Influence of specimen design on the deformation and failure of zircaloy cladding

Conference · Thu Feb 17 04:00:00 EST 2000

OSTI ID:751922

Bates, D W; Koss, D A; Motta, A T; Majumdar, S

Experimental as well as computational analyses have been used to examine the deformation and failure behavior of ring-stretch specimens of Zircaloy-4 cladding tubes. The results show that, at least for plastically anisotropic unirradiated cladding, specimens with a small gauge length l to width w ratio (l/w {approx} 1) exhibit pronounced non-uniform deformation along their length. As a result, specimen necking occurs upon yielding when the specimen is fully plastic. Finite element analysis indicates a minimum l/w of 4 before a significant fraction of the gauge length deforms homogeneously. A brief examination of the contrasting deformation and failure behavior between uniaxial and plane-strain ring tension tests further supports the use of the latter geometry for determining cladding failure ductility data that are relevant to certain reactivity-initiated accident conditions.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 751922
• Report Number(s): ANL/ET/CP-101138
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
DEFORMATION
DUCTILITY
FUEL CANS
FUEL ELEMENT FAILURE
ROD DROP ACCIDENTS
ROD EJECTION ACCIDENTS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
ZIRCALOY 4