Pressure Effects on Zircaloy-4 Steamside Corrosion and Hydrogen Pick-up

Pressure Effects on Zircaloy-4 Steamside Corrosion and Hydrogen Pick-up

Experiments on the steamside corrosion and hydrogen pick-up of Zircaloy-4 under high pressure up to 10.3MPa are carried out to estimate the pressure effects on the kinetics. Temperature and reaction time are determined to be 37$0^{\circ}C$ and 72hours for the pre-transition test and $700^{\circ}C$ and 210minutes for the post-transition test, respectively. Results show that under 10.3MPa pressure the oxidation reaction is 50% and 100% enhanced in the pre-and the post-transition regime, respectively. Total amount of hydrogen uptake in the reaction is proportionally increased as corrosion weight gain is elevated. However, pick-up fraction is not affected by the high pressure. The fraction is almost twice greater than that in the waterside corrosion. Edges in the specimens play a certain role in the enhancement, especially in the post-transition regime. To identify physical property changes of oxide film such as micro-cracks or micro-pores, careful and thorough examination must be needed with some special techniques.