Zircaloy Plate Rolling Simulation with an Effective Strain-Rate-Dependent Stress-Updating Algorithm.

Zircaloy is a kind of cladding material for monolithic nuclear fuel plates, which has a strong strain-rate-dependent mechanical constitutive relation at the rolling temperature. In order to model the rolling process of monolithic nuclear fuel plates, it is critical to effectively define the mechanical properties of Zircaloy in the commercial finite element software. Different three-dimensional stress-updating algorithms are built, respectively, including a fully implicit algorithm, a simplified implicit one and an explicit one. The corresponding VUMAT subroutines suitable for explicit dynamic rolling simulation for a Zircaloy plate are developed, and the computation precision and efficiency are compared in ABAQUS. The simplified implicit stress-updating algorithm is determined to be the best choice. The effects of temperature, rolling velocity and reduction on the strain rate distribution, the deformation and rolling force are investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]