Interface reactions and mechanical properties of FeCrAl-coated Zircaloy-4

Oxidation kinetics of Cr-coated zirconium alloy: Effect of coating thickness and microstructure

“…There is the protective Cr 2 O 3 layer (∼3.5 μm) at the surface, residual Cr (up to 5.5 μm), non uniform inter diffusion Cr Zr layer, α Zr (O) layer with the thickness of ∼15−30 μm. Under these oxidation conditions, the Cr 2 Zr layer has 1.9 2.7 μm thickness that well correlates with the recent studies [9,12,34]. The importance of coating thickness and microstructure at high temperatures is also evidenced by several possible processes: Cr volatilization [10,16] with formation of gaseous species and delamination/cracking of the protective Cr 2 O 3 layer at the oxide/metal interface.…”

Development of Accident Tolerant Fuel Options For Near Term Applications

“…The major finding of this work was that introduction of oxidation resistant claddings such as FeCrAl show notable but modest gains in coping time under various scenarios including unmitigated large break loss-of-coolant accident and short term and long term station black out for the 3-loop PWR reactor system. 12,13,14 The coping time was also found to be function of the chosen figure of merit (FOM). In our work, the primarily FOMs, were time to onset of significant hydrogen production (~kg) and time to onset of cladding melt for MELCOR and TRACE codes, respectively.…”

Recent Advances in Protective Coatings for Accident Tolerant Zr-Based Fuel Claddings

“…Dabney et al showed that thick FeCrAl coatings obtained by cold spraying demonstrate high oxidation resistance during autoclave tests and HT oxidation in the air [84]. However, a fast diffusion of Fe from FeCrAl coating to Zr alloys caused a thick interlayer composed of (Fe,Cr)2Zr, FeZr3 and FeZr2 Laves phases (Figure 3a,b) [85]. [84] with permission by Elsevier.…”

“…Interdiffusion also shows a negative effect on FeCrAl-coated Zr alloys [180]. In this case, the fast diffusion of Fe and Cr resulted in the formation of brittle intermetallic compounds such as Fe 2 Zr, FeZr 2 , FeZr 3 and Zr(Cr,Fe) 2 , as well as in a low melting-point of Zr-Fe or Zr-Fe-Cr eutectic phases [81,85,181]. Thus, the eutectic phases and the mismatch of CTE between Zr alloy and intermetallics can cause the formation of a non-protective scale on the oxides and the generation of micro-cracks.…”