Corrosion behavior of cold-worked austenitic stainless steels in liquid lead-bismuth eutectic

Kurata, Yuji

The compatibility of steels with lead-bismuth (LBE) is one of critical issues to develop accelerator driven systems. It is expected to use cold-worked austenitic stainless steels as core materials for the improvement of irradiation resistance. The corrosion tests of solution-treated, 20% and 50% cold-worked 316SS and JPCA were conducted in oxygen-controlled LBE. A little ferritization was found at 500C under intermediate oxygen condition(1.410 wt.%). In the corrosion test at 550C for 1000h under low-oxygen condition (4.210 wt.%), the depth of the ferritization increased with increasing the cold work. Whereas only oxidation was found at 550C for 1000h under high-oxygen condition (about 10wt.%), the ferritization accompanied by Pb-Bi penetration was widely observed with oxidation at 550C for 3000h under the high-oxygen condition. The cold work accelerated the ferritization and Pb-Bi penetration notably.