Effect of surface roughness on the texture and oxidation behavior of Zircaloy-4 cladding tube

Conventional pressure water reactors like CANDU use Zircaloy-4 as a fuel cladding tube. Surface roughness that arises from the manufacturing process, pilgering, may alter these tubes’ properties in various ways. This paper presents a comparative study of cladding tubes with different surface conditions in order to investigate their effect on the Zircaloy-4 substrate and oxide textures as well as the oxidation kinetic. The experimental results reveal that surface roughness affects the oxidation rate and weight gain of the cladding tubes. Although surface polishing slightly changes the substrate texture, it induces no significant change in the oxide texture. Moreover, oxidation time does not significantly change the preferred orientation of the zirconium oxide.