Micro arc oxidation

Engineering

Magnesium alloy

Oxide

Metallurgy

Materials science

Fretting

Coating

Fretting wear

Pressurized water reactor

Alternative medicine

Nuclear engineering

Alloy

Zirconium

Composite material

Corrosion

Medicine

Zirconium alloy

Pathology

Wear

Flow-induced vibrations can result in fretting wear damage to the surfaces of clad fuel rods (tubes) against their supports in nuclear power plants. One possible solution to this problem is using oxide coatings. In this work, tangential fretting wear experiments were carried out in simulated primary cooling water such as that used in a pressurized water reactor (PWR) to study the effects of micro-arc oxidation (MAO) on the fretting wear behavior of a reactor-grade zirconium alloy known as ZIRLO™. The results indicated that the micro-arc oxidation improved the fretting wear resistance of the ZIRLO™ tube. The synergic effects of corrosion and mechanical wear on the fretting wear of the ZIRLO™ substrate and the MAO coating are discussed, and the role of the MAO coating in mitigating the fretting wear of zirconium alloy in high temperature water is revealed.

Effect of micro-arc oxidation on fretting wear behavior of zirconium alloy exposed to high temperature water