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Dylan Murray
Department of Materials
University of Oxford
Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3PH
UK
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Dylan's research is focused on the investigation of how deformation is localised around brittle Zirconium Hydride precipitates in Zircaloy-4, an alloy used in fuel cladding for fission reactors. In LWRs, the Zirconium in the cladding is oxidised by Oxygen from the coolant water, releasing Hydrogen - some of which diffuses into the cladding. This is particularly relevant as the precipitation of hydrides leads to embrittlement of the cladding and potentially sub-critical fracture, a serious issue during operation and long term storage.
Over the course of the project, Dylan hopes to obtain strain measurements around hydrides, using high resolution electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) maps and digital image correlation (DIC), both for those present in the bulk and ahead of pre-formed notches/cracks. The intention is to also investigate how strain localisation changes with increasing total strain and at differing strain rates too.
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