原子力システム用超耐熱ニオブ基合金の設計

Abstract

Nb-based alloys are ones of the promising materials for structural applications in advanced nuclear power systems. A systematic estimation for high-temperature tensile strength, high-temperature creep strength, corrosion resistance to liquid sodium and alloy density was performed in order to get useful information for the design of the Nb-based alloys, as was similarily done for Mo-based alloys.The high-temperature micro-hardness and the high-temperature tensile strength were found to be predictable using the same calculation method employed in the Mo-based alloys. The differences in the atomic radius and in the Young’s modulus between the Nb atom and alloying elements were taken into account in the prediction. The melting temperature was calculated readily by taking the compositional average of melting temperatures for constituent metals, and used as an indication for the creep strength of alloys. The corrosion resistance to liquid Na was also found to be significantly lower in the Nb-based alloys than in the Mo-based alloys. In addition, the corrosion resistance of Nb-based alloys were largely varied with alloying elements. From a series of corrosion tests with various Nb-M binary alloys, alloying elements which are effective in improving the corrosion resistance were selected. Furthermore, alloy densities were estimated by taking the compositional average of the densities for constituent metals in alloy.Based on these results, a Nb-W-V-Zr system was selected as the most promising alloy for nuclear power plants. The specific properties were estimated with varying alloy compositions, even though extensive investigation is further needed to draw a conclusion on the corrosion resistance of these alloys. Finally, it was concluded that the present predicting method could provide an useful indication for the efficient design of Nb-based alloys.