Effect of Cold Work on the Corrosion Resistance of an Austenitic Stainless Steel

Corrosion of candidate fuel cladding alloys has been a major concern in fuel cladding materials selection in the Canadian Gen- IV Supercritical Water-cooled Reactor (SCWR) conceptual design. In this study, austenitic stainless steel 310S was cold rolled in small steps in order to create severe shear deformation near the surface. Surface characteristics of the cold rolled specimen and the “as-received” specimens were compared. Their supercritical water (SCW) corrosion resistance was studied in a static autoclave, and evaluated using a FIB microscope. Although weight changes after corrosion test were similar for both samples, their subsurface microstructure has shown marked differences, which could affect their long terms corrosion and stress corrosion cracking susceptibility. The findings are consistent with the increased stress corrosion cracking (SCC) susceptibility of austenitic stainless steels in supercritical water when pre-strained.