Determination of anisotropic elastic moduli of Zr-2.5Nb CANDU pressure tube materials

In order to determine the elastic stiffness of Zr-2.5Nb CANDU pressure tube materials, the resonance frequencies of a rectangular parallelepiped speci men were measured and compared with the calculated resonance frequencies ba sed on the input data of estimated stiffness of a polycrystalline Zr-2.5Nb specimen, dimensions and density. The estimated elastic stiffness was deter mined using its orientation distribution function measured by x-ray diffrac tion and the reported elastic stiffness of a zirconium single crystal. Thro ugh comparison of calculated frequencies with that measured by resonance ul trasound spectroscopy, accurate elastic stiffness has been determined by it eration and convergence processes. (C) 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers.