Adaptation of the point defect model to simulate oxidation kinetics of 316L stainless steel in the pressurised water reactor environment

Abstract

The kinetics of oxide growth on 316 L stainless steel was measured after exposing samples, to a typical primary water environment at three temperatures (290℃, 320℃ and 360℃) and for test durations ranging from 1 h to 7000 h. Contrary to expected Arrhenius behaviour, the oxide growth decreased as temperature increased in this range. The Point Defect Model has been adapted to accommodate this departure. It is argued that the oxide growth behaviour is linked to the degrading coherency across the metal/oxide interface and supported by grain orientation analysis that demonstrates temperature dependence for preferred oxide growth on specific grain orientations.