Study of the Mechanical Behavior of the Hydride Blister/Rim Structure in Zircaloy-4 using in-situ Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction

Abstract

High-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction was utilized to study the mechanical response of the f.c.c $\delta$-hydride phase, the intermetallic precipitation with hexagonal C14 lave phase and the $\alpha$-Zr phase in the Zircaloy-4 materials with a hydride rim/blister structure near one surface of the material during in-situ uniaxial tension experiment at 200 \si{\degreeCelsius}. The f.c.c $\delta$ was the only hydride phase observed in the rim/blister structure. The conventional Rietveld refinement was applied to measure the macro-strain equivalent response of the three phases. Two regions were delineated in the applied load versus lattice strain measurement: a linear elastic strain region and region that exhibited load partitioning. Load partitioning was quantified by von Mises analysis. The three phases were observed to have similar elastic modulus at 200 \si{\degreeCelsius}.