The elastic constants of reactor graphites

Abstract
The complete set of elastic constants’ has been determined for reactor Grade A graphite and also for a nearly isotropic graphite of similar density and crystallite size. The specimens used were irradiated in a hollow fuel element in the materials testing reactor BEPO under conditions of good temperature and neutron flux stability at 25°C and were re-measured periodically until all the elastic moduli had ceased to increase. The experimental values were then compared with theoretical values computed from current elastic constant values for single crystals and the anisotropy function describing the distribution of crystallite orientations in a block. The cases of uniform stress and uniform strain were considered, and the role of the porosity identified.

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