Influence of microstructure modification on the circumferential creep of Zr–Nb–Sn–Fe cladding tubes

•Effect of microstructure modification on creep in Zr–Nb–Sn–Fe tubes was studied.•Creep activation energy in annealed tubes was larger than in stress-relieved tubes.•Lower dislocation density in lager grains was observed after creep in annealed tubes.•Larson–Miller parameter of annealed tube was larger than that of stress-relieved one.•Creep life of tubes was extended through microstructure modification by annealing.

Out-of-reactor, non-irradiated thermal creep performances and lives of annealed and stress-relieved Zr-1.02Nb-0.69Sn-0.12Fe cladding tubes were studied and compared. The creep rates of annealed Zr-1.02Nb-0.69Sn-0.12Fe cladding tubes were appreciably slower than those of stress-relieved annealed counterpart. The stress exponent increased slightly from 5.1 to 6.1 in the stress-relieved cladding to 5.3–6.3 in the annealed cladding. The creep activation energy of the annealed Zr-1.02Nb-0.69Sn-0.12Fe alloy (300–330 kJ/mol) was larger compared to that of the stress-relieved alloy (210–260 kJ/mol). The creep activation energy of annealed alloy is close to that of self-diffusion in α-Zr (336 kJ/mol). The smaller activation energy in the stress-relieved alloy is attributed to the increasing contribution of faster diffusion path such as grain boundaries and dislocations. The presence of dislocation arrays with higher dislocation density and smaller grain size in the stress-relived alloy was confirmed by TEM analysis. The creep rupture time increased dramatically in the annealed Zr–1Nb- 0.7Sn-0.1Fe alloy compared to that of stress-relieved alloy, supporting the decrease of creep rate by annealing. The creep life of Zr-1.02Nb-0.69Sn-0.12Fe claddings can be extended through microstructure modification by annealing at intermediate temperatures in which dislocation creep dominates.