Corrosion control of steel components exposed to thermal cycling using radioactive tracers

The aim of the experiments presented in this paper was to choose from the project-recommended types of steel, the most suitable one for manufacturing the inner surfaces of the fire tube of an inert gas generator (IGG). Typically, such generators are used on oil tankers for maintaining an inert gas cushion above the oilʹs surface in order to prevent accidental combustion. For this approach, we employed the Thin Layer Activation (TLA) technique. Several steel samples have been activated either by 14 MeV proton or 8.5–12.5 MeV deuteron beams. The principle of measuring method, including the calibration procedure for transforming the resulted decreases in radioactivity into material loss data, have been presented in detail in the paper. The real workking conditions-exposure to H2O, CO2, and SOx compounds (ca. 1–2.5% in regular Diesel oil) having temperatures up to 700°C were assured by mounting the steel samples in a similar tube to the one used offshore. For high accuracy results, the experiment required a dedicated calibration set-up, designed particularly for this application. The main outcome of the experiment was a classification of the different kinds of steels used (brands and/or manufacturers will not be specified in the paper) in accordance with the resistance to erosive corrosion induced by fuel-oil burning products.