• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.122-129
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• 1987

Experiments and numerical analysis have been performed to investigate the effect of preoxidation by oxidizing Zircaloy-4 specimens at a higher temperature after a period of exposure at a lower temperature. The oxidation experiments were performed between $700^{\circ}C$ and 85$0^{\circ}C$ after Preoxidation at $650^{\circ}C$ in a steam and water mixture for 600 seconds and 1,800 seconds. As the thickness of preoxidized layer increased, the oxidation rate of preoxidized specimens at higher temperature became lower than that of as-received claddings. A transition region of oxidation rate exist in the preoxidized specimens, and the region disappeared rapidly as the oxidation temperature increased. This effect appeared more clearly at lower temperatures. According to the results of numerical analysis performed in this study, the growth rate of oxide layer thickness and weight gains were similarly affected by the thickness of preoxidized layer.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.37 no.10
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• pp.1239-1249
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• 2013

In this study we establish a process to predict hardening behavior considering the Bauschinger effect for zircaloy-4 sheets. When a metal is compressed after tension in forming, the yield strength decreases. For this reason, the Bauschinger effect should be considered in FE simulations of spring-back. We suggested a suitable specimen size and a method for determining the optimum tightening torque for simple shear tests. Shear stress-strain curves are obtained for five materials. We developed a method to convert the shear load-displacement curve to the effective stress-strain curve with FEA. We simulated the simple shear forward/reverse test using the combined isotropic/kinematic hardening model. We also investigated the change of the load-displacement curve by varying the hardening coefficients. We determined the hardening coefficients so that they follow the hardening behavior of zircaloy-4 in experiments.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.75-85
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• 1992

The texture changes and their effect on the 0.2% yield strength of Zircaloy-4 sheet were examined after quenched from the ($\alpha$+$\beta$) phase temperature. When the prior ($\alpha$+$\beta$) gram size was slightly larger than that of the $\alpha$-annealed, the observed texture was similar to the $\alpha$-annealed texture having an ideal orientation of the (0001) basal pole at 30$^{\circ}$away from the normal direction toward the transverse direction. When the prior ($\alpha$+$\beta$) grain size was twice as large as that of the $\alpha$-annealed, the location of maximum basal pole intensity was distributed between the transverse and the rolling direction making an angle 15$^{\circ}$from the normal direction, and the observed texture became isotropic. It was found that the Kearns texture parameter, fr, in the rolling direction increased steadily, and fr in the transverse direction increased slightly, while fr in the the normal direction decreased with increasing heat treatment time. With a small increase in fr, the 0.2% yield strength increased drastically. The influence of texture was analyzed by deriving the Schmid orientation factors and the resolved shear stresses for the deformation systems. It was found that the large increase in the 0.2% yield strength was attributed mainly to the microstructural changes and partly to the texture changes by the ($\alpha$+$\beta$) heat treatment.