Microstructural and textural developments during Zircaloy-4 fuel tube fabrication

Developments in crystallographic texture and in microstructure were characterized during the fabrication steps of Zircaloy-4 fuel tube. Textural developments were generalized in terms of 〈 1 0 1 ¯ 0 〉 and (0 0 0 1) fibers. These two fibers were observed to get enhanced by the processes of deformation and annealing respectively. Microstructural evolution, on the other hand, ranged from bimodal grain size and shape distribution of the hot extruded stage, to visible heterogeneous deformation associated with pilgering and to fully or partially recrystallized structures after annealing. Textural evolution, associated with individual processing steps during both deformation as well as annealing, had a stronger contribution from relatively larger grains.