Impact-Sliding Wear Behavior of Zirconium Alloy Cladding Tube

XIE Yujie; WANG Ning; LI Zhengyang; NING Chuangming; ZHENG Yuhan; CAI Zhenbing

doi:10.7643/ issn.1672-9242.2025.10.014

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Equipment Environmental Engineering ›› 2025, Vol. 22 ›› Issue (10) : 109-122. DOI: 10.7643/ issn.1672-9242.2025.10.014

Key Projects Equipment

Impact-Sliding Wear Behavior of Zirconium Alloy Cladding Tube

XIE Yujie¹, WANG Ning¹, LI Zhengyang², NING Chuangming¹, ZHENG Yuhan¹, CAI Zhenbing^{1, *}

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Abstract

Based on simulating the service conditions of pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plants, the work aims to investigate the effect mechanisms of tangential velocity and number of cycles on the impact-sliding wear behavior of zirconium alloy cladding. Through the impact-sliding wear testing system, experiments were conducted between zirconium alloy cladding and support grids to investigate the effects of tangential velocity and number of cycles on the dynamic response and damage behavior at the cladding wear interface. As the tangential velocity increased from 50 mm/s to 150 mm/s, the wear rate escalated from 1.02×10⁴ μm³/J to 1.256×10⁵ μm³/J, with tangential motion energy dissipation proportion rising from 72.85% to 92.03%. The energy dissipation through tangential motion significantly exceeded that of impact process. When the number of cycles reached 2.4×10⁶, the wear rate attained 1.106×10⁵ μm³/J. During the impact-sliding wear process, energy dissipation, wear volume, and wear rate all exhibit positive correlations with both tangential velocity and number of cycles. Energy dissipation analysis demonstrates that tangential motion plays a dominant role in the material damage process. The primary wear mechanisms of zirconium alloy cladding include spalling, abrasive wear, and oxidative wear. Increased tangential velocity intensifies material delamination. As the number of cycles accumulates, fatigue cracks initiate and propagate on the cladding surface, shifting the dominant wear mechanism to fatigue-dominated wear.

Key words

zirconium alloy / impact-sliding wear / energy dissipation / wear mechanism / fuel cladding / wear rate

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XIE Yujie, WANG Ning, LI Zhengyang, NING Chuangming, ZHENG Yuhan, CAI Zhenbing. Impact-Sliding Wear Behavior of Zirconium Alloy Cladding Tube[J]. Equipment Environmental Engineering. 2025, 22(10): 109-122 https://doi.org/10.7643/ issn.1672-9242.2025.10.014

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