Determination of the mechanical properties of blisters by nanoindentation
- Departmento de Ciencia de Materiales, ETSI Caminos, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. E28040 Madrid (Spain)
- Advanced Material Simulation, Bilbao (Spain)
- DIMME, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Campus de Mostoles. Mostoles, Madrid (Spain)
In light-water reactors, a zirconium oxide layer will be formed at the outer surface of the fuel cladding as a consequence of the chemical reaction which takes place between zirconium and the cooling water. This zirconium oxide layer is a good thermal insulator, but at some point, it may spall-out. As a consequence, a cold spot will be formed at the outer surface of the cladding. In this situation, the hydrogen will quickly migrate to this spot to form a highly-enriched hydride zone, known as blister. In this work, an experimental procedure has been devised to produce blisters with a similar shape to the ones reported in the literature for irradiated cladding with severe hydriding. Nano-indentation tests were performed on blisters prepared in laboratory. A numerical simulation by the finite element method was developed to fit the load versus penetration depth data from the aforementioned nano-indentation tests. By means of an inverse process which combines experimental data and numerical simulations, the constitutive equation of the blister was determined. The process has been used to calculate the plastic stress-strain curve of the blister under study at room temperature. The results show an almost perfect numerical fitting of the experimental data.
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22750099
- 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; 8 refs.; Related Information: In: Top Fuel 2016 Proceedings| 1670 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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