Study of the mechanical behavior of the hydride blister/rim structure in Zircaloy-4 using in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction

High-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction was utilized to study the mechanical response of the f.c.c δ hydride phase, the intermetallic precipitation with hexagonal C14 lave phase and the α-Zr phase in the Zircaloy-4 materials with a hydride rim/blister structure near one surface of the material during in-situ uniaxial tension experiment at 200 °C. The f.c.c δ was the only hydride phase observed in the rim/blister structure. The conventional Rietveld refinement was applied to measure the macro-strain equivalent response of the three phases. Two regions were delineated in the applied load versus lattice strain measurement: a linear elastic strain region and region that exhibited load partitioning. Load partitioning was quantified by von Mises analysis. The three phases were observed to have similar elastic modulus at 200 °C.