SURFACE ANALYTICAL AND ELECTROCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF OXIDE FILMS FORMED ON INCOLOY-800 AND CARBON STEEL IN SIMULATED SECONDARY WATER CHEMISTRY CONDITIONS OF PHWRS

摘要

The water chemistry in the Steam Generator (SG) Circuits of Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) is controlled by the all volatile treatment (AVT) procedure, wherein volatile amines are used to maintain the alkaline pH required for minimizing the corrosion of the structural materials. Earlier, Monel and morpholine were used as the Steam Generator material and the alkalizing agent respectively. However, currently they are replaced by Incoloy-800 and Ethanolamine (ETA). ETA was chosen because of its beneficial effects due to low pK_b & K_d values, loading behaviour on condensate polishing unit (CPU) and also on cost comparison with other amines. Since we have Incoloy-800 on the tube side and Carbon steel(CS) on the shell side in the SG circuits, efforts were taken to study the nature of the oxide films formed on these surfaces and to evaluate the corrosion resistance and electrochemical properties of the same, under simulated secondary water chemistry conditions of PHWRs containing different dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration. In this context, experiments were carried out by exposing finely polished CS and Incoloy -800 coupons to ETA based medium in the presence and absence of Hydrazine (pH: 9.2) at 240 °C under two different DO conditions (< 10ppb and 200 ppb) for 24 hours. Oxide films formed under these conditions were characterized using SEM, Raman spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance, polarization and Mott-Schottky techniques. Further, studies at a controlled DO level ( < 10 ppb) were carried out for different time durations viz., 7-and 30- days. The composition, surface morphology, oxide thickness, resistance, type of semi-conductivity and defect density of the oxide films were evaluated and correlated with the DO levels and discussed elaborately in this paper.