Abstract
Simulated pressurized water reactor conditions (330 °C, 15.6 MPa, ∼20 ppb oxygen) without irradiation were used to investigate the hydrothermal corrosion behavior of ultrasonic additively manufactured Zircaloy-4 up to 1000 h. X-ray computed tomography allowed for visualization of defects from processing and their progression after corrosion experiments. The specimens were found to have clear variability in the mass change data, compared to typical wrought Zircaloy-4 specimens. The variation in the mass change after exposure was attributed to weld defects connected to the specimen surface which allowed ingress of oxidant into the samples. Defects visualized by computed tomography were found via metallography and characterized. Ultrasonic additively manufactured Zircaloy-4 was found to have comparable corrosion behavior as wrought Zircaloy-4 for specimens which did not have clear surface defects along weld interfaces.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 155376 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 603 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2025 |
Funding
A. Willoughby, M. Stephens, Y. F. Su, and J. Horenburg at ORNL assisted with the experimental setup, characterization, and metallography. S. Bell and T. Koyanagi at ORNL provided manuscript reviews. This work was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nonproliferation Research and Development in the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05\u201300OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). A. Willoughby, M. Stephens, Y.F. Su, and J. Horenburg at ORNL assisted with the experimental setup, characterization, and metallography. S. Bell and T. Koyanagi at ORNL provided manuscript reviews. This work was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nonproliferation Research and Development in the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation under Contract DE- AC02-06CH11357 . This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| United States Government | |
| DOE Public Access Plan | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Office of Nonproliferation Research and Development | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| National Nuclear Security Administration Office of defense Nuclear Nonproliferation | DE- AC02-06CH11357, DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
Keywords
- Corrosion
- Fuel cladding
- Pressurized water reactor
- Ultrasonic additive manufacturing
- Zirconium