Effect of Temperature on Fretting Wear and Corrosion of 316L Stainless Steel In the Liquid Lead-Bismuth Eutectic (LBE)

Abstract The change of temperature in liquid lead-bismuth eutectic(LBE) can lead to the formation of oxide film with different properties on the surface of structural steel. In the lead-cooled fast reactor, the heat transfer tubes are the important place for heat exchange in the steam generator. Affected by flow-induced vibration, the heat transfer tubes and the supports occur relative movement, resulting in fretting wear. The dense oxide film can protect the heat transfer tubes. Therefore, according to the temperature in operating conditions, this paper focuses on the influence of different temperatures on the fretting wear and corrosion of 316L austenitic stainless steel in LBE. The temperature ranges from 250°C to 600°C. With the increase of temperature, the friction coefficient decreases first and then increases, and the wear depth keeps increasing. When the temperature is 350°C–450°C, the wear depth increases slowly. Many small exfoliation layers and oxidized abrasive debris appeared on the wear scar surface. Meanwhile, no obvious dissolution corrosion occurred. When the temperature is 600°C, the wea depth increases rapidly to 9.63μm. Large exfoliation appeared on the wear scar surface. The NiO content on the wear scar surface decreases sharply to 2.36%, which indicates that the dissolution corrosion occurred severely, and the corrosion resistance of austenitic stainless steel decreased. 350°C–450°C is a temperature range, which is conducive to reducing the damage of fretting corrosion. The experimental results of this paper can provide reference data for the development of nuclear structural steel for lead-cooled fast reactors.