Influence of loading rate and hydrogen content on fracture toughness of Zr-2.5Nb pressure tube material
Author
Summary, in English
For the safety assessment of PHWR, it is required to study the flaw tolerance capacity of the pressure tubes as a function of the loading rate. In this work, the effect of loading rate and hydrogen content on the fracture behaviour of a Zr-2.5Nb alloy pressure tube was investigated between 25 and 300 degrees C. For the as received material, the pulling rate only had an effect on fracture toughness at 25 degrees C whereas for. hydrided material the pulling rate affected fracture toughness in the transition regime. For all pulling rates, hydrided materials showed typical S curve behavior with an increase in lower shelf, upper shelf and transition temperature with pulling rate. The number of axial splits on fracture surfaces increased with an increase in the pulling rate and a decrease in temperature and fracture toughness was found to decrease with an increase in the number of axial splits. The reduction in fracture toughness is attributed to a localised deformation between axial splits. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Department/s
Publishing year
2015
Language
English
Pages
177-188
Publication/Series
Journal of Nuclear Materials
Volume
465
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Metallurgy and Metallic Materials
- Applied Mechanics
Keywords
- Zr-2.5Nb alloy
- Pressure tubes
- Fracture toughness
- Hydride
- embrittlement
- Axial splits
- Loading rate
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0022-3115