Studies on the oxidation behavior of niobium-implanted Zircaloy-4 at 500 °C

Helium bubble evolution in a Zr–Sn–Nb–Fe–Cr alloy during post-annealing: An in-situ investigation

“…The threshold temperature for Zr-Sn-Nb-Fe-Cr alloy is 923 K, which is equal to 0.44 T m and is close to 0.5 T m where the bubbles begin noticeably to grow and thermal vacancies are available that have been suggested by Templier [49]. The absorption of vacancies leads to a decrease of A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 12 He bubble concentration with an accompanying decrease of the bubble pressure [49].…”

“…For example, the addition of Sn together with Fe, Cr and Ni into a Zr-Sn alloy can increase the mechanical strength and corrosion resistance of the alloy [9]. With the global efforts of researchers, various types of Zr alloys have been developed, including Zircaloy-4 (Zr-Sn-Fe-Cr) [10][11][12][13][14][15][16], Zircaloy-2 (Zr-Sn-Fe-Cr-Ni) [6], and Zr-Nb alloys like Zirlo [8], E365 [5], M5 [10] and E110 [2]. In China, a Zr-Sn-Nb-Fe-Cr alloy has been developed to use in nuclear reactors by introducing Nb into a Zr-Sn alloy to increase the corrosion resistance and thus the increase longevity with higher burn-up [17][18][19][20].…”