Corrosion and Oxidation Resistance Behaviors of Ta-Containing Low Alloying Zirconium

• Published in: Metals and materials international Vol. 27; no. 8; pp. 3079 - 3084
• Main Authors: Kim, Il-Hyun, Jung, Yang-Il, Choi, Byoung-Kwon, Kim, Hyun-Gil, Jang, Jae-Il
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul The Korean Institute of Metals and Materials 01.08.2021; Springer Nature B.V; 대한금속·재료학회
• Subjects: Alloying elements; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Corrosion resistance; Corrosion resistant alloys; Corrosion tests; Engineering Thermodynamics; Heat and Mass Transfer; High resistance; Iron; Machines; Magnetic Materials; Magnetism; Manufacturing; Materials Science; Metallic Materials; Niobium; Nuclear fuel elements; Oxidation; Oxidation resistance; Oxidation tests; Pressurized water; Processes; Solid Mechanics; Structural stability; Zircaloys (trademark); Zirconium alloys; Zirconium base alloys; 재료공학; Zirconium alloy; Manufacturing; Alloy development; Microstructure; Ta
• ISSN: 1598-9623; 2005-4149
• DOI: 10.1007/s12540-020-00610-2

Zirconium alloys are widely used to fabricate nuclear fuel claddings, and thus is desirable to improve the resistance of such alloys to corrosion and structural instability. In this study, Ta was used as an alloying element to improve the corrosion and oxidation resistance of zirconium alloys. The model alloy (TaZL) contained 0.03 wt% Ta and other elements with a proportion of less than 1 wt% in total (0.1 wt% Nb, 0.4 wt% Fe, 0.2 wt% Cr) in a zirconium base. The corrosion test involving pressurized water at 360 °C and oxidation test involving steam at 1200 °C indicated that TaZL exhibited the lowest weight gains among those of compared conventional and advanced Zr alloys. The corrosion and oxidation resistances of TaZL were respectively improved by 4 and 1.5 times compared to the corresponding values of Zircaloy-4. The microstructures of the oxide formed on TaZL were columnar along the oxide growth direction and did not change from columnar to equiaxed, which resulted in the high resistance of the alloy to corrosion and oxidation. Graphic Abstract