Improved-EDC tests on the Zircaloy-4 cladding tube with an outer surface pre-crack

In order to investigate the failure behavior of fuel cladding under a reactivity-initiated accident (RIA) condition, biaxial stress tests on unirradiated Zircaloy-4 cladding tube with an outer surface pre-crack were carried out under room temperature conditions by using an improved Expansion-Due-to-Compression (improved-EDC) test method which was developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The specimens with an outer surface pre-crack were prepared by using Rolling-After-Grooving (RAG) method. In each test, a constant longitudinal tensile load of 0, 5.0 or 10.0kN was applied along the axial direction of specimen, respectively. All specimens failed during the tests, and the morphology at the failure opening of the specimens was similar to that observed in the result of post-irradiation examinations of high burnup fuel which failed during a pulse irradiation experiment. The longitudinal strain (E-tz) at failure clearly increased with increasing longitudinal tensile loads and the circumferential strain (E-t?) at failure significantly decreased in the case of 5.0 and 10.0kN tests, compared with the case of 0kN tests. From these tests, the data of cladding failure were obtained in the range of strain ratio (E-tz/E-t?) between about -0.6 and 0.7: this range of strain ratio covers the range between about 0.0 and 0.7 which is estimated in the case of RIA-simulated test. It is considered that the data obtained in this study can be used as a fundamental basis for quantifying the failure criteria of fuel cladding under a biaxial stress state.