Reliability of thickness of oxide layer of stainless steels with chromium using cellular automaton model

A cellular automaton (CA) model based on the stochastic approach was proposed to simulate the process of oxidation and corrosion of stainless steels with different contents of chromium in-flowing lead bismuth eutectic (LBE). Chromium is a crucial alloying element added in stainless steels and nickel based alloys which have been proposed to be used in advanced nuclear reactors to improve resistance of the oxidation and corrosion. To verify the reliability of the thickness of the oxide layer by CA model, the influence of the stochastic character on the simulating results was investigated as changing parameter of chromium content of structure material in this study. Ten independent simulations were run for each specific environment. A stable and reasonable results were obtained according to the chi-square of goodness-of-fit test, the chi-square of the thickness of oxide layer for each case were significant smaller than critical chi-square value with a confidence level of 95% (Χ2α, v = Χ2 0.05,9 = 16.92). (authors)