Corrosion Testing of Additively Manufactured FeCrAl Alloy in LBE

Heavy liquid-metals are considered as a heat transport fluid in nuclear and solar concentrator applications. Consequently, it becomes critical to understand the interaction between these heat-transport fluids and structural materials. Additive manufacturing (AM) is a technique that allows one to generate complicated geometries where traditional subtractive manufacturing practices are impractical, particularly in hydraulic applications. Therefore, a material (FeCrAl) that allows the formation of a well-established oxide layer in heavy liquid-alloys was fabricated using AM techniques. This AM-fabricated FeCrAl material was corrosion tested in liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) at 600°C for 200 h in a pre-oxidized and a not-pre-oxidized state. The pre-oxidized material showed virtually no corrosion while the non-pre-oxidized material showed dissolution corrosion, and no protective oxide layer on the exterior of the structural material. We conclude that AM of FeCrAl materials delivers a good alternative for manufacturing components designed to be exposed in LBE environments, provided that there has been sufficient pre-oxidation of the component.