Preliminary Study on Corrosion Behavior and Mechanical Properties Of Inconel 617 in Impure Helium Environment of VHTR

Helium is generally used as coolant in Very-High-Temperature Reactor (VHTR), but a small amount of impurity gas will inevitably be mixed in the primary coolant during construction, operation and maintenance. At high temperature, these impurity gases will corrode with the alloy materials of the intermediate heat exchanger, resulting in the decline of the properties of the superalloy materials. This paper mainly studied the changes of microstructure and mechanical properties of Inconel 617, a candidate material for high temperature reactor intermediate heat exchanger, after aging for 50 hours in impure helium at 950 °C. The microstructure of the alloy was characterized by weighing, scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. After corrosion, Cr oxide layer was formed on the alloy surface, and Al internal oxidation appeared below the oxide layer. The mechanical test results showed that the strength and plasticity of Inconel 617 decreased significantly, which was related to the intergranular oxides and carbides. The fracture morphology of the alloy is mainly brittle fracture.