Completed 
          (Aug 2001-Aug 2004) 

 

Title  Modeling Corrosion in O-Controlled LBE Systems with Coupling of Chemical Kinetics and Hydodynamics	Researchers S. Moujaes, Y.-T. Chen Collaborators Ning Li, LBE Project Leader, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Background  The corrosion of structural materials is a major concern for the use of lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) systems for nuclear applications such as in transmuter targets or fast reactors.  Corrosion in liquid metal systems can occur through various processes, including, for example, dissolution, formation of inter-metallic compounds at the interface, and penetration of liquid metal along grain boundaries.  Predicting the rate of these processes depends on numerous system operational factors:  temperature, system geometry, thermal gradients, solid and liquid compositions, and velocity of the liquid metal, to name a few.  Corrosion, along with mechanical and/or hydraulic factors, often contributes to component failure.  The goal of this project was to develop a corrosion model that combines the chemical kinetics and hydrodynamics in the system to predict corrosion rates.  In this effort, these models were developed for the Delta test loop at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and a theoretical LBE accelerator target system.  The resulting models are predictive tools that can be validated with corrosion test data and used to systematically design tests, interpret the results, and provide guidance for optimization in LBE system designs.	Research Objectives and Methods There were two subtasks to this research.  The first subtask developed the necessary tools to predict the levels of oxygen and corrosion products close to the boundary layer using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling.  The second subtask predicted the corrosion process kinetics between the LBE and structural materials by incorporating pertinent information from the first subtask.        Controlled Potential Test Setup    Stress vs Strain under Controlled Potential.
Students  Narian Armbya   Kanthi Dasika Guanjun Li Chao Wu	Department Mechanical Engineering
Final Report   Final Report 09/01/03-08/31/04	Annual Report  Task 5 Year 1 Academic Year 2001 Task 5 Year 2 Academic Year 2002
Proposal Final 08/10/01 Task 5 Year 2 Task 5 Year 3 Final 08/31/04	Quarterly Reports  08/16/01-11/15/01   11/16/01-02/15/02     03/16/02-06/15/02  07/01/02-09-01-02 12/01/02-02/28/02 03/01/03-06/01/03 06/01/03-08/30/03 09/01/03-11/30/03 01/12/04-02/29/04 03/01/04-05/31/04 06/01/04-08/31/04
Papers Modeling of Corrosion and Precipitation in theLBE Flow Loop and Study of Geometric Effects in Local Corrosion Rates- ANS - 01/22/03	Researchers K. Dasika, C.Wu,  Y.Chen ,   S.Moujaes

Thesis
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Kanthi Dasika, “Chemical Kinetics and Thermal Hydraulics of Lead Bismuth Flow Loops” Dec. 2003 (TRP Task 5)
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Narain Armbya, "CFD Analysis of 3-D Thermal Hydraulics Flow Effects on Wall Concentration Gradient Profiles for LBE Loop Fittings" Dec 2004 (TRP Task 5)
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Chow Wu, “Study of Geometry Effects on Local Corrosion Rates for LBE Loop” July 2003 (TRP Task 5)

 Posters
  AFCI Semi-Annual Review Meeting Poster: Modeling of Corrosion in Oxygen  
  Controlled Lead Bismuth Eutectic Systems With the Coupling of Chemical 
  Kinetics and Hydrodynamics-Jan 2003