Long‐term high‐temperature steam oxidation behavior of Cr‐coated Zircaloy‐4 alloy for accident tolerant fuel

Abstract

The Cr-coated Zircaloy-4 samples were prepared by arc ion plating to enhance the high-temperature oxidation resistance of Zircaloy-4 alloys for accident tolerant fuel claddings. The oxidation tests of the Cr coating were performed under 1473 K steam for 60, 120, and 240 min. The steam oxidation tests indicated that the Cr-coated Zircaloy-4 substrate had excellent hightemperature steam oxidation resistance to protect the fuel cladding from damage for at least 240 min. The weight gains and the thickness of the oxidation scale of the samples were measured to evaluate the oxidation kinetics of the Cr coating in 1473 K steam. In addition, the diffusion and interfacial evolution were analyzed during the oxidation process, and the steam oxidation behaviors of the Cr coatings were also discussed in detail.

Effect of Laser Surface Treatment on the Corrosion Resistance of Zircaloy-4 at High Temperature

“…Plasma electrolytic oxidation, magnetron sputtering vacuum arc plasma deposition, arc ion plating, cold spraying, a special physical vapor deposition system and laser beam scanning are widely utilized deposition technologies. Nitride coatings, MAX phase coatings, carbide coatings, pure metal coatings and high-entropy alloy coatings are the main coatings [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. To the best of our knowledge, the metallic Cr coating is considered to be the best choice for pressurized water reactor (PWR) due to their optimal corrosion resistance in high-temperature steam [4,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”