A Correlation for Steel Corrosion in Non-isothermal LBE Loops

Abstract

The mass transfer controlled corrosion of steels in non-isothermal LBE loop system was studied based on a kinetic corrosion model. Variations of Sherwood number at the highest temperature isothermal leg in DELTA loop (a non- isothermal Lead-Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) test loop set up at the Los Alamos National Laboratory) were examined to find out the dependence of the average mass transfer at the highest temperature leg on the axial conditions. The average Sherwood number at the highest temperature leg (test leg) is correlated by a dimensionless equation:

where Re and Sc are Reynolds number and Schmidt number, respectively, d (m) is the tube diameter and L (m) is the loop length, ΔT (°C) is the temperature difference between the highest and the lowest temperature and T _max (°C) is the maximal temperature.

KEYWORDS:

• Corrosion
• mass transfer
• lead bismuth
• non-isothermal loop