Application of a magnetic suspension balance to the oxidation study of the zirconium based alloys under high pressurewater vapour

Yacoub Dali (1, 2, 3, 4) , Marc Tupin (4) , Philippe Bossis (4) , Michèle Pijolat (1, 2, 3) , Françoise Valdivieso (1, 2, 3)

1 ProcESS-ENSMSE - Département Procédés et évolution des systèmes avec solides
2 SPIN-ENSMSE - Centre Sciences des Processus Industriels et Naturels
3 LPMG-EMSE - Laboratoire des Procédés en Milieux Granulaires
4 LM2E - Laboratoire de Microscopie et d'Etudes de l'Endommagement

The fuel claddings in the Pressurised Water Reactor are corroded in water at high temperature and high pressure. The technical device ableto follow continuously the corrosion rate in conditions close to this medium does not yet exist. That is the reason why a high pressure thermogravimetric installation based on magnetic suspension has been designed to study in situ the oxidation kinetics of the zirconium based alloys under water vapour until 50 bars of pressure at 415°C. The accuracy of measurements is about 5•10–5 g under 2 bars, and 10–4 g under 50 bars. The reproducibility of measurements was verified and the deviation regarding post test weighing at room temperature is around 5•10–5 g what is clearly satisfying. Finally, the results presented in this work allow validating the high pressure thermogravimetric measurements obtained with this magnetic suspension device.

Keywords: high pressure; kinetics; magnetic suspension; oxidation; steam; thermogravimetry; Zircaloy-4

Domains: Other; Chemical and Process Engineering

Yacoub Dali, Marc Tupin, Philippe Bossis, Michèle Pijolat, Françoise Valdivieso. Application of a magnetic suspension balance to the oxidation study of the zirconium based alloys under high pressurewater vapour. Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, 2009, 96 (1), pp.155-160. ⟨10.1007/s10973-008-8901-x⟩. ⟨hal-00408986⟩