Abstract
An attempt was made to investigate the effect of brazing time on microstructure, microhardness, and corrosion of Zircaloy -4as well as the beryllium diffusion into its sheet. The sheets were coated with beryllium and brazed at $1020^{\circ}C$ for 20-40 minutes in $2{\times}10^{-5}$ torr vacuum atmosphere. 1. Microstructurally the brazed zone was largely divided into three regions: a region of continuous or partially formed of eutectic liquid films along grain boundaries; a region of precipitation in both grains and grain boundaries; a region of elongated wide structure of .alpha.-laths, which was not affected by beryllium. 2. Due to the precipitates, the beryllium-migrated region was hardened and the width of the hardened region increased with increasing brazing time. 3. Beryllium brazed Zircaloy -4 sheets showed a higher corrosion rate than those of as-received and heat-treated at a brazing temperature. 4. Diffusion coefficient of beryllium into Zircaloy -4 at $1020^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes was $7.67{\times}10^{-7}cm^2/sec.$ It seemed that Be penetrated Zircaloy -4 by forming eutectic liquid films along grain boundaries in the proximity of Be/Zr interface and it, thereafter, diffused into Zircaloy mainly by interstitial solid solution.
