Studies on hot hardness of Zr and its alloys for nuclear reactors

The hardness behaviour of pure Zr, Zircaloy 2, Zr-2.5Nb, Zr-2.5Nb-0.5Cu and Zr-1Nb-1Sn-0.1Fe alloys (composition in wt%) were evaluated from ambient t emperature to 1173 K using a hot hardness tester in order to compare the ha rdness and to extract information on the strength behaviour from the hot ha rdness data using standard empirical relations. This paper summarizes the e xperimental hot hardness data of several Zr alloys and discusses the result s with the help of their microstructure, alloy content and atomic radii of the constituents. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.