower loads and higher displacements in the load-displacement curves. The material deformation looks very soft. Load and displacement can partially compensate each other with respect to the available energy for crack propagation. Independent on the applied energy, however, at room temperature less displacement is needed to propagate cracks than at higher temperatures. The performed tests describe rather a component than material behaviour. Indeed, in reality the interplay between the material and its surrounding components and impacts drives the failure process. Here geometry and friction play an important role. Specific model considerations led to relatively high friction coefficients in the range of μ = ∼ 0.8-1.0, even changing during the deformation process, and with a strong scatter. Thus, tube samples without lubricant need not only more energy for crack propagation, but also crack timing changes; crack propagation starts later. It is an important finding that friction can be regarded as beneficial in the sense of dissipating deformation energy. This is valid as long as friction is uniformly distributed and no stress peaks arise because of local sticking. The influence of friction and the height of the friction coefficient play an important role in modelling. Especially with respect to friction only very few data are available; thus, experimental input is highly welcome