Effect of cold working and annealing on the texture of Zr-2·5Nb pressure tubes

Abstract

Texture plays an important role in the commercial acceptability of Zr-2·5 wt% Nb pressure tubes used in nuclear reactors. A modified flow sheet for the fabrication of these pressure tubes involves a few additional steps viz. stress relieving, cold working and annealing, as compared to the conventional route. The evolution of texture during sequential fabrication steps of extrusion, stress relieving, cold working and annealing was studied in terms of texture coefficients and inverse pole figures. It was observed that crystallographic texture primarily developed during hot extrusion and the additional steps of stress relieving, cold working and annealing did not alter the texture significantly. The texture developed was one having a majority of the basal plane normals along the tangential direction of the tube. © 1992 the Indian Academy of Sciences.