A Crystal Plasticity-Based Simulation to Predict Fracture Initiation Toughness of Reactor-Grade Aluminium: Experimental Verification and Study of Effect of Crystal Orientation

Aluminium alloys are used for the fabrication of the fuel clad of research-grade nuclear reactors as well as for several types of core components of high-flux research reactors. In order to carry out design and safety analysis of these components, their mechanical and fracture properties are required by the designer. In this work, experiments have been conducted on tensile specimens machined from an aluminium alloy block to evaluate the material stress-strain curve. Experiments have also been conducted on disc-shaped compact tension specimens in order to determine the fracture toughness of aluminium alloy. Numerical simulations of both tensile and fracture specimens have been carried out using the crystal plasticity model. Initially, the slip system level parameters of the crystal plasticity material model have been calibrated using experimental stress-strain data for single as well as polycrystalline aluminium. For the prediction of crack initiation toughness, Rice and Tracey's damage model has been used. The critical damage parameter has been evaluated for a fractured specimen with a crack length-to-width (a/W) ratio of 0.6. The attainment of the critical damage parameter in the analysis corresponds to the instance of experimentally observed ductile crack initiation in the specimen. Later, this model was applied to other fracture specimens with different a/W ratios with values ranging from 0.39 to 0.59. It was observed that the critical damage parameter corresponding to crack initiation in the material has a very small variation, even if the specimens have different crack lengths. It is well-known in the literature that Rice and Tracey's critical damage parameter is a material constant. Hence, we have applied the same model to predict crack initiation for single crystal fracture specimens with two different orientations of the crack plane. It was observed that the <111> orientation is more susceptible to crack initiation and propagation compared with the <100> orientation, as the damage parameter is high in the ligament of the specimen ahead of the crack tip for the same level of applied loading. As the [111] crack plane is more closely packed compared with the [100] plane, the distance between atomic planes is greater for the former, and hence, it is more susceptible to ductile damage. The results of the experiments and the material damage parameter are helpful for the integrity analysis of the fuel clad of research reactors as well as components of high-flux research reactors.