Corrosion behavior of steels in flowing lead–bismuth under abnormal conditions

The project IP EUROTRANS, domain DEMETRA, is primary focused on the study of the technology of the interaction between steels and heavy liquid metals. The characterization of the metal response to sudden changes, simulating accidental conditions in liquid lead–bismuth eutectic was carried out. This paper reports the results of two hot-spot simulations with two different oxygen concentrations (10−8 wt%, 10−6 wt%). Each experiment was divided in two main periods: the initial, long period at the standard operating temperature 550 °C; the second, short period, at higher temperature, 650 °C. The damage that occurs on the austenitic steel AISI 316L and the ferritic–martensitic steel T91 was investigated. The amount of damage for both steels was higher at lower oxygen contents and the short, hot spot simulation, markedly affected the T91. At higher oxygen content the amount of damage decreased. A few, localized pits, were observed; however, there was no visible increment in the amount of damage after the hot spot simulation.