ESTUDIO DE LA DEFORMACIÓN INTERNA DE HIDRUROS DE CIRCONIO POR DIFRACCIÓN DE RAYOS-X

M. A. VICENTE ALVAREZ; J. R. SANTISTEBAN; P. VIZCAINO; G. DOMIZZI

Buenos Aires

Conferencia; Reunión Anual de la Asociación Argentina de Tecnología Nuclear; 2014

AATN

We present a detailed study of the degree of defects in the hydride phase formed in different Zr alloys used in the nuclear industry. This was done through XRD line profile analysis based on the Warren-Averbach method. XRD experiments were done on different Zr alloys charged with H in high energy XR sources. In particular, we focused on the changes observed in the interior of a hydride blister formed in a Zr-2.5Nb pressure tube for a CANDU type reactor, and on recrystallized Zircaloy-4 tubes in the non-irradiated and irradiated conditions. We found that hydrides show a high density of dislocations of 5.1015 - 1016 m-2, being much higher than values found in the aZr matrix. This high density of defects is a consequence of the transformation misfit strain, which involves a change of volume of approximately 17%. The dislocation density inside the hydride increases with the level of H and the irradiation damage