The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory. Athena is a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, as selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), X-IFU aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over a hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR (i.e. in the course of its preliminary definition phase, so-called B1), browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters, such as the instrument efficiency, spectral resolution, energy scale knowledge, count rate capability, non X-ray background and target of opportunity efficiency. Finally, we briefly discuss the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation and the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. The X-IFU will be provided by an international consortium led by France, The Netherlands and Italy, with ESA member state contributions from Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, with additional contributions from the United States and Japan.The French contribution to X-IFU is funded by CNES, CNRS and CEA. This work has been also supported by ASI (Italian Space Agency) through the Contract 2019-27-HH.0, and by the ESA (European Space Agency) Core Technology Program (CTP) Contract No. 4000114932/15/NL/BW and the AREMBES - ESA CTP No.4000116655/16/NL/BW. This publication is part of grant RTI2018-096686-B-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”. This publication is part of grant RTI2018-096686-B-C21 and PID2020-115325GB-C31 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033

Développement d'essais de ballonnement instrumentés pour la caractérisation et la simulation du fluage secondaire de gaines en Zr-4 dans des conditions thermo-mécaniques représentatives d'un APRP

The present work investigates the steady-state creep behavior of Stress Relieved Annealed Zircaloy-4 claddings under thermo-mechanical conditions simulating a Loss-Of-Coolant Accident (LOCA) in a primary loop of Pressurized Water Reactors. It is part of the PERFROI project focusing on the flow blockage within fuel rods bundle and its potential impact on the cool ability of a nuclear core reactor. The present work includes three main elements that are (a) the design, the performance and the processing of an innovative experiment, (b) the modeling of the tests and the determination of steady-state creep constitutive laws at temperatures ranging from 750 to 850 °C and (c) the preliminary study of the corrosion effect on the Zr-4 claddings creep behavior. An experiment addressing to heterogeneous thermal conditions was designed using an induction heating device. The creep behavior of metals at high temperatures is known to be very sensitive to the temperature. Under an internal pressurization of the cladding this thermal gradient induces its heterogeneous deformation. Using this configuration and three successive internal pressure loadings with a single experiment a lot of thermal mechanical conditions are available. Both thermal and kinematics full field measurements are performed into a 20 mm gauge length located between the induction coils using respectively near infra-red thermography and two dimensional digital image correlation. These two key digital image methods are assessed using dedicated experiments. The tests are modeled using the ABAQUS commercial software. The expected creep behavior law is updated using finite element model calculations included into a Gauss-Newton solver. The method was validated using virtual experiments and then applied to the actual tests. A high consistency between the experiments is obtained and is in agreement with available literature data. Norton exponent and activation energy maps are plotted into the thermal mechanical condition range of interest. These parameters highlight changes of dominant deformation mechanisms in the alpha-phase domain at a 26 MPa von Mises stress and of micro-structure at an 810 °C temperature (at which phase transformation is expected). In the mixed phase domain, the material parameters are similar to those associated in the literature data with super plasticity deformation mechanism. Finally, experiments are performed on pre-oxidized samples at 800 °C. The rupture of the outer zirconia and oxygen enriched alpha layers is observed during the test at a 1.1\% hoop strain.L'étude réalisée au cours de cette thèse s'intéresse au fluage secondaire de gainages de Zircaloy-4 détendu dans des conditions représentatives d'un Accident de Perte de Réfrigérant Primaire (APRP) dans le circuit primaire d'un réacteur à eau pressurisée. Elle s'intègre dans le cadre du projet ANR PERFROI. Ce travail s'articule autour de trois axes que sont la conception d'essais de fluage à haute température et en pression interne sur des gaines, leur réalisation et exploitation, la modélisation de ces essais et la caractérisation du comportement au fluage secondaire de cet alliage, et l'étude du fluage secondaire d'éprouvettes de Zr-4 pré-oxydées. Le banc d'essai est conçu pour induire un chargement thermique hétérogène le long des éprouvettes tubulaires testées en utilisant un chauffage par induction. Le fluage à haute température des métaux est très dépendant de la température. Ce gradient thermique couplé à une pression interne mène alors à une déformation hétérogène de l'éprouvette dans l'axe du tube. En réalisant plusieurs chargements en pression interne, plusieurs conditions thermo-mécaniques sont appliquées en un seul essai. Les essais sont instrumentés de manière à mesurer les distributions cinématique et thermique dans une région de 20 mm située entre les spires de l'inducteur. Deux méthodes d'analyse d'images numériques sont adaptées dans ce but et ont été validées par des essais dédiés. Les essais sont modélisés sous le logiciel commercial ABAQUS6.11-2. Un recalage d'une loi de fluage secondaire est réalisé, par des calculs éléments finis intégrés dans un solveur de Gauss-Newton. Cette démarche est validée avec un essai virtuel puis appliquée à 9 essais réalisés sur des échantillons de Zr-4 vierge. Les résultats permettent de déterminer à la fois l'influence de la température et du chargement mécanique de manière fine pour la gamme de température et pression souhaitée. Ils mettent en évidence un changement brutal de comportement à une température de 810 °C, correspondant au début de la transition de la phase alpha vers un matériau biphasé. De plus, les exposants de Norton identifiés dans le domaine alpha pour des contraintes inférieures à 25 MPa sont de l'ordre de l'unité, et entre 4 et 5 pour les contraintes supérieures. Ces ordres de grandeurs sont respectivement associés dans la littérature à des mécanismes de fluage par diffusion et dislocation. Au-dessus de 810 °C, les caractéristiques associées dans la littérature à la superplasticité sont mis en évidence : l'exposant de Norton est compris entre 2,5 et 3,5 et l'énergie d'activation est supérieure à 300 kJ/mol. Des essais sont enfin menés sur des éprouvettes seulement pré-hydrurées, puis pré-oxydées et pré-hydrurées. Les mesures réalisées pendant ces essais sont associées à des métallographies pour mettre en évidence l'effet des couches de zircone et de phase alpha enrichie en oxygène sur la déformation de la gaine à 800 °C

Design of instrumented ballooning tests for the characterization and simulation of secondary creep of Zr-4 claddings under thermo-mechanical conditions representative of a LOCA

L'étude réalisée au cours de cette thèse s'intéresse au fluage secondaire de gainages de Zircaloy-4 détendu dans des conditions représentatives d'un Accident de Perte de Réfrigérant Primaire (APRP) dans le circuit primaire d'un réacteur à eau pressurisée. Elle s'intègre dans le cadre du projet ANR PERFROI. Ce travail s'articule autour de trois axes que sont la conception d'essais de fluage à haute température et en pression interne sur des gaines, leur réalisation et exploitation, la modélisation de ces essais et la caractérisation du comportement au fluage secondaire de cet alliage, et l'étude du fluage secondaire d'éprouvettes de Zr-4 pré-oxydées. Le banc d'essai est conçu pour induire un chargement thermique hétérogène le long des éprouvettes tubulaires testées en utilisant un chauffage par induction. Le fluage à haute température des métaux est très dépendant de la température. Ce gradient thermique couplé à une pression interne mène alors à une déformation hétérogène de l'éprouvette dans l'axe du tube. En réalisant plusieurs chargements en pression interne, plusieurs conditions thermo-mécaniques sont appliquées en un seul essai. Les essais sont instrumentés de manière à mesurer les distributions cinématique et thermique dans une région de 20 mm située entre les spires de l'inducteur. Deux méthodes d'analyse d'images numériques sont adaptées dans ce but et ont été validées par des essais dédiés. Les essais sont modélisés sous le logiciel commercial ABAQUS6.11-2. Un recalage d'une loi de fluage secondaire est réalisé, par des calculs éléments finis intégrés dans un solveur de Gauss-Newton. Cette démarche est validée avec un essai virtuel puis appliquée à 9 essais réalisés sur des échantillons de Zr-4 vierge. Les résultats permettent de déterminer à la fois l'influence de la température et du chargement mécanique de manière fine pour la gamme de température et pression souhaitée. Ils mettent en évidence un changement brutal de comportement à une température de 810 °C, correspondant au début de la transition de la phase alpha vers un matériau biphasé. De plus, les exposants de Norton identifiés dans le domaine alpha pour des contraintes inférieures à 25 MPa sont de l'ordre de l'unité, et entre 4 et 5 pour les contraintes supérieures. Ces ordres de grandeurs sont respectivement associés dans la littérature à des mécanismes de fluage par diffusion et dislocation. Au-dessus de 810 °C, les caractéristiques associées dans la littérature à la superplasticité sont mis en évidence : l'exposant de Norton est compris entre 2,5 et 3,5 et l'énergie d'activation est supérieure à 300 kJ/mol. Des essais sont enfin menés sur des éprouvettes seulement pré-hydrurées, puis pré-oxydées et pré-hydrurées. Les mesures réalisées pendant ces essais sont associées à des métallographies pour mettre en évidence l'effet des couches de zircone et de phase alpha enrichie en oxygène sur la déformation de la gaine à 800 °C.The present work investigates the steady-state creep behavior of Stress Relieved Annealed Zircaloy-4 claddings under thermo-mechanical conditions simulating a Loss-Of-Coolant Accident (LOCA) in a primary loop of Pressurized Water Reactors. It is part of the PERFROI project focusing on the flow blockage within fuel rods bundle and its potential impact on the cool ability of a nuclear core reactor. The present work includes three main elements that are (a) the design, the performance and the processing of an innovative experiment, (b) the modeling of the tests and the determination of steady-state creep constitutive laws at temperatures ranging from 750 to 850 °C and (c) the preliminary study of the corrosion effect on the Zr-4 claddings creep behavior. An experiment addressing to heterogeneous thermal conditions was designed using an induction heating device. The creep behavior of metals at high temperatures is known to be very sensitive to the temperature. Under an internal pressurization of the cladding this thermal gradient induces its heterogeneous deformation. Using this configuration and three successive internal pressure loadings with a single experiment a lot of thermal mechanical conditions are available. Both thermal and kinematics full field measurements are performed into a 20 mm gauge length located between the induction coils using respectively near infra-red thermography and two dimensional digital image correlation. These two key digital image methods are assessed using dedicated experiments. The tests are modeled using the ABAQUS commercial software. The expected creep behavior law is updated using finite element model calculations included into a Gauss-Newton solver. The method was validated using virtual experiments and then applied to the actual tests. A high consistency between the experiments is obtained and is in agreement with available literature data. Norton exponent and activation energy maps are plotted into the thermal mechanical condition range of interest. These parameters highlight changes of dominant deformation mechanisms in the alpha-phase domain at a 26 MPa von Mises stress and of micro-structure at an 810 °C temperature (at which phase transformation is expected). In the mixed phase domain, the material parameters are similar to those associated in the literature data with super plasticity deformation mechanism. Finally, experiments are performed on pre-oxidized samples at 800 °C. The rupture of the outer zirconia and oxygen enriched alpha layers is observed during the test at a 1.1\% hoop strain

Secondary creep behavior of Zr-4 claddings under LOCA conditions

International audienc

Thermo mechanical behavior of fresh zircaloy-4 under LOCA conditions

International audienceDuring a Loss of Coolant Accident in a Pressurized Water Reactor, a break on the reactor primary circuit leads to the quick water depressurization from 155 to almost 1 bar. The fast temperature g of the fuel cladding from 320°C to 1200°C induces filling gas pressure increase. Thus, the pressure difference between the inner and outer tube surfaces grows, leading to important hoop stresses. Simultaneously, steam environment affects the creep behaviour of the cladding by oxidation and hydriding. Hydriding has several noticeable effects [1] on the creep behaviour of Zircaloy-4, creep rate decrease, embrittlement and shift of phase transition temperatures (α→ α + β, α + β → β) towards lower temperature. A custom experimental setup is used to study the macroscopic secondary creep behaviour of as-received and hydrided zircaloy-4 (cladding material) under a representative thermo-mechanical loading. The experimental matrix focuses on the following ranges, temperature between 700°C and 800°C (the phase transformation temperature of as-fabricated material is about 820°C), hoop stress in a range of 20 - 75 MPa and hydrogen content between 0 and 650 ppm. Experimental setup, post-treatment and preliminary results are here presented on as-received zircaloy-4 (Zr - 1,3 Sn - 0,2 Fe - 0,1 Cr)

Coupled Experimental / Numerical Approach to Determine the Creep Behavior of Zr-4 Cladding Under LOCA Condition

International audienc

Secondary creep behavior of Zr-4 claddings under LOCA conditions

International audienceThe thermo-mechanical behavior of Zircaloy-4 fuel rods under Loss-Of-Coolant Accident (LOCA) conditions is investigated. A custom experimental setup is dedicated to the high-temperature creep ballooning study of 90mm long cladding samples. Creep tests were performed under an inert environment (argon), for temperatures from 750 to 850 °C and internal pressures ranging from 1 to 5MPa. During its operating life, Zr-4 cladding is submitted to oxidation and hydriding. These parameters strongly influence the creep behavior of Zirconium alloys at high temperatures. A first campaign on as-received Zr-4 was performed. Creep-rates are computed using 2-Dimensional Digital Image Correlation (2D-DIC) and are correlated to local temperatures measured using Near Infra-Red thermography. As-received Zr-4 behavior laws are determined using Finite Element Model Updating (FEMU). Norton exponents and activation energies are determined for thermal-mechanical conditions of the performed tests. The stress and temperature effects on the steady-state creep parameters are highlighted in this study

Secondary creep behavior of Zr-4 claddings under LOCA conditions

International audienceThe thermo-mechanical behavior of Zircaloy-4 fuel rods under Loss-Of-Coolant Accident (LOCA) conditions is investigated. A custom experimental setup is dedicated to the high-temperature creep ballooning study of 90mm long cladding samples. Creep tests were performed under an inert environment (argon), for temperatures from 750 to 850 °C and internal pressures ranging from 1 to 5MPa. During its operating life, Zr-4 cladding is submitted to oxidation and hydriding. These parameters strongly influence the creep behavior of Zirconium alloys at high temperatures. A first campaign on as-received Zr-4 was performed. Creep-rates are computed using 2-Dimensional Digital Image Correlation (2D-DIC) and are correlated to local temperatures measured using Near Infra-Red thermography. As-received Zr-4 behavior laws are determined using Finite Element Model Updating (FEMU). Norton exponents and activation energies are determined for thermal-mechanical conditions of the performed tests. The stress and temperature effects on the steady-state creep parameters are highlighted in this study

Thermo mechanical behavior of fresh zircaloy-4 under LOCA conditions

International audienc

Coupled Experimental / Numerical Approach to Determine the Creep Behavior of Zr-4 Cladding Under LOCA Condition

International audienceThe thermo-mechanical behavior of Zircaloy-4 fuel rods under Loss-Of-Coolant Accident (LOCA) conditions is investigated. A custom experimental setup is dedicated to the high-temperature creep ballooning study of 90mm long cladding samples. Creep tests were performed under an inert environment (argon), for temperatures from 750 to 850 °C and internal pressures ranging from 1 to 5MPa. As the high-temperature creep of metals is strongly influenced by the temperature, the setup allow for a heterogeneous thermal distribution along the specimen. A unique test provides a rich database about the steady-state creep of the alloy. A first campaign is dedicated to bare Stress Relieved Annealed Zr-4. Creep-rates are computed along a generatrix of the tube using 2-Dimensional Digital Image Correlation (2D-DIC) and are correlated to thermal distribution measurements allowed by Near Infra-Red Thermography (NIRT). As-received Zr-4 behavior laws are determined using Finite Element Model Updating (FEMU). Norton exponents and activation energies are determined for thermal-mechanical conditions of the performed tests