Superplastic forming of zircaloy-2 pressure tube material

Abstract

Zircaloy, known to exhibit superplastic deformation in the temperature range of 800-850 degrees C, has been used for the forming of hemispherical domes. Conventional tensile test data was seen to satisfactorily predict the operating parameters in this alloy; these closely matched with that obtained by a simple bi-axial forming test. The cold work increases the formability and avoided apex cracking.