Modeling Corrosion in Oxygen Controlled LBE Systems with Coupling of Chemical Kinetics and Hydrodynamics

Many of the international efforts to develop transmutation technology, including the U.S., Russian, and European scientific communities, have determined that lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) is a potential material for use as a both a spallation target and a coolant. To exploit this potential, a more thorough understanding of the effect and rates of corrosion on steels, particularly non-Russian alloys, inside the LBE systems is required. Properly controlling the oxygen content in LBE systems has been observed to drastically reduce the corrosion of structural steels in LBE. However, the transport of oxygen and formation of corrosion products is not well understood; thus, their interaction, variation, corrosion, and precipitation along the flow path requires further characterization. The UNLV researchers have broken down their effort into three phases. Phase I simulates the corrosion process and phenomena occurring at the tube walls for a number of loop conditions. Phase II numerically simulates the effect of corrosion on components placed in the loop at predetermined ports. Phase III involves experimental testing of Phase II objectives. The experimental data acquired regarding corrosion effects will be compared with numerical simulations and used to benchmark the models. Variables to be analyzed include the distribution of LBE stream velocity, temperature, oxygen, and corrosion product concentrations close to the substrate. This will support the calculation of corrosion and precipitation rates in the entire system