Abstract
In pressurized water reactors (PWRs), water flow induced vibrations cause contact and rubbing between the fuel rods and the supporting grid, a phenomenon known as Grid-to-Rod-Fretting (GTRF). GTRF may produce progressive wear damage on the fuel claddings leading to subsequent leakage of radioactive fission products. Various accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) concepts are being developed for higher resistance to the high temperature steam and one approach is to apply a cladding coating. In this study, fretting wear behavior of a candidate Cr-coating was investigated using a unique bench-scale autoclave testing rig mimicking the environment in an industrial full-assembly PWR simulator. The contact was under a realistically low load (~0.5 N) lubricated by deionized water at a temperature of 204 °C under a pressure of 20-23 bars. Results demonstrated that the Cr-coating significantly improved the cladding's wear resistance when tested against a commercial ZIRLO grid with or without pre-oxidization. In addition, the Cr-coating also reduced wear on the non-oxidized ZIRLO grid but slightly increased the wear on the pre-oxidized grid.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 203578 |
| Journal | Wear |
| Volume | 466-467 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 15 2021 |
Funding
Authors thank Dr. C. Kumara from ORNL for his assistance in AFIR testing and R. Parten and K. Cooley for sample preparation and test setup. This research was sponsored by the Advanced Fuels Campaign ( AFC ), Office of Nuclear Energy , US Department of Energy ( DOE ). Notes: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under contract no. DEAC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government retains, and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research by the DOE public access plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/ doe-public-access-plan). Authors thank Dr. C. Kumara from ORNL for his assistance in AFIR testing and R. Parten and K. Cooley for sample preparation and test setup. This research was sponsored by the Advanced Fuels Campaign (AFC), Office of Nuclear Energy, US Department of Energy (DOE). Notes: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under contract no. DEAC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government retains, and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research by the DOE public access plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| U.S. Government | |
| US Department of Energy | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | DEAC05-00OR22725 |
| Office of Nuclear Energy | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
Keywords
- Accident-tolerant fuel (ATF)
- Autoclave
- Cr-coating
- Grid-to-rod-fretting (GTRF)
- Pressurized water reactors (PWRs)
- Wear