A model to describe the anisotropic viscoplastic mechanical behavior of fresh and irradiated Zircaloy-4 fuel claddings under RIA loading conditions

Abstract This paper presents a unified phenomenological model to describe the anisotropic viscoplastic mechanical behavior of cold-worked stress relieved (CWSR) Zircaloy-4 fuel claddings submitted to reactivity initiated accident (RIA) loading conditions. The model relies on a multiplicative viscoplastic formulation and reproduces strain hardening, strain rate sensitivity and plastic anisotropy of the material. It includes temperature, fluence and irradiation conditions dependences within RIA typical ranges. Model parameters have been tuned using axial tensile, hoop tensile and closed-end internal pressurization tests results essentially obtained from the PROMETRA program, dedicated to the study of zirconium alloys under RIA loading conditions. Once calibrated, the model provides a reliable description of the mechanical behavior of the fresh and irradiated (fluence up to 10 × 10 25 nm - 2 or burnup up to 64 GWd/tU) material within large temperature (from 20 °C up to 1100 °C) and strain rate ranges (from 3 × 10 - 4 s - 1 up to 5 s - 1 ), representative of the RIA spectrum. Finally, the model is used for the finite element analysis of the hoop tensile tests performed within the PROMETRA program.