Determination of residual stresses around blisters in Zr-2.5%Nb pressure tubes
Författare
Summary, in English
We have used synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments to measure the strain field introduced by a hydride blister grown on a section of a pressure tube from a CANDU nuclear reactor. After charging the tube section with a homogeneous hydrogen concentration of 300 wt ppm, the blister was produced by creating a small cold spot on its surface (similar to 200 degrees C), while the bulk was kept at a temperature of 338 degrees C over a period of 1008 h. The blister studied here is ellipsoidal in shape, with its long axis along the tube axial direction. The experiments were performed on the wiggler beam line ID15 at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) using a polychromatic beam of high-energy X-rays (60 to 300 keV). Unlike conventional X-ray diffraction, in this mode the scattering angle is fixed and the diffracted beam is discriminated on the basis of the photon energy. The results show that the blister is composed by two crystallographic phases (delta-ZrH and alpha-Zr), with volume fractions varying with position. The maximum stresses appear at the blister-matrix interfaces. Near the tube outer surface, we found large compressive stresses of (-450 +/- 90) MPa along the blister long axis, and tensile stresses (+320 +/- 90) MPa along the tube hoop direction. The main uncertainty in these stresses results from the uncertainty in the elastic constants of the hydride phase. Large strains and broad peaks were observed for this phase, which were explained by a rather low Young's modulus (35 GPa) for the hydride. The results are compared with finite element simulations found in the literature. (C) 2009 International Centre for Diffraction Data. [DOI: 10.1154/1.3139056]
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2009
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
72-76
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Powder Diffraction
Volym
24
Issue
2
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
International Centre for Diffraction Data
Ämne
- Physical Sciences
- Natural Sciences
Nyckelord
- hydride blisters
- zirconium hydride
- pressure tubes
- residual stresses
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 0885-7156