When metallic components operate in aggressive environments their service life is, in general, determined by the presence of a protective surface film which acts as a barrier to the reactants. Large residual stresses can result from the volume changes due to oxidation, the so-called growth stresses. These stresses may lead to film cracking or spalling or both. A visco-elastic model for the calculation of growth stresses in oxidizing tubes has been developed. It can deal with uniaxial and multi-axial oxidation strain tensors. Different oxidation modes like surface and interface oxidation as well as duplex scale formation are treated. It appears that even relatively small lateral oxidation-strain components could have a considerable effect on the stress level in the tube. A simplified version of the model has been applied to simulate the geometrical changes of Zry tube sections exposed to air having reached the break-away regime. We think that lateral oxidation strains were mainly responsible for the observed diameter increase.