Comparison and Analysis of Zircaloy-4 Tube Wear in Air and Water Environment

수중 및 공기 중에서의 지르칼로이-4 튜브마멸 비교분석

The wear characteristic of Zircaloy-4 tube, which is used for a cladding of light water reactor fuel rod, is investigated experimentally. The experiment is conducted with contacting the crossed tube specimens in air as well as in water at room temperature with various combination of contact normal force and sliding distance of reciprocating motion. The contour and the volume of each wear are examined to study the effect of contact condition and environment on wear. As a result, it is found that the wear volume in the water environment is larger than that in the air for all the contact (i.e., force and sliding distance) conditions. However, the wear depth is greater in air than in water if the contact normal force and the sliding distance are larger. These are explained by the ease of detachment of wear particles from the contact surface. On the other hand, workrate model is applied with the contact shear force range measured by our wear tester. Investigated is the correlation between the workrate and the wear volume increase rate of the present experiment. The parabolic curve is found to fit well for the present wear data.