Hydrogen motion in Zircaloy-4 cladding during a LOCA transient

3rd International Conference on Competitive Materials and Technology Processes

Elodie, T.^1 ; Jean, D.^1 ; Séverine, G.^1 ; M-Christine, B.^2 ; Michel, C.^3 ; Berger, P.^4 ; Martine, B.^5 ; Antoine, A.^5

Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), Centre d'Etudes de Cadarache, PSN-RES/SEREX/LE2M, Saint-Paul lez Durance Cedex, France^1

INSA de Lyon, Laboratoire de Mécanique des Contacts et des Structures (LaMCoS), Villeurbanne Cedex, France^2

École Centrale de Nantes, Institut de Recherche en Génie Civil et Mécanique (GEM), Nantes, France^3

Laboratoire d'Etude des Eléments Légers (LEEL), SIS2M, CEA-Saclay, Gif sur Yvette, France^4

EDF-R and D, les Renardières, Département MMC, Moret sur Loing, France^5

关键词: Cladding thickness;    Elastic recoil detection analysis;    High temperature;    Hydrogen contents;    Hydrogen motion;    Metallographic examination;    Thermodiffusion;    Zircaloy-4 claddings;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/123/1/012020/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/123/1/012020

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Hydrogen and oxygen are key elements influencing the embrittlement of zirconium-based nuclear fuel cladding during the quench phase following a Loss Of Coolant Accident (LOCA). The understanding of the mechanisms influencing the motion of these two chemical elements in the metal is required to fully describe the material embrittlement. High temperature steam oxidation tests were performed on pre-hydrided Zircaloy-4 samples with hydrogen contents ranging between 11 and 400 wppm prior to LOCA transient. Thanks to the use of both Electron Probe Micro-Analysis (EPMA) and Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis (μ-ERDA), the chemical elements partitioning has been systematically quantified inside the prior-β phase. Image analysis and metallographic examinations were combined to provide an average oxygen profile as well as hydrogen profile within the cladding thickness after LOCA transient. The measured hydrogen profile is far from homogeneous. Experimental distributions are compared to those predicted numerically using calculations derived from a finite difference thermo-diffusion code (DIFFOX) developed at IRSN.