Corrosion behaviour of thermally aged GX4CrNi13-4 steel fabricated by laser direct energy deposition and forging
摘要
Laser direct energy deposition (L-DED) provides a promising route for fabricating moderately complex critical secondary-side components (CSSCs) with GX4CrNi13-4 stainless steel (SS) for nuclear power plants under increasingly stringent service requirements. However, the corrosion resistance of L-DED fabricated GX4CrNi13-4 SS after long-term thermal aging (4500 h) under coupled high-temperature (~300 °C) and high-pressure (~10 MPa) corrosion conditions typical of secondary loop water remains underexplored. In this study, the corrosion behaviour of GX4CrNi13-4 SS fabricated via L-DED and forging processes were investigated and critically compared. Results indicate that exposure to secondary loop water leads to the formation of a duplex oxide scale on GX4CrNi13-4 SS, consisting of an inner spinel layer and an outer Fe3O4 particle layer, regardless of fabrication technique. At unaged condition, the L-DED fabricated GX4CrNi13-4 SS had superior corrosion performance than the forging-fabricated counterpart due to its superior ability for inhibiting diffusion through inner spinel, which was contributed by the increased nucleation sites of Fe3O4. After 4500 hours of aging, L-DED fabricated GX4CrNi13-4 SS show higher corrosion rate than forging-fabricated counterpart, but still maintain service-acceptable corrosion resistance, which is attributed to dislocation recovery, enhanced grain-boundary short-circuit diffusion, and Cr depletion of matrix after aging.