Silicon Carbide Oxidation in High‐Pressure Steam

Silicon carbide is a candidate cladding for fission power reactors that can potentially provide better accident tolerance than zirconium alloys. SiC has also been discussed as a host matrix for nuclear fuel. Chemical vapor–deposited silicon carbide specimens were exposed in 0.34–2.07 MPa steam at low gas velocity (~50 cm/min) and temperatures from 1000°C to 1300°C for 2–48 h. As previously observed at lower steam pressure of 0.15 MPa, a two‐layer SiO₂ scale was formed during exposure to these conditions, composed of a porous cristobalite layer above a thin, dense amorphous SiO₂ surface layer. Growth of both layers depends on temperature, time, and steam pressure. A quantitative kinetics model is presented to describe the SiO₂ scale growth, whereby the amorphous layer is formed through a diffusion process and linearly consumed by an amorphous to crystalline phase transition process. Paralinear kinetics of SiC recession were observed after exposure in 0.34 MPa steam at 1200°C within 48 h. High‐pressure steam environments are seen to form very thick (10–100 μm) cristobalite SiO₂ layers on CVD SiC even after relatively short‐term exposures (several hours). The crystalline SiO₂ layer and SiC recession rate significantly depend on steam pressure. Another model is presented to describe the SiC recession rate in terms of steam pressure when a linear phase transition k_l governing the recession kinetics, whereby the reciprocal of recession rate is found to follow a negative unity steam pressure power law.