A new procedure to calculate the constitutive equation of nuclear fuel cladding from ring compression tests

The stress-strain curves calculated show that the mechanical properties do not depend strongly on hydrogen concentration, only a small ductility decrease with the hydrogen concentration was observed. The cladding shows a light strain hardening which is similar for the samples tested at 20 and 135 °C and does not depend on the hydrogen concentration. However, at 300 °C, the samples with the highest hydrogen concentrations (1200 and 2000 ppm) present a behavior that is close to an elastic-perfectly plastic material.