A Study on Fretting Wear Property of CVD SiC and Sintered SiC

Silicon Carbide is broadly used as high temperature structure material because of its high temperature tolerance and superior mechanical properties. After the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, SiC proposed as one of the alternative materials for LWR fuel cladding to provide enhanced safety margin. Grid-to-rod fretting wear-induced fuel failure is known to occur due to flow-induced vibration of the reactor core and grid to- rod gap. In this paper, wear tests for CVD SiC plate and sintered SiC tube were performed with two types of spacer grids. Wear test of corroded and non-corroded CVD SiC plates indicate that wear resistance of corroded specimen is lower than one of non-corroded specimen in contrast with zirconium alloy cladding tube. It may be affected by rough surface of corroded specimen caused by grain boundary attack