A study on wear coefficients and mechanisms of steam generator tube materials

Abstract

Reciprocating sliding wear tests were performed to evaluate wear properties of Inconel 600MA and 690TT steam generator (SG) tube materials against 405 and 409 ferritic stainless steels. With increasing normal loads and sliding amplitudes, the wear rate of tube materials increased but a wear transition occurred only in Inconel 690TT. Subsurface deformation strengthening seemed to be an important factor that determines the wear resistance of tube materials. After the wear test, the worn surfaces were observed to investigate the wear mechanism of tube materials using SEM. The results indicated that there are different mechanisms of wear particle removal between the tube materials. The differences are related to the degree of work hardening due to the differences in chromium content in the tube materials. Based on the present results, wear coefficient values for the life estimation of SG tubes were calculated according to the work-rate model at each test condition. The wear rate is lower for Inconel. 690TT compared to that for Inconel 600MA. Finally, parameters that should be considered for evaluation of wear coefficients were discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.