Abstract
Oxidation kinetics of liquid Zircaloy in contact with steam is analyzed as a two-medium moving-interface diffusion problem. The course of the corrosion process is strongly influenced by the state of the metal when it melts, in particular on the thickness of the oxide skin and the fractional oxygen saturation of the metal phase at this time. If the latter is small, the oxide skin rapidly thins by dissolution into the molten metal. However, the skin never vanishes as long as exterior steam is present; after attaining a minimum thickness, the ZrO 2 layer grows until all of the metal is consumed. If the average oxygen contact of the α + β phases prior to melting is close to saturation of the liquid metal, the initial oxide layer grows monotonically with time. Calculation of the times for the skin-thinning process and for complete consumption of the metal by oxygen depend upon estimates of oxygen diffusion coefficients in the high-temperature phase of ZrO 2 as well as in the liquid metal.
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