Deposition of integrated protective material into zirconium cladding for nuclear reactors by high-velocity thermal application

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9336909-B2
Application number	US-201414548630-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 20, 2014
Priority date	Nov 7, 2012
Publication date	May 10, 2016
Grant date	May 10, 2016

Abstract

A zirconium alloy nuclear reactor cylindrical cladding has an inner Zr substrate surface ( 10 ), an outer volume of protective material ( 22 ) consisting of Zr—Al, and an integrated middle volume ( 20 ) of zirconium oxide, zirconium and protective material, where the protective material is applied by impaction at a velocity greater than 340 meters/second to provide the integrated middle volume ( 20 ) resulting in structural integrity for the cladding.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A zirconium alloy nuclear reactor cylindrical cladding, subject to a nuclear reactor environment, the cladding having an inner surface and inner volume of zirconium alloy, an outer surface and outer volume of a protective material consisting of Zr—Al, and an integrated middle volume of zirconium oxide, zirconium, and excess sound velocity-impacted protective material, where the highest density of protective material is at the cladding outer surface to protect the cladding from reactor environment and any further oxidation of the zirconium, where the integrated middle volume provides structural integrity for the cladding.

2. The nuclear reactor cylindrical cladding of claim 1 , wherein the protective material penetrates through zirconium oxide and into zirconium alloy due to an impact velocity greater than 340 meters/second.

3. The nuclear reactor cylindrical cladding of claim 1 , wherein the protective material penetrates through zirconium oxide and into zirconium alloy due to impact velocity between 400 m/s and 1,200 m/s.

4. The nuclear reactor cylindrical cladding of claim 1 , wherein the protective material was applied by either a cold spray process or a thermal kinetic deposition.

5. The nuclear reactor cylindrical cladding of claim 4 , wherein the temperature of the cold spray process is between 250° C. and 1,200° C., and for thermal-kinetic deposition, is between 1,200° C. and 3,500° C.

6. The nuclear reactor cylindrical cladding of claim 1 , wherein the protective material comprises particles, wherein the size of the particles is between 1 μm and 500 μm.

7. The nuclear reactor cylindrical cladding of claim 1 , wherein the protective material has a thickness of deposition, wherein the thickness of deposition of protective material is between 1 μm and 200 μm.

Assignees

• Westinghouse Electric Corp

Inventors

• Mazzoccoli Jason P
• Lahoda Edward J
• Xu Peng

Classifications

• C23C4/12

  characterised by the method of spraying · CPC title

• C23C28/324

  with at least one metal matrix material layer comprising a mixture of at least two metals or metal phases or a metal-matrix material with hard embedded particles, e.g. WC-Me · CPC title

• C23C4/10

  Oxides, borides, carbides, nitrides or silicides; Mixtures thereof · CPC title

• G21C3/324

  Coats or envelopes for the bundles · CPC title

• C23C4/00

  Coating by spraying the coating material in the molten state, e.g. by flame, plasma or electric discharge (build-up welding B23K, e.g. B23K5/18, B23K9/04) · CPC title