Study of the corrosion and microstructure with annealing conditions of a β-quenched HANA-4 alloy

The variation of microstructure and corrosion characteristics with the applied annealing conditions of a HANA-4 (Zr–1.5Nb–0.4Sn–0.2Fe–0.1Cr) alloy were studied by utilizing transmission electron microscopy and a corrosion test at 360 °C in a water environment. The samples were annealed at temperature ranges from 540 to 660 °C up to 16 h after β quenching at 1050 °C. The corrosion behaviour with the annealing conditions was divided into two groups following the second phase characteristics. The suitable annealing temperature to obtain good corrosion resistance in the HANA-4 alloy ranged from 570 to 600 °C.

Research highlights
► The optimum annealing temperature to obtain good corrosion resistance of HANA-4 alloy (Zr–1.5Nb–0.4Sn–0.2Fe–0.1Cr) is find out.
► The correlation between second phase characteristics and corrosion resistance is explained by oxide study.