Abstract
Recently, there has been a great demand for high-performance zirconium alloys which are durable even in severe circumstances in light water reactors to be designed for the higher burn-ups of nuclear fuels and also for increasing efficiency of power generation. In order to respond to this strong demand for new alloys, it is firstly necessary to get fundamental information of alloying effects on the various properties of zirconium.
In this study, special attention was directed towards the mechanical properties. Both the Young's modulus and the Vickers hardness were measured systematically with various Zr-2 mol% M binary alloys, where M's were 3d, 4d, 5d transition metals and several non-transition metals. The measured Young's moduli of the alloys changed with M, following the position of elements, M, in the periodic table, except for the 3d transition metals, while showing a close correlation with the values of the Young's moduli for M in the pure metal state. The Vickers hardness also exhibited such a periodical change with M, even though it was modified in some way with test temperatures.
The fives types of characteristics diagrams to show alloying behavior of respective elements in zirconium were newly made, employing the present results together with autoclave corrosion-test data and also thermal-neutron absorption cross sections of elements. These diagrams will be useful for the design and development of zirconum alloys.
