Thermomechanical Microstructural Predictions of Fracture Nucleation of Zircaloy-4 Alloys with δ and ε Hydride Distributions

A crystalline dislocation-density formulation that was incorporated with a non-linear finite-element (FE) method was utilized to understand and to predict the thermo-mechanical behavior of an hexagonal closest packed (h.c.p.) zircaloy system with hydrides with either face centered cubic (f.c.c.) or body centered cubic (b.c.c.) hydrides. This formulation was then used with a recently developed fracture methodology that is adapted for finite inelastic strains and multiphase crystalline systems to understand how different microstructurally-based fracture modes nucleate and propagate. The interrelated microstructural characteristics of the different crystalline hydride and matrix phases with the necessary orientation relationships (ORs) have been represented, such that a detailed physical understanding of fracture nucleation and propagation can be predicted for the simultaneous thermo-mechanical failure modes of hydride populations and the matrix. The effects of volume fraction, morphology, crystalline structure, and orientation and distribution of the hydrides on simultaneous and multiple fracture modes were investigated for radial, circumferential, and mixed distributions. Another key aspect was accounting for temperatures changes due to the effects of thermal conduction and dissipated plastic work and their collective effects on fracture. For hydrided aggregates subjected to high temperatures, thermal softening resulted in higher ductility due to increased dislocation-density activity, which led to higher shear strain accumulation and inhibited crack nucleation and growth. The predictions provide validated insights of why circumferential hydrides are more fracture resistant than radial hydrides for different volume fractions and thermo-mechanical loading conditions.

Fracture Nucleation Phenomena and Thermally Activated Crack Dynamics in Monocrystals

We explore irreversible thermally activated growth of cracks which are shorter than the Griffith length. Such a growth was anticipated in several studies [Golubović, L. & Feng, S., (1991). Rate of microcrack nucleation, Physical Review A 43, 5223. Golubović, L. & Peredera, A., (1995).  Mechanism of time-delayed fractures, Physical Review E 51, 2799]. We explore this thermally activated growth by means of atomistic Monte-Carlo dynamics simulations of stressed monocrystals. This crack growth is stepwise. Each step is marked by nucleation of a microcavity close to the crack tip, and by creation of a passage connecting the microcavity and the crack. If the external tensile stress is weak, many such nucleation events occur before the crack length reaches the Griffith size. In addition to the simulations, we also present an analytic theory of the stepwise thermally activated crack growth. The theory explains surprising observation form our simulations that the thermally activated crack growth remains fairly well directed in spite of the stochastic nature of the crack growth process.

The competition between fracture nucleation, propagation, and coalescence in dry and water-saturated crystalline rock

The continuum of behavior that emerges during fracture network development in crystalline rock may be categorized into three end-member modes: fracture nucleation, isolated fracture propagation, and fracture coalescence. These different modes of fracture growth produce fracture networks with distinctive geometric attributes, such as clustering and connectivity, that exert important controls on permeability and the extent of fluid–rock interactions. To track how these modes of fracture development vary in dominance throughout loading toward failure and thus how the geometric attributes of fracture networks may vary under these conditions, we perform in situ X-ray tomography triaxial compression experiments on low-porosity crystalline rock (monzonite) under upper-crustal stress conditions. To examine the influence of pore fluid on the varying dominance of the three modes of growth, we perform two experiments under nominally dry conditions and one under water-saturated conditions with 5 MPa of pore fluid pressure. We impose a confining pressure of 20–35 MPa and then increase the differential stress in steps until the rock fails macroscopically. After each stress step of 1–5 MPa we acquire a three-dimensional (3D) X-ray adsorption coefficient field from which we extract the 3D fracture network. We develop a novel method of tracking individual fractures between subsequent tomographic scans that identifies whether fractures grow from the coalescence and linkage of several fractures or from the propagation of a single fracture. Throughout loading in all of the experiments, the volume of preexisting fractures is larger than that of nucleating fractures, indicating that the growth of preexisting fractures dominates the nucleation of new fractures. Throughout loading until close to macroscopic failure in all of the experiments, the volume of coalescing fractures is smaller than the volume of propagating fractures, indicating that fracture propagation dominates coalescence. Immediately preceding failure, however, the volume of coalescing fractures is at least double the volume of propagating fractures in the experiments performed at nominally dry conditions. In the water-saturated sample, in contrast, although the volume of coalescing fractures increases during the stage preceding failure, the volume of propagating fractures remains dominant. The influence of stress corrosion cracking associated with hydration reactions at fracture tips and/or dilatant hardening may explain the observed difference in fracture development under dry and water-saturated conditions.

The competition between fracture nucleation, propagation and coalescence in the crystalline continental upper crust

Different modes of fracture growth produce fracture networks with distinctive geometric attributes that exert important controls on the extent of fluid-rock interactions. We perform in situ X-ray tomography triaxial compression experiments on monzonite to investigate the influence of fracture nucleation, preexisting fracture propagation, and coalescence on fracture network development in crystalline rocks under crustal conditions. We impose a confining pressure of 20–35 MPa and then increase the differential stress in steps until the rock fails macroscopically. After each stress step we acquire a three-dimensional (3D) X-ray adsorption coefficient field from which we extract the 3D fracture network. To examine the influence of pore fluid on fracture network development, we perform two experiments under nominally-dry conditions and one under water-saturated conditions with 5 MPa pore fluid pressure. We develop a method of tracking individual fractures between subsequent tomographic scans that identifies whether fractures grow from the coalescence and linkage of several fractures or from the propagation of a single fracture. Throughout loading until shortly before failure in all of the experiments, the volume of coalescing fractures is smaller than the volume of propagating fractures, indicating that fracture propagation dominates coalescence. Immediately preceding failure, however, the volume of coalescing fractures is at least double the volume of propagating fractures in the experiments deformed at nominally dry conditions. In the water-saturated sample, although the volume of coalescing fractures increases during this stage, the volume of propagating fractures remains dominant. The influence of stress corrosion cracking associated with hydration reactions at fracture tips and/or dilatant hardening may explain the observed difference in fracture development under dry and water-saturated conditions. Our experimental data on fracture growth at different conditions provide new constraints in assessing fluid flow in subsurface fracture networks that are central to energy and environmental engineering practices.