Digital Scholarship@UNLV

Title

Fundamental and Applied Experimental Investigations of Corrosion of Steel by LBE under Controlled Conditions: Kinetics, Chemistry Morphology, and Surface Preparation

Authors

John Farley, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Allen L. Johnson, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Annual Report

Publication Date

2008

Publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Publisher Location

Las Vegas (Nev.)

First page number:

40

Last page number:

41

Abstract

Advanced nuclear processes and facilities (e.g., transmutation of nuclear waste, fast reactors, and spallation neutron sources) impose special demands on materials, which must withstand high temperatures, high radiation fields, and chemical corrosion. Proposed schemes for transmuting nuclear waste require a nonmoderating coolant such as lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) or liquid sodium. While LBE corrodes most steels, small amounts of oxygen in the LBE greatly reduces the corrosion rate, and could ideally re-grow a damaged oxide layer in situ. The protective oxide layer would thus be self-healing. However, a fundamental understanding of the role of oxygen and passivating oxide layers is presently incomplete.

During the past year, gas-phase experiments were conducted in which steel samples were oxidized in glass capsules at elevated temperatures in a tube furnace. Corroded steel samples were analyzed from a variety of sources, including the Delta loop at LANL and samples corroded at UNLV in the gas phase experiments.

Keywords

Corrosion and anti-corrosives; Eutectic alloys; Lead-bismuth alloys; Metallurgical laboratories – Design and construction; Metals—Cold working; Nuclear reactors — Materials — Testing; Steel — Corrosion

Controlled Subject

Corrosion and anti-corrosives--Testing; Eutectic alloys; Nuclear reactors--Materials--Testing

Disciplines

Materials Science and Engineering | Metallurgy | Nuclear Engineering | Oil, Gas, and Energy

File Format

pdf

File Size

405 KB

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Repository Citation

Farley, J., Johnson, A. L. (2008). Fundamental and Applied Experimental Investigations of Corrosion of Steel by LBE under Controlled Conditions: Kinetics, Chemistry Morphology, and Surface Preparation. 40-41.
Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/hrc_trp_sciences_materials/127