Comprehensive investigation of the role of Nb on the oxidation kinetics of Zr-Nb alloys
Zirconium oxidation, and the associated hydrogen pickup, has long been considered the life-limiting degradation mechanism of fuel elements in pressurized-water reactor (PWR) systems. Currently, PWRs use Zr-Nb alloys as the cladding material of choice. However, oxidation kinetics for Zr-Nb alloys can vary greatly depending on the Nb content; moreover, even Zr-Nb with the same composition can exhibit radically different oxidation kinetics if heat treated at different temperatures. To improve the fundamental understanding of the corrosion of Zr-Nb, it is necessary to determine mechanistically how Nb affects the oxidation kinetics of the overall system. To achieve this, nano-beam X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and modelling using the physically based C4 model have been performed in concert on samples of Zr-1.0Nb annealed at two different temperatures, 580 °C and 720 °C, and oxidized in an autoclave environment. Through TEM/EDS, it has been seen that β-Zr precipitates dissolved upon oxidation, releasing Nb to the surrounding environment, while β-Nb precipitates remain intact and retard oxidation of Nb. Comparison of the XANES results and C4 model predictions illustrate that space charge generated in the oxide can lead to subparabolic oxidation kinetics in Zr-Nb alloys, which have been shown to negatively affect the hydrogen-pickup fraction. However, sufficient Nb in solid solution can become oxidized to compensate this mechanism to maintain parabolic kinetics in select alloys.