Book Description

Creep experiments have been performed on biaxially stressed 10 mm diameter Zr-2.5Nb capsules. As the pressurized capsules were obtained from micro-pressure tubes, which were fabricated by the same process as CANDU power reactor pressure tubes, they have a similar microstructure to that of the full-size tubes. The experiments were performed in the OSIRIS test reactor at nominal operating temperatures ranging from 553 and 613 K in fast neutron fluxes up to 2 x 1018 n.m-2.s-1 (E > 1 MeV). Diametral and axial strains are reported as functions of fluence for specimens internally pressurized to hoop stresses from 0 to 160 MPa and irradiated to 26.5 dpa. The effects of microstructure, temperature, and cold work on irradiation creep are shown. The analysis of OSIRIS data combined with data from in-service CANDU tubes has revealed some significant observations regarding pressure tube deformation: (i) that irradiation creep anisotropy varies with temperature, (ii) texture appears to have a more significant effect on axial creep than on diametral creep, (iii) diametral strain appears to be strongly dependent on grain size and aspect ratio, and (iv) that whereas cold-work correlates with the axial creep of the capsules, there appears to be no statistically significant dependence of diametral creep on cold-work.