Sliding wear behaviors of steam generator tubes in various environments

Wear damage of steam generator tubes for nuclear power plants can cause the leakage of radioactive substances. Therefore, the evaluation of integrity and safety for tubes is very important from the viewpoint of nuclear ecocide. In the present study, to investigate the wear properties of Inconel 600 and 690 steam generator tube materials mated with 409 stainless steel commonly used as support plate, sliding wear tests were performed with increasing sliding distance in air and in elevated temperature water environment, respectively. The wear volume of tube materials was less than those of supports under all conditions. There were no significant differences in the wear behavior for the Inconel 600 and 690 tubes, independently of the testing environment.