Influences of Boric Acid and Lithium Hydroxide on Oxide Film of Type 316 Stainless Steel in PWR Simulated Primary Water

Abstract

  In order to understand the influences of boric acid and lithium hydroxide on the IGSCC of type 316 stainless steel, an oxide film was analyzed in simulated PWR primary water while varying the boric acid and lithium hydroxide concentrations. It was found that, although boric acid and lithium hydroxide did not affect the structure and chemical composition of the surface oxide film remarkably, a lower boric acid concentration or a higher lithium concentration produced an oxide film with a thicker surface. It was considered that the lower boric acid concentration and higher lithium hydroxide concentration caused a higher magnetite solubility at the surface of the material and that the higher magnetite solubility caused a higher iron concentration gradient, which promoted iron dissolution from the material and the formation of a thicker oxide film. It was found that the thicker oxide film caused a higher IGSCC susceptibility and that the corrosion was the dominant factor of the IGSCC mechanism. No significant change was found in the morphologies of crack tip oxide in different bulk water chemistry systems, thus producing CT specimens with similar crack growth rates.