Comparison of Preferred Orientations of Zirconium-Alloy and Alpha Zirconium by Neutron and X-ray Diffraction

Abstract

In our work, the textures of three zirconium-alloys tubes were compared with the textures of seven alpha zirconium samples deformed by uniaxial tension from strain 5% to strain 30% (strain step 5%). The texture measurements by neutron diffraction were performed on the KSN-2 neutron diffractometer located at the research reactor LVR-15 of the Research Centre Řež, Czech Republic. The X-ray measurements were performed at theta/theta X'Pert PRO diffractometer with Cr X-ray tube. Observed data were processed by software packages GSAS and X'Pert Texture. It was found that the (100) and (110) plane poles are oriented parallel towards the rolling direction for both types of samples. All samples have preferred orientation of planes (102) and (103) perpendicular to normal direction. More significant tilt of basal poles from the normal direction toward the transverse direction which indicates twinning was observed for alpha zirconium. Consequently, alloying of zirconium create ideal texture with respect to zirconium hydride creation. The alloying of zirconium is reflected in decreasing the overall texture sharpness. The obtained results are characteristic for zirconium.