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Title: Assessment of wear coefficients of nuclear zirconium claddings without and with pre-oxidation

Journal Article · · Wear
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Materials Science and Technology Division
  2. Westinghouse Electric Company, Hopkins, SC (United States)
  3. Blau Tribology Consulting, Enka, NC (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

In the cores of pressurized water nuclear reactors, water-flow induced vibration is known to cause claddings on the fuel rods to rub against their supporting grids. Such grid-to-rod-fretting (GTRF) may lead to fretting wear-through and the leakage of radioactive species. The surfaces of actual zirconium alloy claddings in a reactor are inevitably oxidized in the high-temperature pressurized water, and some claddings are even pre-oxidized. As a result, the wear process of the surface oxide film is expected to be quite different from the zirconium alloy substrate. In this paper, we attempt to measure the wear coefficients of zirconium claddings without and with pre-oxidation rubbing against grid samples using a bench-scale fretting tribometer. Results suggest that the volumetric wear coefficient of the pre-oxidized cladding is 50 to 200 times lower than that of the untreated cladding. In terms of the linear rate of wear depth, the pre-oxidized alloy wears about 15 times more slowly than the untreated cladding. Finally, fitted with the experimentally-determined wear rates, a stage-wise GTRF engineering wear model demonstrates good agreement with in-reactor experience in predicting the trend of cladding lives.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1261283
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1359968
Journal Information:
Wear, Vol. 356-357; ISSN 0043-1648
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 24 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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conference June 2008
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Cited By (1)

Tribological properties of microarc oxidation coatings on Zirlo alloy journal February 2019

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Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
grid-to-rod-fretting (GTRF)
nuclear zirconium claddings
wear coefficient
pre-oxidation
stage-wise wear model