Electrochemical study on the fretting corrosion synergistic damage mechanism of 316L SS in different dissolved oxygen solution

Nowadays, material aging issues in the nuclear industry have received wide attention as they need costly maintenance strategies to deal with. Therefore, it is important to study the degradation mechanism of materials to improve their service life. In this study, in-situ electrochemical measurement techniques were used to investigate the fretting corrosion synergistic damage mechanism of 316L SS tube against zirconia ceramics plate in the solution with different dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations. The results show that a more uniform passive film with the main composition of corundum oxides gamma-Fe2O3 and oxyhydroxide gamma-FeOOH formed on the wear scar under higher DO concentration, which hindered the charge transfer and improved corrosion resistance. The passive film modifies contact pressure and changes wear behavior, resulting in a 55.5 % reduction in the fretting corrosion damage. The main damage mechanism changes from abrasive wear to a mixing mechanism of surface fatigue and abrasive wear. The contribution of the synergistic damage effect was quantified, which is the key part of fretting corrosion damage and weakens with the increase of DO concentration. According to the experimental results, a prediction model of corrosion-induced wear damage was proposed based on the Archard equation, Hertz contact theory, and passive film coverage model.