Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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THE EFFECT OF HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN CONTENTS ON HYDRIDE REORIENTATIONS OF ZIRCONIUM ALLOY CLADDING TUBES

  • CHA, HYUN-JIN (Dongguk University, College of Energy and Environment) ;
  • JANG, KI-NAM (Dongguk University, College of Energy and Environment) ;
  • AN, JI-HYEONG (Dongguk University, College of Energy and Environment) ;
  • KIM, KYU-TAE (Dongguk University, College of Energy and Environment)
  • Received : 2015.04.04
  • Accepted : 2015.06.26
  • Published : 2015.12.25
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Abstract

To investigate the effect of hydrogen and oxygen contents on hydride reorientations during cool-down processes, zirconium-niobium cladding tube specimens were hydrogen-charged before some specimens were oxidized, resulting in 250 ppm and 500 ppm hydrogen-charged specimens containing no oxide and an oxide thickness of $0.38{\mu}m$ at each surface. The nonoxidized and oxidized hydrogen-charged specimens were heated up to $400^{\circ}C$ and then cooled down to room temperature at cooling rates of $0.3^{\circ}C/min$ and $8.0^{\circ}C/min$ under a tensile hoop stress of 150 MPa. The lower hydrogen contents and the slower cooling rate generated a larger fraction of radial hydrides, a longer radial hydride length, and a lower ultimate tensile strength and plastic elongation. In addition, the oxidized specimens generated a smaller fraction of radial hydrides and a lower ultimate tensile strength and plastic elongation than the nonoxidized specimens. This may be due to: a solubility difference between room temperature and $400^{\circ}C$; an oxygen-induced increase in hydrogen solubility and radial hydride nucleation energy; high temperature residence time during the cool-down; or undissolved circumferential hydrides at $400^{\circ}C$.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

Supported by : National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)

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