Kinetic study of the low temperature internal oxidation of nickel based model alloys exposed to PWR primary water

摘要

Two Ni-Fe-Cr ternary alloys have been oxidized in simulated pressurized water reactor primary water at 360°C for 1000 h. The chemical composition of those alloys were chosen in order to be representative of the one of chromium depleted areas under the oxide scale of industrial alloys (e.g. alloy 600) exposed in the same conditions. The resulting oxidized structures (corrosion scale and underlying metal) were characterized using complementary analytical methods (FEG-SEM, TEM, SIMS, optical microscopy). On the one hand, the characterized external oxide layer is very close to the one observed on industrial nickel-base alloys, hence validating the use of such model alloys. On the other hand, both free oxygen and oxides have been detected at grain boundaries several micrometers under the metal/oxide interface. Implications of such a finding on the involvedudtransport mechanisms for oxygen and the intergranular stress corrosion cracking resistance of nickel-base alloys are then discussed.