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Title: Effects of crud deposition of zircaloy corrosion

Conference · · Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6928828

Boiling heat transfer occurs throughout most of the core of boiling water reactors, and at specific core locations in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). For higher burnups, waterside corrosion of cladding may become a life-limiting feature of fuel rod design, especially when combined with daily load-following operation. Corrosion of Zircaloy has been extensively investigated. The major highlights gained from this study include the following: (1) in the absence of boiling, the presence of crud deposits increases the temperature at the Zircaloy/oxide interface and, therefore, accelerates Zircaloy corrosion dramatically, especially for thick crud layers. (2) Without considering the concentration effect, wick boiling nullifies the thermal resistance due to the crud deposit and, therefore, mitigates significantly the acceleration of Zircaloy corrosion due to crud deposit. (3) With the presence of LiOH, the concentration effect in the crud deposit due to wick boiling can be very detrimental to the Zircaloy corrosion resistance performance. (4) The model prediction agrees in trend with limited plant data.

Research Organization:
National Tsing-Hua Univ. (Taiwan)
OSTI ID:
6928828
Report Number(s):
CONF-8711195-; TRN: 88-028661
Journal Information:
Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc.; (United States), Vol. 55; Conference: American Nuclear Society winter meeting, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 15 Nov 1987
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English