Modeling of thermal creep behavior in Zr-1.1Nb-0.05Cu alloys

Abstract

The power-law dependency is suitable for describing the thermal creep behavior of modern zirconium alloys. In contrast to the previous phenomenological and empirical models, mechanistic approaches with power-law relations were made to explain the creep rates of the Zr-1.1Nb-0.05Cu alloy. For the modeling, the experimental stress and temperature parameters were varied according to the operating conditions of nuclear power plants. It was observed that the creep was controlled by the dislocation glide and climb mechanism. The proposed model explained the experimental data well, and was able to estimate the creep rates for elongated times.

Behavior of stress–relaxation and the estimation of creep in Zr–1.1Nb–0.05Cu alloy

“…9 for 120 MPa, respectively. The creep behaviors coincide well with the experimental data [20]. Creep of non-metallic materials were predicted successfully with a graphical conversion process [14,15].…”

“…In addition, it was reported by the authors in [20] that the primary creep of Zr-1.1Nb-0.05Cu alloy is expressed well with the saturated primary creep strain as…”