In-situ oxidation and short-time corrosion investigation on strain and dislocation during the generation and growth of ZrO 2

Abstract An In-situ oxidation test and a short time exposure corrosion test of Zircaloy-4 were carried out. A lot of dislocations generated in the nucleation and growth process of ZrO 2 are observed. Dislocations will be firstly distributed at the interface of ZrO 2 . With the growth of m-ZrO 2 grains, the number of dislocations at the interface increases. When the grain size of ZrO 2 reaches a critical value, the dislocations in the grains of ZrO 2 begin to appear. A compressive strain between semi-coherent planes of oxides was detected in a range from −0.3% to −6%.