EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY OF SELF-WELDING OF MATERIALS IN HIGH-TEMPERATURE LIQUID-SODIUM

To study self-welding of materials in high temperature liquid sodium, an experimental set-up consisting of a sodium-circulating loop, a test vessel, a loading mechanism for material specimens and instrumentatio n were designed, installed and operated at IGCAR, Kalpakkam. Combinati ons of austenitic stainless steel, hard chrome plating and Stellite-6 with the surface finish of the contact surfaces typical of that of com ponents in fast breeder reactors were exposed to liquid sodium at 530- degrees-C under load intensities of 10 and 40 MPa for 500 and 1000 h. The paper discusses the experimental set-up installed and the results of self-welding of these material combinations. The role of surface fi nish on self-welding tendency is also briefly discussed.