Final report on in-reactor creep-fatigue deformation behaviour of a CuCrZr alloy: COFAT 2

The main objective of the present work was to determine experimentally the mechanical response and resulting microstructural changes in CuCrZr (HT1) alloy exposed concurrently to flux of neutrons and creep-fatigue cyclic loading directly in a fission reactor. Using specially designed test facilities for this purpose, in-reactor creep-fatigue tests have been performed at strain amplitudes of 0.25 and 0.35 % with a holdtime of 10s in the BR-2 reactor at Mol (Belgium). These tests were performed at the ambient temperatures of 326K and 323K. For comparison purposes corresponding out-of-reactor creep-fatigue tests were also carried out. In the following we first describe the details of the creep-fatigue experiments. We then present the main results on the mechanical response of the material in the form of hysteresis loops and the maximum stress amplitude as a function of the number of creep-fatigue cycles during the out-of-reactor and the in-reactor tests carried out at different strain amplitudes. Finally, the dependence of the number of cycles to failure (i.e. creep-fatigue lifetime) on the strain amplitudes is shown. The details of microstructure of the specimens tested out-of-reactor as well as in the reactor were investigated using transmission electron microscopy. The main results on the mechanical response as well as changes in the microstructure are briefly discussed. The main conclusion emerging from the present work is that the lifetime of the in-reactor tested specimens is by a factor of about two longer than in the case of corresponding out-of-reactor tests.