Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology

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Thermal Conductivity and Heat Capacity of

Zircaloy-2, −4 and Unalloyed Zirconium

Masayuki MURABAYASHI , Shigenori TANAKA & Yoichi TAKAHASHI

To cite this article: Masayuki MURABAYASHI , Shigenori TANAKA & Yoichi TAKAHASHI (1975)
Thermal Conductivity and Heat Capacity of Zircaloy-2, −4 and Unalloyed Zirconium, Journal of
Nuclear Science and Technology, 12:10, 661-662, DOI: 10.1080/18811248.1975.9733170

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/18811248.1975.9733170

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 and TECHNOLOGY,
Journal of NUCLEARSCIENCE 12C103, pp. 661-662
SHORT
NOTE
Thermal Conductivity and Heat
Capacity of Zircaloy-2, -4
and Unalloyed Zirconium
Masayuki MURABAYASHI, Shigenori TANAKA
and Yoichi TAKAHASHI
Department of Nuclear Engineering,
University of Tokyo*
Received May 22, 1975
KEYWORDS: zircaloy 2, zircaloy 4 ,
zirconium, thermal conductivity, heat
capacity, thermal diffusivity, medium
temperature, high temperature
The thermal diffusivity and the heat capa-
city of zircaloy-2, -4 and unalloyed zircanium
were measured from 300 to 850K by means
of the laser flash method.
The specimens of zircaloy-2 and -4 were
prepared from cold-rolled plates, manufactur-
ed by Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., and
the direction of heat flow in the measurement
of thermal diffusivity was arranged to be the
thickness direction. Table 1 gives the stand-
ard composition of the zircaloy-2 and -4 sam-
ples.
Table 1 Standard compositions of zircaloy-2
and -4 (analyzed) (%yo)
Sample Sn Ni Fe Cr Zr
Zircaloy-2 1.49 0.06 0.15 0.10 Balance
Zircaloy-4 1.51 - 0.23 0.10 n thick), 5: Zircalou-2 (Walter et ~ l . ( ~Specimen:
The specimens of unalloyed zirconium were
sliced from an ingot prepared from reactor
grade sponge zirconium by means of electron
beam melting and hence the texture differed
somewhat from that of the rolled zircaloy
plates.
All the specimens were formed into disk-
shaped pellets. The size of the specimens
for the thermal diff usivity measurements was
7 mm in diameter and 2 mm thick, while they
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(October 1975). 661
were made 9 mm in diameter and 2 mm thick
for the heat capacity measurements. All the
samples were annealed at 750°C in vacuum
before each run.
The apparatus and procedures used in the
measurement have been described previously
The precision of the measurement was
'*)-(').
within +1.0% for heat capacity and +1.5%
for thermal diffusivity.
The measured thermal diffusivities of zir-
caloy-2, -4 and unalloyed zirconium are pre-
sented in Fig. 1, together with the values for
zircaloy-2 measured by Walter et al."), who
reported that for zircaloy-2 no anisotropy of
heat conduction was observed. They remark-
ed, on the other hand, that the thermal diffu-
sivity was markedly influenced by differences
in specimen thickness. The present results,
in contrast, reveal only insignificant depend-
ence on the thickness of the specimens. The
values obtained for thermal diff usivity agreed
reasonably well with those by Walter et al.
for specimens of thickness 2 2 mm.
OVr-----
1 0 : Zirconium (Present study). 2 A : Zircaloy-2
(Present study, Specimen: 2mm thick), 3 A : Zir-
caloy-2 (Present study, Specimen: 0.6mm thick),
4: Zircaloy-2 (Walter et ul.(4), Specimen: 2mm
),
0.5mm thick), 6 0 :Zircaloy-4 (Present study)
Fig. 1 Thermal diffusivity of zircaloy-2,
-4 and zirconium
The results of heat capacity measurement
on unalloyed zirconium are shown in Fig. 2,
together with the data reported by other in-
vestigator~'~)(~).
The heat capacities of zircaloy-2 and -4 at
room temperature were also measured, and
* Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo.
 662 SHORTNOTE (M. Murabayashi et al.) J. Nucl. Sci. Technol.,

0.30-
7
?ccn
-8
-I
0.20-
1 0: Present study, 2: Douglascs), 3: ToddcG)
Fig. 2 Heat capacity of zirconium
were found to be very close to the corre-
sponding values given in l i t e r a t ~ r e ( ~ ) ";(they
~'
also agreed well with the present results for
unalloyed cast zirconium. T h e heat capaci-
ties of zircaloy-2 and -4 can thus be regarded
as being equal to that of zirconium from 300
to 850K.
T h e determined thermal conductivities of
zircaloy-2, -4 and unalloyed zirconium are
shown in Fig. 3, in which they are compared
k=aC,p, (1)
where k is the thermal conductivity (W/cm.K),
a , the thermal diffusivity (cm2/sec), C, the
specific heat capacity (J/g.K) and p the den-
sity of the sample (g/cmS). In this calcula-
tion, correction was made on a to account
for finite pulse time and on both a and p
for thermal expansion.
T h e resulting data for the thermal con-
ductivity of zircaloy-2 and -4,upon treatment
by least-squares method, can be expressed
by the formulas :
For zircaloy-2 : k=0.138-3.90~ 10-6T
+1.184x 10-'T2
(W/cm.K) ( 2 )
For zircaloy-4 : k=0.113+2.25x 10-'T
+0.725x 1 0 - T '
(W/cm.K). ( 3 )
We wish to thank Prof. T. Mukaibo, Prof.
M. Kanno and Prof. Y. Mishima, of the Uni-
versity of Tokyo, for their generous support
of this work. T h e courtesy of Sumitomo
Metal Industries, Ltd. for providing us with
the zircaloy samples is also greatly appreci-
ated. Part of the experimental work was
performed by using the facility of the Re-
search Center for Nuclear Science and Tech-
nology, University of Tokyo.

-
-REFERENCES--
(1) MURABAYASHI, M., TAKAHASHI, Y., NAMBA,
S., MUKAIBO, T. : J. Nucl. Sci. Technol., 6131,
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(2) TAKAHASHI, Y., MURABAYASHI, M. : ibid., 12
(33, 133 (1975).
'O 300 500 700 900 (3) TAKAHASHI, Y. : J. Nucl. Muter., 51, 17 (1974).
71K (4) WALTER,A.J., DELL,R.M., GILCHRIST, K.E.,
1 0 : Zirconium (Present study), 2: Zirconium
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(Powell et uL(10)). 3 A : Zircaloy-2 (Present (5) DOUGLAS, T.B.: J . Res. Nut. Bur. Stand., A,
study), 4: Zircaloy-2 (Lucks et ul.(11)), 5 0 : 67A, 5, 403 (1963).
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-4, and zirconium 18, 233 (1966).
(8) DEEM,H.W., ELDRIDGE, E.A.: BMI-1644, (1963).
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