Study on the high-temperature corrosion behavior of 316Ti austenitic stainless steel for lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor application

Abstract

The austenitic stainless steel 316Ti with the addition of titanium is a promising candidate for fuel cladding due to its excellent corrosion resistance performance in LBE. In this paper, the corrosion behaviour of 316Ti steel in the static Lead-Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) for 1000 h at 550 °C is studied. The surface and cross-section morphologies of samples after corrosion were examined using Scanning Electron Microscope, Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy and X-ray Diffraction. It concluded that the 316Ti undergoes both oxidations accompanied by the formation of a double-layer oxides and elements leaching that resulted in the nonuniform distribution of Cr, Ni, and Fe near the matrix/LBE interfac. The external oxide film mostly consisted by Fe3O4, and the internal oxide layer is primarily Fe-Cr spinel.