Abstract
To investigate the flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) dependency of carbon steel (A106 Gr. B) and low-alloy steels (1Cr-1/2Mo, 21/4Cr-1Mo) on pH, orifice distance, and material, experiments were carried out. These experiments were performed using a flow velocity of 4 m/sec (partly 9 m/sec) at pH $8.0\~10.0$ in an oxygen-free aqueous solution re-circulated in an Erosion-Corrosion Test Loop at $130^{\circ}\;{\ldots}$ for 500 hours. The weight loss of the carbon steel specimens appeared to be positively dependent on the flow velocity. That of the carbon and low-alloy steel specimens also showed to be distinguishably dependent on the pH. At pH levels of $8.0\~9.5$ it decreased, but increased from 9.5 to 10.0. Utility water chemistry personnel should carefully consider this kind of pH dependency to control the water system pH to mitigate FAC of the piping system material. The weight loss of the specimens located further from the orifice in the distance range of $6.8\~27.2$ mm was shown to be greater, except for 21/4Cr-1Mo, which showed no orifice distance dependency. Low alloy steel specimens exhibited a factor of two times better resistance to FAC than that of the carbon steel. Based on this kind of FAC dependency of the carbon and low-alloy steels on the orifice distance and material, we conclude that it is necessary to alternate the composition of the secondary piping system material of NPPs, using low-alloy steels, such as 21/4Cr-1Mo, particularly when the system piping has to be replaced.
