Oxidation and Corrosion Mechanism of Steel Alloys and Inconel 600 Alloy in Liquid–Lead-Bismuth Eutectic

Abstract

The alloys used in this study were two types pf stainless steels (304SS and316 SS) , low alloy steel (Type T22-ASTM) and Inconel 600 alloy `(nickelbasesuperalloy). The oxidation mechanism were studied for three steelalloys and for inconel 600 in liquid Pb-Bi eutectic (LBE) in the temperaturerange 450- 550 oC using stagnant test . A model based on the experimentsof Cr oxidation at high temperature with scale vaporization was applied tothe present oxidation process by replacing the vaporization rate with themass-transfer-corrosion rate. The results indicate that all steel alloysshowed an oxidation/corrosion behavior. The oxidation kinetics is parabolicand the corrosion kinetics is linear. The parabolic oxidation rate constantare of the following order (Kp) 304SS (Kp) 316SS > (Kp) low alloy steel .The scale-removal-rate constants Kr by mass transfer corrosion are of thefollowing order (Kr) inconel > (Kr) 316SS > (Kr) 304SS . The weight lossincreases with increasing Ni content in the steel alloys.