About this Abstract |
Meeting |
2022 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
Symposium
|
Synergistic Irradiation, Corrosion, and Microstructural Evolution in Nuclear Materials
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Presentation Title |
Dramatic E-beam Enhancement of Zircalloy-4 Corrosion |
Author(s) |
David Bartels |
On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
David Bartels |
Abstract Scope |
Experimental results will be presented for remarkable enhancement of zircalloy-4 corrosion by 2.5MeV E-beam (0.16mA/cm2) exposure. The 400 micron thick samples form the interface between accelerator vacuum, and deionized, H2-saturated water held at high temperature under 150atm pressure. Experiments were conducted both as a function of exposure time and at several temperatures. Relative to thermal corrosion rates, the E-beam acceleration is startling. At 100oC, an oxide layer of 0.8 microns was generated in only 12 hours. This would take decades in an autoclave.
Acceleration of this magnitude can only arise if the E-beam directly affects the rate-limiting step. Corrosion requires both O- ion transport and electron transport through the growing zirconium oxide layer; either process could be rate-limiting. We believe this E-beam experiment provides definitive proof that electron transport is rate-limiting in the initial stages of zircalloy corrosion, a conclusion that runs counter to most models in the literature. |
Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
Keywords |
Nuclear Materials, Other, |