Speaker
Description
Zirconium alloys are used as fuel cladding materials in water-based nuclear reactors, where hydrogen pick-up results in the formation of brittle zirconium hydride packets which degrade the material’s mechanical performance. In situ scanning electron microscope (SEM) compression tests of hydride-containing micropillars with controlled orientations are employed to understand the anisotropic effects of hydrides on the properties of basal and prismatic slip systems. The results are used to inform the deformation behaviour near hydrides in polycrystalline materials analysed using high spatial resolution digital image correlation (DIC). These analyses reveal the microscale mechanisms for local strain localisation and stress concentration around hydrides early in the plastic regime that ultimately lead to catastrophic failure of the material. The characterisation techniques employed will be extend further to understand hydrogen-induced failure processes in other engineering material systems.
[1] S. Wang, F. Giuliani, T. B. Britton, Acta Mater., 200 (2020) 537–550.
| Speaker Country | United Kingdom |
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