Oxidation kinetics of low-Sn Zircaloy-4 at the temperature range from 773 to 1573 K

Nagase, Fumihisa ; Otomo, Takashi; Uetsuka, Hiroshi

Isothermal oxidation tests in flowing steam were performed on low-Sn Zircaloy-4 cladding tubes over the wide temperature range from 773 to 1573 K in order to obtain oxidation kinetics applicable to various loss-of-coolant accident conditions of LWRs. The oxidation generally obeys a parabolic rate law for the examined time range up to 3600s at temperatures from 1273 K to 1573K, and for a limited time range up to 900s from 773 to 1253 K. A cubic rate law is preferable for evaluating the longer-term oxidation at 1253 K and below. The parabolic rate law constant and the cubic rate law constant for measured weight gain were evaluated at every examined temperature, and Arrhenius-type equations were determined in order to describe the temperature dependence of the rate constants. It was indicated that the change of the oxidation kinetics from the cubic to the parabolic rate and the discontinuities in the temperature dependence of the rate constants are caused by the monoclinic/tetragonal phase transformation of ZrO.