Theoretical and experimental studies of Zr oxidation: Stress and anisotropy effects

The aim of our work is to study the role of mechanical stresses on the oxidation of zirconium and its alloys. For this study, we first emphasize experimentally an effect of the metal texture on the oxidation kinetics: two different metal crystallographic textures give two different oxidation kinetic curves. Theoretically, numerical simulations of a growing oxide scale using an anisotropic mechano-chemical model leads to the same relation and then highlights the influence of the Zr-O solid solution on the oxidation kinetics. Lastly, in-situ analyses by X-rays diffraction allow to confirm the existence of the solid solution effect.