Effects of cold work on the corrosion behavior of Alloy 800H exposed to aerated supercritical water

•Cold work reduces the corrosion resistance of Alloy 800H in supercritical water containing 200 ppb oxygen.•At initial corrosion stage, the corrosion behavior of as-received and cold-worked materials is similar.•The formation of a continuous chromia layer reduces the oxygen partial pressure at the oxide scale-matrix interface, which contributes to the later internal oxidation and selective oxidation of the elements.•With the increase of exposure time, the microstructure of the cold worked materials becomes more complicated and is further subdivided into Fe3O4/NixFe3-xO4/NixFeyCr3-x-yO4/Cr2O3/ NiO/FexCr2-xO4+pure Ni multi-layer structure.•Through observation of the oxidation process and the calculation of thermodynamic equilibria, the oxide scale differences were explained through the hypothesis that diffusion barriers were created by the prevailing oxides. Revealing the corrosion mechanism of materials in supercritical water (SCW) is a key issue for the development of a supercritical water reactor (SCWR). Considering cold work is inevitable in the construction of nuclear reactors and its effect on the corrosion behavior of materials in SCW is still unclear, the corrosion behavior of solution-annealed (as-received) and 30% cold-worked Alloy 800H were studied at 600 °C in aerated SCW for 1500 h. The microstructure of the oxide scale was studied by a variety of characterization techniques. The results indicate that cold work increases the corrosion rate of the materials, promotes selective oxidation and internal oxidation, and this was attributed to the high diffusion rate of different ions along “short-circuit paths”. The oxide scale composition and structure of the cold-worked material, which is subdivided to Fe3O4/NixFe3-xO4/NixFeyCr3-x-yO4/Cr2O3/NiO/ FexCr2-xO4 + pure Ni multi-layer structure, are much more complicated than the as-received material after 1500 h exposure. Combined with the thermo-dynamic equilibrium calculation, the oxidation processes of the as-received and cold-worked materials were analyzed to reveal the effect of cold work on the corrosion behavior of Alloy 800H. [Display omitted]