Evaluation of Cavitation-Erosion Resistance of 316LN Stainless Steel in Mercury Containing Metallic Solutes

Cavitation-erosion resistance of 316LN stainless steel in mercury containing metallic solutes

“…It has been observed [12,[14][15][16] that metals dissolved in Hg tend to have an extremely high activity in the atomic state and are therefore relatively reactive with even trace oxygen in the environment. As a result, oxides of the solute metal tend to form quickly as a scum on the surface of the host Hg, and these oxides may also catalyze the oxidation of Hg itself.…”

“…(Immersion depth and solution volume are variables with some influence on the quantitative results of cavitation tests -see Ref. [16] for additional details).…”

“…[12] -that included 1 wt% each of Zn, Pb, and Sn. Other details associated with preparation of Hg solutions appear elsewhere [16].…”

“…The test specimens were machined from a block of 316LN stainless steel that was also used as a source for specimens in previous testing [10,11,16]. The composition of the 316LN is given in Table 2.…”

“…Details associated with the preparation of Hg mixtures and the test results can be found in Ref. [16], and Table 3 contains generalized results from these cavitation tests for ease of comparison.…”