Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Characteristics of Chromium Coatings Deposited by RF Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Many researches have suggested fundamental changes to satisfy the safety requirements, including development of accident tolerant fuels (ATFs). The adoption of coating techniques is one of promising approaches for ATF systems because surface modification with a highly oxidation-resistant material can prevent hydrogen generation and cladding embrittlement. Compared to the development of a new cladding for the replacement of the current zirconium-based alloy cladding and new fuel forms instead of the current ceramic oxide fuels, the surface coating technique is cost-effective and easily applicable to the current LWR system with no significant design changes. Recently, a wide variety of oxidation-resistant materials have been proposed: iron-based alloys and SiC-based materials. Among them, chromium (Cr) is suggested as a coating material for fuel claddings because it is known for has oxidation-resistant characteristic. In order to assess the feasibility of coating techniques with an oxidation-resistant material, in this study chromium (Cr) film was deposited on a metal substrate via a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process. After preparing test specimens, pool boiling heat transfer experiments were carried out to investigate the boiling performance of both cases. Moreover, during a test, visualization works were conducted for a phenomenological understanding. In this study, Cr deposition on the SS316 surface was conducted using the sputtering process. Specifically, sophisticated surface characterization was performed with the wettability measurement and surface morphology analysis. Furthermore, the pool boiling heat transfer experiments were carried out to obtain the CHF value of the test heater. The major findings observed from this study can be summarized as follows. The surface wettability increased 77% after the sputtering deposition.