Zirconium alloy has been extensively used as a cladding material in nuclear power reactors due to its low neutron absorption cross section, excellent mechanical properties, and corrosion resistance. The influence of the swaging parameter, feed rate (0.7, 1.25, 2 m/min) on residual stress induced in Zr-4 alloy is investigated in the present work. A three-dimensional finite element model was implemented in the Deform 3D software to simulate the rotary swaging (RS) process over a circular rod of Zr-4 alloy. The simulation results based on the 3D framework provide a detailed insight of residual stress, true stress versus true strain and force applied over the rod during the multiple pass swaging process; the results are compared with experimental results. The experimental hole drilling method is used to determine the residual stresses on swaged zirconium alloy at different feed rates (0.7, 1.25, and 2 m/min). A similar trend of residual stress between experimental and numerical results from the surface to the center on the swaged rod samples is observed. The same magnitude of residual stress at the surface of the swaged Zr-4 rod is also observed. It is found to be compressive at the surface and tensile in the center of the samples, as observed in the present work.

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Additively manufactured (AM) specimens of 17-4PH stainless steel corresponding to the three-point bend test, compact tension test and single edge cracks were analysed using Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) approach. A two-dimensional and three-dimensional elastic-plastic simulation were conducted using “Abaqus 6.14” software based on the experimental results and validated with the simulation results. In XFEM, the partition of unity (PU) was used to model a crack in the standard finite element mesh. Based on simulation results, the present study compares the mechanical properties of AM 17-4 PH stainless steel samples with those of wrought 17-4 PH samples. Stress intensity factor and J integral were used to measure fracture toughness of the specimens. The change in fracture toughness with strain rate was evaluated by simulating two-dimensional compact tension specimens. The presence of defects such as pores resulting from entrapped gas, un-melted regions, and powder particles resulting from lack of fusion were the main reasons for lower elongation to failure of LPBF produced 17-4PH SS reported in the literature.