Cooling rate- and hydrogen content-dependent hydride reorientation and mechanical property degradation of Zr-Nb alloy claddings

As-received, 250 ppm and 500 ppm hydrogen-charged Zr-Nb alloy cladding tubes were employed to evaluate the effects of cooling rates on the extent of radial hydride formation and mechanical property degradations using the cooling rates of 0.3, 2.0, 4.0 and 15.0 °C/min from 400 °C to room temperature under a tensile hoop stress of 150 MPa, which may simulate a long-term cladding cool-down during an interim dry storage. The hydrogen-charged claddings showed the larger fraction and the longer average length of the radial hydrides with the slower cooling rate. These effects are more dominant for the 250 ppm-H cladding tubes than for the 500 ppm-H cladding tubes. The cooling rate- and the hydrogen content-dependent radial hydride morphology may be explained by the difference in the remaining circumferential hydride fraction at 400 °C and the cooling rate-dependent hydride nucleation and growth rates. The extent of the mechanical property degradations for the hydrogen-charged cladding tubes becomes larger with the decrease of the cooling rate and for the 250 ppm-H specimens. These phenomena are well correlated with the cooling rate- and the hydrogen content-dependent radial hydride fraction and length.