Effect of coating and surface modification on the corrosion resistance of selected alloys in supercritical water

Materials selection is one of the key tasks in Gen-IV reactor development. There is no known material that can meet the expected core outlet conditions of the Canadian SCWR concept (625°C core outlet temperature). High-Cr steels with excellent corrosion resistance are often susceptible to embrittlement due to the precipitation of sigma and other phases in the microstructure. Low-Cr steels such as P91 and oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steels exhibit good high-temperature mechanical properties, but the lack of sufficient Cr content makes this group alloy corrode too fast. Improvement in this alloy is needed in order for it to be considered as a piping construction material. In this report, the development of a metallic coating on a P91 substrate is discussed. Recent effort on selection of in-core cladding alloys has focused on heat-resistant 3xx series stainless steels. These alloys have higher strength at high-temperature ranges, but corrosion and stress-corrosion cracking resistance are a concern. Metallic coating and surface modification are considered as possible solutions to overcome this challenge. The effects of surface modification on the corrosion rate of austenitic steels were also reported in this paper. As-machined surface showed much better corrosion resistance than polished surface and advanced surface analyses showed distinct differences in the nature and the morphology of the surface layer metal. Possible mechanisms for improved corrosion performance are discussed.