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Purpose The purpose of this study is to reveal the interaction behavior between tubes and supports in steam generators and study the fretting wear of tubes in different load conditions. Design/methodology/approach The fretting wear tests were conducted to investigate the fretting wear behavior of the tubes against three kinds of supports: the drilled circular holes (DCH), anti-vibration bars (AVBs) and trefoil orifice holes (TOH), which are widely used supports in nuclear steam generators. In this paper, the comparison of the interaction characteristic with different impact factors was established such as clearances and loads in the three kinds of supports. The fretting wear volume and scars were analyzed by a scanning electron microscope and 3D profiler. Findings The results show that impact can play a more important role in the DCH and TOH supports than that in AVBs. The normal work rate can be underestimated in the DCH and TOH supports. Originality/value The results of this study can be reference of fretting wear calculation in the design of steam generators with different kinds of supports and can be guidance in the maintenance of steam generators. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-12-2019-0513/

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17-4PH stainless steel is used as the material of leadscrew in the reactor control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) in nuclear power plants (NPP). To improve the poor tribological properties without affecting corrosion of 17-4PH stainless steel in-service, the wear and general corrosion properties of low-temperature plasma nitrided 17-4PH stainless steel with a work-hardened sublayer were investigated. Low-temperature plasma nitriding for specimens with work-hardened sublayer was carried out at 390 °C for 1 h, 30 h. The wear test and the general corrosion test were conducted in flowing water at 280 °C and 13 MPa. The general corrosion test was carried out for 2000 h. The results show that the wear volume of the un-nitrided specimen with a work-hardened sublayer varies slightly compared to the unnitrided specimens with a polished surface (without a work-hardened sublayer), but the weight loss of general corrosion is greatly reduced (by a factor of about 3). The wear volumes of the 390 °C / 1 h treated specimen and the 390 °C / 30 h treated specimen are reduced by 3.8 and 4.4 times compared with the non-nitrided specimens (with a work-hardened sublayer), respectively, but the weight loss of general corrosion increases by 1.56 and 1.66 times, respectively.