Chapter 5 - Mechanical Properties Flashcards
(173 cards)
What are the four key mechanical properties
elastic, plastic, creep, and cracking
What is the effect of neutrons in the primary metal components?
radiation enhanced cracking susceptibility and embrittlement
What are the effects of corrosion in metal components?
crack propagation under stress
What is the pressure balance initially with fuel and water? What does this balance cause?
pressure in coolant is higher than interior causing creepdown of cladding onto pellets
What is the pressure balance towards end of life between fuel and water? What does this cause?
p coolant is less than p interior cladding causing cladding liftoff. This means gap between cladding and fuel increases and fuel overheats since its not being cooled down the same
Why does fuel expand causing pressure increase? What happens with the cladding?
due to fission product swelling which eventually cladding and fuel come into contact again (Gap closure) and continued fuel swelling stresses on cladding.
There are two types of deformation cause by applied load (Stress)?
elastic (removable) or plastics (permanent)
What are the three main sources of stress in nuclear environments?
- Applied external
- Thermal stresses
- residual
What does strain defines?
fractional displacements as a result of applied stress
What are displacements?
changes in the position fo a point as a result of applied stress
What is the diffusion of an atom dependent on in substitutional diffusion?
Upon the presence of a vacancy on an adjacent site and the rate of diffusion therefore depends in how easily vacancies can form in the latice and how easy it is for an atom to move into a vacancy. This dependance upon the presence of vacancies makes substitutional diffusion slower than insterntial diffusion.
Name a candidate material for fast reactors?
HT-9
What metallic component is the first barrier to FP release?
zircaloy
What is the second barrier to FP release?
the primary pressure boundary made of the RPV the coolant piping and the steam generator tubes.
Describe the three steps in fuel cladding interaction throughout lifetime.
Initially the pressure in the coolant is higher than the interior of cladding causing creepdown of cladding onto pellets. Towards the end of life the fission gas release causes pressure to increase in the interior causing cladding liftoff meaning gap increases and fuel overheats. Afterwards, fuel pellets expand due to FP swelling which leads to gap closure and continued fuel swelling causing stress on cladding.
What are the two types of deformation resulting from applied load (Stress)?
elastic (removable) and plastic (permanent).
What is strain?
deformation to a body
What does uniform temperature changes cauases?
thermal expansion but do not generate stresses.
What does non-uniform temperature changes cauases?
thermal stresses and strains
What is the difference between engineering and true stress strain curves?
The engineering stress strain curves assume the cross section remains constant while the true stress strain curves accounts for changes in the cross section area as the experiment precedes.
What is the yield strength?
the stress at which a specific amount of plastic deformation is produced. In other words it indicates the limit of the elastic behaviour meaning the point where deformation is permanent.
What is the elastic modulus?
the quanity that measures an object or substance resisntance to being defomred elastically (non-permanently).
What is the ultimate tensile strenght?
the materials maximum resistance to fracture. It is the maximum engineering stress in a uniaxial stress strain test.
What is the UE
?