Fracture Behaviour of Zirconium Alloy Cladding Tubes Containing Axial Symmetric Cracks

As the sealing shell of nuclear reactor fuels, the fracture property of Zirconium alloy cladding tubes are of great importance to safe operation of reactor. The method of fracture toughness testing for TFAC specimen is established based on the elastic-plastic finite element analysis. Fracture toughness testing on the TFAC specimens of Zirconium alloy with different concentration of Hydrogen is carried out. The results show that Zirconium alloy cladding tubes have good properties against fracture. Little influence of the concentration of Hydrogen on the fracture toughness of the cladding tubes is observed when the concentration of hydrogen is lower than 200 mg/kg, but the fracture toughness increases remarkably when the concentration of hydrogen reaches to 290 mg/kg. The research results can offer data support for the safety evaluation of Zirconium alloy cladding tubes during operation.

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