Abstract
Delayed hydride cracking (DHC) is a hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon that may potentially occur in Zircaloy-4 fuel claddings during dry storage conditions. An experimental procedure has been developed to measure the toughness of this material in the presence of DHC by allowing crack propagation through the thickness of a fuel cladding. Notched C-ring specimens, charged with 100 wppm of hydrogen, were used and pre-cracked by brittle fracture of a hydrided zone at the notch root at room temperature. The length of the pre-crack was measured on the fracture surface or cross-sections. Additionally, a finite element model was developed to determine the stress intensity factor as a function of the crack length for a given loading. Two types of tests were conducted independently to determine the fracture toughness with and without DHC, \(K_{I_\text {DHC}}\) and \(K_{I_\text {C}}\), respectively: (i) constant load tests at 150 \(^{\circ }\)C, 200 \(^{\circ }\)C, and 250 \(^{\circ }\)C; (ii) monotonic tests at 25 \(^{\circ }\)C, 200 \(^{\circ }\)C, and 250 \(^{\circ }\)C. The results indicate the following: (1) there is no temperature influence on the DHC toughness of Zircaloy-4 between 150 and 250 \(^{\circ }\)C (\(K_{I_\text {DHC}} \in \left[ 7.2;9.2\right] \) MPa\(\sqrt{\text {m}}\)), (2) within this temperature range, the fracture toughness of Zircaloy-4 is halved by DHC (\(K_{I_\text {C}} \in \left[ 16.9;19.7 \right] \) MPa\(\sqrt{\text {m}}\)), (3) the crack propagation rate decreases with decreasing temperature and (4) the time before crack propagation increases as the temperature and loading decrease.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the project Transport & Entreposage of the French Institut Tripartite CEA-EDF-Framatome for supporting this study. They also would like to thank Agathe Navailles and Freddy Salliot for their participation in the developpement of the C-ring technique and its application to DHC at CEA, Frederic Datcharry from CEA for the realisation of the hydrogen charging.
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Appendices
Appendix A: Testing conditions of the literature for the determination of \(K_{I_\text {DHC}}\)
Micrographs of non-fractured specimens tested at 250 \(^{\circ }\)C, mapped with the Hydruro analysis results
Appendix B: Quantification of precipitated hydrogen content near the crack tip
To assess the hydrogen content of hydrides, the software Hydruro, developed by CEA, was used (Allegre et al. 2011). This software enables the determination of the surface length of hydrides through the skeletonization of hydrides from photographs taken with an OM. This value is correlated to the hydrogen content. This correlation is established using a linear function calibrated with measurements taken from reference samples. The obtained results for non-fractured specimens at 250 \(^{\circ }\)C after 24 h and interrupted tests are presented in Figs. 18 and 19, respectively. Figure 20 shows the results obtained for non-fractured tests conducted at 200 \(^{\circ }\)C. These analyses account for the evolution of the hydrided area evolution as a function of time and load while also providing a lower boundary of the hydrogen content in the highly hydrided zone at the crack tip of 1200 wppm (Fig. 18a).
Micrographs of interrupted specimens tested at 250 \(^{\circ }\)C, mapped with the Hydruro analysis results
Micrographs of non-fractured specimens tested at 200 \(^{\circ }\)C, mapped with the Hydruro analysis results
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François, P., Petit, T., Auzoux, Q. et al. Assessing the fracture toughness of Zircaloy-4 fuel rod cladding tubes: impact of delayed hydride cracking. Int J Fract (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10704-024-00781-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10704-024-00781-8