Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Study of oxidation behavior and tensile properties of candidate superalloys in the air ingress simulation scenario

  • Bin Du (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University) ;
  • Haoxiang Li (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University) ;
  • Wei Zheng (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University) ;
  • Xuedong He (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University) ;
  • Tao Ma (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University) ;
  • Huaqiang Yin (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University)
  • Received : 2022.06.18
  • Accepted : 2022.09.06
  • Published : 2023.01.25
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Abstract

Air ingress incidents are major safety accidents in very-high-temperature reactors (VHTRs). Air containing a high volume fraction of oxygen may cause severe oxidation of core components at the VHTR, especially for the significantly thin alloy tube wall in the intermediate heat exchanger (IHE). The research objects of this study are Inconel 617 and Incoloy 800H, two candidate alloys for IHE in VHTR. The air ingress accident scenario is simulated with high-temperature air flow at 950 ℃. A continuous oxide scale was formed on the surfaces of both the alloys after the experiment. Because the oxide scale of Inconel 617 has a loose structure, whereas that of Incoloy 800H is denser, Inconel 617 exhibited significantly more severe internal oxidation than Incoloy 800H. Further, Inconel 617 showed a significant decrease in ultimate tensile strength and plasticity after aging for 200 h, whereas Incoloy 800H maintained its tensile properties satisfactorily. Through control experiment under vacuum, we preliminarily concluded that serious internal oxidation is the primary reason for the decline in the tensile properties of Inconel 617.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China [2020YFB1901600]; National S&T Major Project [Grant No. ZX06901]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [No.11875176]. The research is supported by Modular HTGR Supercritical Power Generation Technology collaborative project between CNNC and Tsinghua University [Project No. ZHJTJZYFGWD2020].

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