Beyond the classical kinetic model for chronic graphite oxidation by moisture in high temperature gas-cooled reactors

Contescu, Cristian I.; Mee, Robert W.; Lee, Yoonjo (Jo Jo); Arregui-Mena, José D.; Gallego, Nidia C.; Burchell, Timothy D.; Kane, Joshua J.; Windes, William E.

doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2017.11.001

Title: Beyond the classical kinetic model for chronic graphite oxidation by moisture in high temperature gas-cooled reactors

Journal Article · Fri Nov 03 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Carbon

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2017.11.001· OSTI ID:1408580

^[1]; Mee, Robert W. ^[2];

^[1];

^[3]; Windes, William E. ^[3]

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Four grades of nuclear graphite with various microstructures were subjected to accelerated oxidation tests in helium with traces of moisture and hydrogen in order to evaluate the effects of chronic oxidation on graphite components in high temperature gas cooled reactors. Kinetic analysis showed that the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) model cannot consistently reproduce all results. In particular, at high temperatures and water partial pressures oxidation was always faster than the LH model predicts, with stronger deviations for superfine grain graphite than for medium grain grades. It was also found empirically that the apparent reaction order for water has a sigmoid-type variation with temperature which follows the integral Boltzmann distribution function. This suggests that the apparent activation with temperature of graphite reactive sites that causes deviations from the LH model is rooted in specific structural and electronic properties of surface sites on graphite. A semi-global kinetic model was proposed, whereby the classical LH model was modified with a temperature-dependent reaction order for water. The new Boltzmann-enhanced model (BLH) was shown to consistently predict experimental oxidation rates over large ranges of temperature (800-1100 oC) and partial pressures of water (3-1200 Pa) and hydrogen (0-300 Pa), not only for the four grades of graphite but also for the historic grade H-451. The BLH model offers as more reliable input for modeling the chemical environment effects during the life-time operation of new grades of graphite in advanced nuclear reactors operating at high and very high temperatures.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1408580

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1576049

Journal Information:: Carbon, Vol. 127, Issue C; ISSN 0008-6223

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 16 works

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