Hot isostatic pressing of uranium-10zirconium alloy nuclear fuel by coupled grain boundary diffusion and power-law creep.

摘要

orous U-10Zr was produced using UH;The coupled diffusion/creep cavitation model of Chen and Argon shows quantitative agreement with the measured HIP rates using n = 5. The coupled model also predicts, for the first time, an asymmetry in HIP and swelling for identical driving forces due to differences in grain boundary stress. The difference in HIP behavior between metal- and hydride-derived material could be explained by differences in pore structure, whereas the differences in impurity particles and dissolved Zr content do not. A calculation of the time-dependent HIP behavior was made which shows a varying time dependence that is consistent with the observed HIP rates.;The compressibility of U-10Zr is different from previously studied ceramics and metals and is significantly lower than U-5Fs, which appears to HIP by diffusive transport only. The differences could be due to higher grain boundary diffusivity and/or larger pore size-to-spacing ratios in U-5Fs causing diffusional growth to be rapid and dominant. The lack of detectable compressibility of U-10Zr in both the