Compression deformation behavior of Zircaloy-4 alloy changing with activated twinning type at ambient temperature: experiment and modeling

It is widely accepted that twinning is important for the plastic deformation of zirconium alloys, although the corresponding roles of different types of twinning are rarely discussed. Here, the deformation behavior of Zircaloy-4 alloy at ambient temperature under compression along the rolling, transverse and normal directions of the rolled plate is studied by examination of macroscopic stress–strain curves, texture evolution and in situ lattice strain, combined with elastic–plastic self-consistent simulation. It is concluded that tensile twinning {102}〈101〉, tensile twinning {111}〈116〉 and compressive twinning {112}〈11〉 are the main deformation twinning types for compression along the three principal directions. A change in the activated twinning type induces differences in the plastic deformation mode and the stress/strain partitioning between parent and child grains. The work provides insight into the effects of deformation twinning on the plastic deformation behavior of Zircaloy-4 alloy.