Experimental study and numerical simulation of high temperature (1100–1250 °C) oxidation of prior-oxidized zirconium alloy

Benoît Mazères (1, 2) , Clara Desgranges (2) , Caroline Toffolon-Masclet (3) , Daniel Monceau (1)

1 CIRIMAT - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche et d'ingenierie des matériaux
2 SCCME - Service de la Corrosion et du Comportement des Matériaux dans leur Environnement
3 SRMA - Service des Recherches Métallurgiques Appliquées

Previous experiments showed that the thickness of a thick prior-oxide layer formed on Zircaloy-4 fuel cladding can decrease during the first seconds at very high-temperature, before re-growing. We confirmed these results with oxidations performed at 1200°C on prior-oxidized Zircaloy-4. The initial reduction of the prior-oxide was explained by the balance of the oxygen fluxes at the metal/oxide interface and successfully reproduced by numerical simulations using a diffusion-reaction model. Different hypotheses were considered for the diffusion coefficients of oxygen in the different layers. This allowed discussing the effect of the prior-oxidation on the kinetics of oxygen embrittlement of the metallic substrate.

Mots clés: A. alloy; A. zirconium; B. modelling studies; C. high-temperature oxidation; C. oxygen diffusio

Domaines: Matériaux

Benoît Mazères, Clara Desgranges, Caroline Toffolon-Masclet, Daniel Monceau. Experimental study and numerical simulation of high temperature (1100–1250 °C) oxidation of prior-oxidized zirconium alloy. Corrosion Science, 2016, 103, pp.10-19. ⟨10.1016/j.corsci.2015.10.018⟩. ⟨hal-02429044⟩