Biaxial creep deformation behavior of Fe-14Cr-15Ni-Ti modified austenitic stainless steel fuel cladding tube for sodium cooled fast reactor

Twenty percent cold worked Fe-14Cr-15Ni-Ti modified austenitic stainless steel is used as the cladding tube material for the fuel pins of the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor in India. Biaxial creep properties of the tubes have been studied at 973 K by carrying out creep tests by internally pressurizing the tubes. Hoop and axial components of creep strain were measured and found to be significantly different. For a given gas pressure, steady state hoop rate was higher than the axial rate. Steady state hoop and axial creep rates followed Norton's power law with the same stress exponent n = 7. Steady state hoop rates determined from biaxial creep tests agreed with the steady state creep rates determined from uniaxial creep tests. For a thin walled closed tube under internal pressure, significant axial deformation along with hoop deformation is indicative of anisotropic deformation of the material.