• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.198-208
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• 1997

The-steady-state creep mechanism and behavior of Zircaloy-4 used as cladding materials in PWR have been investigated in air environment over the temp, ranges from 600 to $645^{\circ}C$ and stress ranges from 4 to $7kg/mm^2$. The stress exponents for the creep deformation of this alloy, n were decreased 4.81, 4.71, 4.64, and 4.56 at 600, 615, 630 and $645^{\circ}C$, respectively; the stress exponents decreased with increasing the temperature and got closer to about 5. The apparent activation energies, Q, were 62.1, 60.0, 57.9 and 55.4 kcal/mole at stresses of 4, 5, 6, $7kg/mm^2$, respectively; the activation energies decreased with increasing the stress and were close to those of volume self diffusion of Zr in Zr-Sn-Fe-Cr system. In results, it can be considered that the creep deformation for Zircaloy-4 was controlled by the dislocation climb over the ranges of this experimental conditions. Larson-Miller parameter, P, for the crept specimens was obtained as P=(T+460)(logt,+23). The failure plane observed by SEM slightly showed up intergranular fracture at this experiment ranges. However, it was essentially dominated by the dimple phenomenon, which was a characteristics of the transgranular fracture.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 1995.06a
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• pp.151-151
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• 1995

Nitrogen implantation process has been applied for improvement of wear resistance of Z Zircaloy-4 fuel cladding materials. Nitrogen was implanted at 120 ke V to a total do range of 1xHP ions/cm2 to 8xlO17 ions/cm2 at various temperatures of 298"C to 676"C. The m microstructure changes by nitrogen implantation were analyzed by using TEM, XRD 뻐d A AES, cmd then wear behavior was evaluated by ball-on-disc wear testings at various loads a and sliding velocity under unlubricated condition. Nitrogen implantation produced ZrNx nitride above 4.37x1017 ions!cm2 as well as heavy d dislocations, which enhanced microhardness of the implanted surface of up to 900 Hk from 2 200 Hk of unimplanted substrate. Hardness was also found to be increased with increasing i implantation temperature and enhanced up to OOOHk at 620 "C. the wear resistance was g greatly improved with increasing total ion do않 as well as implantation temperature. The effective enhancement of wear resistance at high dose and tem야ratures is believed d due to significant hardening associated with high degree of precipitation of Zr nitrides and g generation of prismatic dislocation I$\infty$ps.infty$ps.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.237-245
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• 2018

Potential air ingress scenarios during accidents in nuclear reactors or spent fuel pools have raised the question of the influence of air, especially of nitrogen, on the oxidation of zirconium alloys, which are used as fuel cladding tubes and other structure materials. In this context, the reaction of zirconium with nitrogen-containing atmospheres and the formation of zirconium nitride play an important role in understanding the oxidation mechanism. This article presents the results of analysis of the interaction of the oxygen-preloaded niobium-bearing alloy $M5^{(R)}$ with nitrogen over a wide range of temperatures ($800-1400^{\circ}C$) and oxygen contents in the metal alloy (1-7 wt.%). A strongly increasing nitriding rate with rising oxygen content in the metal was found. The highest reaction rates were measured for the saturated ${\alpha}-Zr(O)$, as it exists at the metal-oxide interface, at $1300^{\circ}C$. The temperature maximum of the reaction rate was approximately 100 K higher than for Zircaloy-4, already investigated in a previous study. The article presents results of thermogravimetric experiments as well as posttest examinations by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and microprobe elemental analyses. Furthermore, a comparison with results obtained with Zircaloy-4 will be made.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.81-88
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• 2001

To study the influence of the shape of contacting bodies (especially the end profile) on slip regime, wear test is conducted in the case of the contact between tube and support. Two different end profiles of the support are used such as truncated wedge and rounded punch. During the test, 10, 30 and 50 N are applied as normal force and slip displacement varies between 10-200 $\mu\textrm{m}$. The tube and the support specimens are made of Zircaloy-4 and a specially designed wear tester is used. Tests are carried out in air at room temperature. Wear on the tube is examined by measuring microscope. Partial and gross slip regimes are classified from the observed wear shape. Surface roughness tester is also used to measure the wear depth and contour, from which wear volume is evaluated. The transition from partial to gross slip is also investigated by investigating the considerable increase of wear volume. From the result, the boundary between the partial and the gross slip is newly determined in the conventional fretting map for the present specific contact configuration. Since the transition is related with the amount of energy dissipation from the contact surface so is wear, it is regarded that wear can be restrained by designing a proper shape of support.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2901-2909
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• 2020

Thermal creep is a key property of zircaloy cladding. CZ developed by CGN is a new zircaloy used as PWR fuel cladding. This research is devoted to investigating the thermal creep behavior of CZ and build the thermal creep model of CZ. Twenty internal pressure creep tests were conducted, and the ranges of temperature and Tresca stress were 320-430 ℃ and 70-300 MPa, respectively. Real-time creep data were analyzed by separating primary creep and steady-state creep. Based on Soderberg model and creep test data, CZ thermal creep model is derived. As a whole, the mean value and the standard deviation of P/M of CZ saturated primary creep strain are very close to these from steady-state creep rate, however, the predictive effect of primary creep is less satisfactory. Four conditions, where there exists large deviation between predicted values and test data, are 320 ℃ and 300 MPa, 350 ℃ and 190 MPa, 380 ℃ and 160 MPa, 380 ℃ and 190 MPa, respectively. As primary creep was much smaller than steady-state creep in long-time operation, the thermal creep model built can be applied to predict the thermal creep behavior of CZ cladding.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.1330-1338
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• 2018

High-density UMo/Zr monolithic nuclear fuel plates have a promising application prospect in high flux research and test reactors. The solid state welding method called co-rolling is used for their fabrication. Hot co-rolling simulations for the composite blanks of UMo/Zr monolithic nuclear fuel plates are performed. The effects of coupon sizes and mechanical property parameters on the contact pressures between the to-be-bonded surfaces are investigated and analyzed. The numerical simulation results indicate that 1) the maximum contact pressures between the fuel coupon and the Zircaloy cover exist near the central line along the plate length direction; as a whole the contact pressures decrease toward the edges in the plate width direction; and lower contact pressures appear at a large zone near the coupon corner, where de-bonding is easy to take place in the in-pile irradiation environments; 2) the maximum contact pressures between the fuel coupon and the Zircaloy parts increase with the initial coupon thickness; after reaching a certain thickness value, the contact pressures hardly change, which was mainly induced by the complex deformation mechanism and special mechanical constitutive relation of fuel coupon; 3) softer fuel coupon will result in lower contact pressures and form interfaces being more out-of-flatness.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.97-102
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• 2021

Powder quality, including high flowability and spherical shape, determines the properties of additively manufactured products. Therefore, the cheap production of high-quality powders is critical in additive manufacturing. Radio frequency plasma treatment is an effective method to fabricate spherical powders by melting the surface of irregularly shaped powders; in the present work, mechanically milled Zr powders are spheroidized by radio frequency plasma treatment and their properties are compared with those of commercial Zircaloy-2 alloy powder. Spherical Zr particles are successfully fabricated by plasma treatment, although their flowability and impurity contents are poorer than those of the commercial Zircaloy-2 alloy powder. This result shows that radio-frequency plasma treatment with mechanically milled powders requires further research and development for manufacturing low-cost powders for additive manufacturing.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.193-199
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• 1985

Iodine-induced stress corrosion cracking tests of Zircaloy-4 cladding were undertaken using the modified infernal pressurization method. The effects of iodine concentration and applied stress were studied. The critical iodine concentration for SCC was found to be about 0.2 mg/$\textrm{cm}^2$ at 603$^{\circ}$K. The threshold stress was dependent on the test temperature and the mechanical properties of the specimen. The fracture surface showed that the crack propagated stepwise iron one grain to others until the material was unstable and then ruptured mechanically. The initial region showed the transgranular feature and the wedge-shaped cracks. As the crack proceeded, the transgranular and ductile-tearing mired feature appeared in the middle region.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.3535-3542
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• 2023

Eutectic reactions of five kinds of Cr-coated Zr alloy cladding with different base materials (Zr-Nb-Sn alloy or Zr-Nb alloy), different coating thicknesses (6~22.5 mm), and different coating materials (Cr single layer or Cr/CrN bilayer) were studied using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The DSC experiments demonstrated that the onset temperatures of the Cr single layer coated specimens were almost identical to ~1308 ℃, regardless of base materials or coating thicknesses. This study demonstrated that the Cr/CrN bilayer coated Zr-Nb-Sn alloy has a slightly (~10 ℃) higher eutectic onset temperature compared to the single Cr-coated specimen. The eutectic region characterized by post-eutectic microstructure proportionally increases with coating thickness. The post-eutectic characterization with different holding times at high temperature (1310-1330 ℃) reveals that progression of Zr-Cr eutectic requires time, and it dramatically changed with exposure time and temperature. The practical value of the time gain in non-instantaneous eutectic formation in terms of safety margin, however, seems to be limited.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.111-122
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• 1989

With the Zircaloy-4 tube oxidized in high temperature (1323 K) steam for 5, 10, 30 and 60 minutes, the expanding copper mandrel test was carried out over a temperature range of 673-l173k at $\varepsilon\;=\;3.0\times10^5S\;^1$. The oxidation parameters $(K_i)$ in the present study were linearly proportional to square root of time $(Ki= \delta_{kit})$ and their rate constants ($\delta_{ki}$) are 0.281, 2.82, and 2.313 for weight gain and thickness of Zr02 and $\alpha$(0) layer, respectively. Activation energy for high temperature (873-1073k) plastic deformation of Zircaloy-4 increases from 251 KJ/mol to 323 KJ/mol with increase in oxidation time from 5 minutes to 60 minutes due to the high strengthened Zr02. With the oxide layer thickness [K ; expressed in "Equivalent Cladding Reacted" (ECR,%)] and the yield stress obtained from the mandrel test, an empirical relation was derived as ($\sigma/C)^n=K^mexp$ (Q/RT) with n=6.9, m=5.7, C=0.155, 0.138, 0.051, and 0.046 MPa for Q=251, 258, 316, 323 KJ/mol, respectively.