Mechanical testing of hydrided fuel cladding
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, 99352 (United States)
- Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, Washington, DC, 20004 (United States)
During light water reactor operations, hydrogen is generated from the oxidation of zirconium alloy materials. This hydrogen can be absorbed into the cladding and form zirconium hydrides. At high temperatures and hoop stresses, these normally circumferential oriented hydrides in high burnup used nuclear fuel (HB-UNF) may reorient in the radial direction and affect the mechanical properties of the cladding. Understanding these changes in mechanical properties will aid in analyzing how UNF will perform during storage and transportation. Systems, presented in the article, have been designed to introduce hydrides into cladding specimens, to reorient cladding hydrides, and to test and measure the mechanical properties of these specimens. The hydriding systems consist of a tube furnace capable of pre-hydriding cladding specimens and reorienting cladding hydrides and surface conditioning equipment. Mechanical testing (i.e., tensile, compression, and burst testing) will be performed on both pre-hydrided cladding and cladding with reoriented hydrides, and the results will be compared with those of as-manufactured cladding. Tensile and compression testing will be performed using a 5 kilo-pound load frame; burst testing will be performed on a purpose-built test system. Strain is measured with a digital image correlation (DIC) system. DIC is a real time optical measurement technique that utilizes high-definition imagery to measure object deformation. It is planned that tensile, compression, and burst testing of cladding with reoriented hydrides will begin this year.
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22764051
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: TOP FUEL 2016: LWR fuels with enhanced safety and performance, Boise, ID (United States), 11-15 Sep 2016; Other Information: Country of input: France; 5 refs.; Related Information: In: TOP FUEL 2016 Proceedings| 1670 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
42 ENGINEERING
CLADDING
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPRESSION
HYDRIDATION
HYDROGEN
IMAGES
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MECHANICAL TESTS
NUCLEAR FUELS
OXIDATION
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0400-1000 K
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
ZIRCONIUM ALLOYS
ZIRCONIUM HYDRIDES