Kinematic hardening in creep of Zircaloy

Results of biaxial creep tests with stress changes on Zircaloy-2 tube samples are presented. A Hollomon-type viscoplastic strain hardening model is extended by the Armstrong-Frederic nonlinear kinematic hardening law, resulting in a mixed (i.e. isotropic and kinematic) strain hardening model. The creep tests with stress changes and similar tests published in the literature are simulated by the models. It is shown that introduction of the kinematic strain hardening in the viscoplastic strain hardening model is sufficient to describe the creep transients following stress drops, stress reversals and stress removals.