1. Experimental investigation on the initiation of iodine-induced stress corrosion cracking in zirconium alloys
- Author
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Wiringgalih, Petit, Frankel, Philipp, and Preuss, Michael
- Subjects
irradiation hardening ,nuclear fuel cladding ,pitting corrosion ,iodized-alcohol ,cold-working hardening ,stress corrosion cracking mechanism ,Zircaloy-2 ,iodine-induced stress corrosion cracking ,zirconium-tin alloy ,pellet-cladding interaction ,zirconium - Abstract
Zirconium (Zr) alloys are widely used as fuel cladding in nuclear reactors. As the nuclear reactors are transitioning toward load-following operation mode, fuel cladding may fail due to pellet-cladding interaction (PCI). PCI failure occurs as the pellets expand and rupture the cladding, assisted by the corrosive fission products. Since iodine is widely accepted as the fission products responsible for corrosion, this phenomenon is known as iodine-induced stress corrosion cracking (I-SCC). The aims of the PhD research are to assess the suitability of cold-worked and proton-irradiated Zr alloys to replicate the behaviour of irradiated alloys in I-SCC experiments, to resolve the localised corrosion and the incubation period of I-SCC and to determine the initiation mechanism of I-SCC using iodized-ethanol. The hardening effects of Zr-Sn liner and Zircaloy-2 due to proton irradiation from 0.7 to 2.8 dpa were found comparable to its cold work and maintained after annealing for more 12 hours at 300°C. However, line broadening analysis showed that the dislocation density of cold-worked Zr alloys decreased while that of proton-irradiated increased with the annealing period. After annealing at 300°C, the irradiation defects became more organised and acquired stronger dipole characters. This was probably due to thermal instability of proton irradiation defects. This study found that oxide was resistant against iodized-ethanol. The Zr alloys in decreasing order of iodine corrosion susceptibility in term of stress concentration factors were Zr-0.25Sn-0.055Fe, Zr-0.25Sn-0.1Fe and Zircaloy-2. However, SCC tests were needed to determine the overall mechanism of and the materials' susceptibility to I-SCC. A quick, inexpensive and accurate SCC test rig has been designed for any liquid medium using a flat tensile sample for further characterisation. The results of the I-SCC tests exhibited fracture features similar to Zr alloys under PCI conditions. It was found that recrystallised Zr-0.25Sn-0.055Fe had the best ductility after I-SCC attack among the specimens tested. Based on these studies, a new I-SCC mechanism has been proposed. The initiation of I-SCC was probably a competition between cracking and pitting corrosion, which depends on, among others, the local stress intensity and materials conditions.
- Published
- 2021