142 Prakt. Met. Sonderband 38 (2006) 
Experiment 
The HT-9 and EP823 steels (composition see Table 1) are purchased from Timken Co. T91 is 
supplied by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and PM2000 by Plansee Inc. The samples are 
polished with a 600 grit grinding paper before the corrosion test. The initial treatment of the 
F/M steels is rolling while PM2000 is extruded. All materials are tested at 535°C for 200h, 
400h and 600h in the DELTA Loop at LANL (see Figure 1a) except PM2000 which is tested at 
200h and 600h only. The flow is 2m/sec and the oxygen content is ~10°wt% oxygen in the 
LBE. The corrosion sample holder inserted in the test section of the DELTA loop is shown in 
Figure 1b. The LBE velocity at the sample location is 2m/sec, so the flow is highly turbulent. 
After the exposure to LBE, the specimens are analyzed using SEM/EDX in cross section after 
a standard cutting, grinding and polishing (last step is 1um diamond polish) procedure. On the 
samples which show thick oxide layers nano indentation is performed as well. On PM2000 
with oxide too thin to observe in SEM cross section, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) 
is performed to characterize the oxide formed during the experiment. The samples analyzed 
in XPS are cleaned beforehand in a hot ultrasonic (150°C) glycerin bath for several minutes. 
For the XPS, a Surface Science Instruments SSX-100 fitted with a Nonsequitur Technologies 
Model 1401 ion gun for sputtering is used. The XPS binding analyses are referenced to the 
adventitious carbon 1s line at 284.6eV. The X-ray source for the XPS is a monochromatized 
and refocused aluminum Ko. (1486eV) source with a 0.1-1.0mm diameter X-ray spot size. The 
SEM is a JEOL JMS-5600 instrument with an Oxford EDS detector. The nano indenter is a 
Nanoindenter lls instrument. A Berkovic indenter in constant displacement mode is used to Rı 
perform the measurements. The displacement set point is 250nm. 
Ee 
Material Time Temp | LBE Oxygen Alloying composition [wt%] ec 
[h] [°C] flow content SF 
[m/s] ) ne 
C Fe S' 
EP823 200, 400,600 530 2 10-°wt% | 0.18 | 12 | 13 | 0 | 0.9Mo 0.8Mn | Bal 
HT-9 200, 400,600 . 530 2 110°wt% | 02 [115/04 [0] 06Mn | Bal 
T91 200, 400,600 | 530 2 110°wt% | 01 | 83 [043] 0 | 095Mo | Bal 
~ PM2000 200. 600 530 2 10-°wt% | 0.02 | 20 | 0 |5 0.25Ti Bal