Oxidation Behavior of Steel with Cr Content and Water Flow Rate

Abstract

Fast water flow facilitates ferrous ion transport leading to flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) of carbon steel and the possibility of a large accident through a failure of a secondary pipe in a nuclear power plant. Ion transport is directly linked to oxide properties such as the thickness, chemical composition and porosity. This work deals with a precise observation of the cross section of the corroded specimen focusing on an oxide passivity and its thickness using SEM (scanning electron microscope) and TEM (transmission electron microscope) as well as an apparent weight loss and a surface observation for the specimens corroded using a rotating cylindrical electrode autoclave system in pure water of pH 7 at 150°C having dissolved oxygen below 1 ppb within a flow rate range of 0 to 10 m/s. The Cr content in steel was changed from 0.02 to 2.4 wt%. Increasing the Cr content in the alloy, the FAC rate and oxide thickness decreased. The oxide porosity tends to decrease with the Cr content and immersion time owing to the development of Cr containing oxide. The oxidation behavior is not changed with the immersion time.