Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Axial strength of Zircaloy-4 samples with reduced thickness after a simulated loss of coolant accident

  • Desquines, Jean (IRSN (Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire), PSN-RES) ;
  • Taurines, Tatiana (IRSN (Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire), PSN-RES)
  • Received : 2020.10.05
  • Accepted : 2021.01.03
  • Published : 2021.07.25
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Abstract

To investigate wall-thinning impact on axial load resistance of Zircaloy-4 cladding rods after a LOCA transient, axial tensile samples have been machined on as-received tubes with reduced thicknesses between 370 and 580 ㎛. After high temperature oxidation under steam at 1200 ℃ with measured ECR ranging from 10 to 18% and water quenching, machined samples were axially loaded until fracture. These tests were modeled using a fracture mechanics approach developed in a previous study. Fracture stresses are rather well predicted. However, the slightly lower fracture stress observed for wall-thinned samples is not anticipated by this modeling approach. The results from this study confirm that characterizing the axial load resistance using semi-integral tests including the creep and burst phases was the best option to obtain accurate axial strengths describing accurately the influence of wall-thinning at burst region.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

EDF is acknowledged as supporting financially the present work. Authors thank Frederique Rossillon and Antoine Ambard from EDF and Christian Duriez from IRSN for technical discussions contributing to this paper. Stephane Charbaut, Gaelle Villevieille and Alice Viretto gave their best for the sample preparation, testing and post-test characterization, they are thankfully acknowledged.

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