Determination of the hydrogen heat of transport in Zircaloy-4

Abstract

During operation in a nuclear reactor, Zr-based nuclear fuel cladding is subject to waterside corrosion which can lead to hydrogen ingress. The hydrogen that enters the material will migrate to colder spots and precipitate as zirconium hydrides if the hydrogen content exceeds the hydrogen terminal solid solubility in the material. Since a temperature gradient is established in the radial direction of the cladding during operation, the hydrides can preferentially precipitate at the colder outer surface of the cladding. Other gradients can also occur in the longitudinal and azimuthal directions of the cladding tube. As a consequence, hydrogen redistributes itself in response to the concentration and temperature gradients present in the sample. The response of the hydrogen in solid solution to temperature gradients is governed by the heat of transport Q* as a function of temperature, so it can be used in the BISON code. A set of experiments was set up to determine the heat of transport (Q*), in which a uniformly hydrided Zircaloy-4 sample is annealed under a fixed temperature gradient at a range of temperatures, and the resulting hydrogen distribution is analyzed to determine Q*. The results are discussed in terms of existing literature.