首页|Study of the hardness and Young's modulus at the fuel-cladding interface of a high-burnup PWR fuel rod by nanoindentation measurements

Study of the hardness and Young's modulus at the fuel-cladding interface of a high-burnup PWR fuel rod by nanoindentation measurements

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© 2022 Elsevier B.V.During irradiation in a nuclear reactor, the fuel swelling and the cladding creep are at the origin of the contact between the fuel and the cladding, which in turn leads to the initiation of Zr oxidation by the UO2 fuel. In high burnup fuels, the zirconia layer formed at the Fuel Cladding Interface (FCI) presents numerous circumvolutions and a heterogeneous microstructure within its thickness. In this paper, nanoindentation measurements are carried out in the fuel-cladding interface of a PWR fuel rod irradiated up to a high burnup of 61 GWd/tU. The measured hardnesses and Young's moduli of the internal zirconia layer are compared to reference measurements obtained on a non-irradiated sample of commercial Y-TZP. The study of the evolution of mechanical properties across the zirconia layer led to the identification of four distinct zones related to the zirconia microstructure (phase, grain size, porosity and fission product recoil). Close to the cladding, the zirconia hardness HZrO2tends toward the zirconium hardnessHZr. Then, the zirconia hardness increases significantly with the grain size, until reaching a plateau at the middle of the zirconia layer, where the maximum hardness is obtained. Following the same trend, the elastic modulus progressively increases in the zirconia layer and reaches a plateau near the fuel High Burnup Structure.

Fuel-cladding interfaceHardnessInterfaces characterizationNanoindentationNuclear spent fuelYoung's modulus

Schneider C.、Fayette L.、Zacharie-Aubrun I.、Blay T.、Sercombe J.、Favergeon J.、Chevalier S.

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CEA DES IRESNE DEC Cadarache F-13108 Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance

Laboratoire Roberval Alliance Sorbonne Université Center de Recherches de Royallieu Université de Technologie de Compiègne CS 60319

ICB UMR 6303 CNRS University Bourgogne Franche-Comté

2022

10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.153511

Journal of Nuclear Materials

Journal of Nuclear Materials

EISCI
ISSN：0022-3115
年,卷(期)：2022.560
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