No abstract

On the basis of studies of radiation-induced shape-change of reactor graphite GR-280, through the series of measurements of samples with different orientation of cutting with respect to the direction of extrusion, a conclusion is made about the existence of polycrystal substructural elements -domains. Domains, like graphite as a whole, possess the property of transverse isotropy, but have different amplitudes of shape-change and random orientations of the axes of axial symmetry. The model of graphite, constructed on the basis of the concept of domains allowed to explain from a unified point of view most of existing experimental data. It is shown that the presence of the disoriented domain structure leads to the development of radiationinduced stresses and to the dependence of the shape-change on the size of graphite samples. We derive the relation between the shape-change of finite size samples and the actual shape-change of macro-graphite.