Altmetric
A fast efficient multi-scale approach to modelling the development of hydride microstructures in zirconium alloys
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Patel2021_CMS_AAM.pdf | Accepted version | 10.83 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
Title: | A fast efficient multi-scale approach to modelling the development of hydride microstructures in zirconium alloys |
Authors: | Patel, M Reali, L Sutton, AP Balint, DS Wenman, MR |
Item Type: | Journal Article |
Abstract: | A mechanistic understanding of hydrogen diffusion and hydride precipitation at the microscale underpins the prediction of delayed hydride cracking in zirconium alloy nuclear fuel cladding. We present a novel approach to modelling the microstructures created by hydride precipitation at loaded notches in polycrystalline Zr alloys. The model is multi-scale in that it includes the elastic dipole tensor of interstitial hydrogen in α-Zr, it treats the stressdriven diffusion of hydrogen at the meso-level (mm), it calculates the thermodynamically favourable spatial arrangement of microhydrides and their assembly into macrohydride colonies, in a textured polycrystalline sample, and it treats the full elastic field of the loaded notch and all the hydrides at a scale similar to the cladding thickness. A simplifying innovation is the representation of the elastic field of a microhydride by a dislocation dipole, where the Burgers vector is set to create the experimentally measured strain in the 〈1100〉 direction. The model provides a predictive framework for treating elastic anisotropy, a variety of potential nucleation sites, and different grain sizes. Simulated micrographs of hydride networks in polycrystalline samples with blunt and sharper loaded notches are compared with experimental micrographs obtained at the same scale. The simulations are extremely fast and calculations typically take around tens of seconds. This makes it possible to carry out detailed sensitivity studies with respect to several pertinent metallurgical variables, as well as conducting ensemble averaging of hydride microstructures. |
Issue Date: | 1-Apr-2021 |
Date of Acceptance: | 31-Dec-2020 |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/113533 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.commatsci.2021.110279 |
ISSN: | 0927-0256 |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Journal / Book Title: | Computational Materials Science |
Volume: | 190 |
Copyright Statement: | Copyright © Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
Publication Status: | Published |
Article Number: | 110279 |
Online Publication Date: | 2021-01-22 |
Appears in Collections: | Condensed Matter Theory Mechanical Engineering Materials Physics Faculty of Natural Sciences |
This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License