Comparative study of diffusion of hydrogen in zircaloy-2, Zr-2.5%Nb and Zr-1.0%Nb alloys

The present paper describes about estimation of diffusion coefficient of hydrogen in three different zirconium based alloys namely Zircaloy-2, Zr-2.5% Nb and Zr-1%Nb alloy. The selected sample specimens were charged with hydrogen by electrochemical method. After vacuum sealing in quartz tube, samples were annealed at 673 K for about 100 h in resistance furnace. Slices were made from charge end employing slow moving cutter. Hydrogen mole fraction and then its concentration were determined employing by Hot Vacuum Extraction-Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (HVEQMS) technique. Diffusion coefficient was calculated using Fick’s second law of diffusion equation used in non- linear fitting code of Fortran language.