Heat-treatment optimization and heavy liquid metal compatibility of Si-enriched F/M steel for LFR structure application

The lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) is one of six reactor concepts selected in the Generation IV Technology Roadmap and is perhaps the first to be applied commercially. Because the heavy liquid metal coolant has a severe corrosion effect on the core structure, the compatibility of the heavy liquid metal coolant and structural materials is recognized as a key limitation in the design and application of the LFR. Corrosion by heavy liquid metals such as liquid lead or lead–bismuth eutectic (LBE) is a physical or physical–chemical process involving surface oxidation, dissolution of material constituents, erosion corrosion, and fretting corrosion. Corrosion by heavy liquid metal can change the microstructure, composition, and surface morphology of structural materials, which will affect their mechanical and physical properties and lead to system failure. Currently, LFR research institutes are devoting great effort to the research and development of structural materials with good high-temperature mechanical properties and excellent corrosion and irradiation resistances. In this study, a series of experiments and analyses were performed on self-developed 11Cr−1Si ferritic/martensitic (F/M) steel, including heat treatment tests, mechanical tests, corrosion tests in static lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE), and slow strain-rate tests (SSRT) in LBE. The heat treatment results show that 11Cr−1Si steel obtains a good combination of high strength and toughness after quenching at 950 ℃ and tempering at 750 ℃. 11Cr−1Si steel was found to have good LBE corrosion resistance after exposure in static LBE for 3368 h, with a sufficiently low oxidation rate and a continuous and compact surface oxide layer, which protect the base metal of 11Cr−1Si from LBE penetration. The SSRT results show that the ductility of 11Cr−1Si in contact with LBE is sensitive to temperature, with loss of ductility observed at 350 ℃ and 400 ℃, but not at 450 ℃.