A nonferrous alloy formed by adding other elements to a zirconium matrix. The main alloy elements are tin, niobium, iron and so on. Zirconium alloy in 300 ~ 400 ℃ high temperature and high pressure in the water and steam have good corrosion resistance, moderate mechanical properties, low thermal neutron absorption cross section of atoms, has good compatibility to the nuclear fuel, more material used for water-cooled nuclear reactor core structure. In addition, zirconium has excellent corrosion resistance to a variety of acids, bases and salts, and has a strong affinity with gases such as oxygen and nitrogen. Therefore, zirconium alloy is also used in the manufacturing of corrosion-resistant parts and pharmaceutical mechanical parts. It is widely used as a non-evapotranspiration disinfectant in the electric vacuum and light bulb industries.
The zirconium alloys produced in industrial scale include zirconium tin series and zirconium niobium series. The former alloy brands are zr-2 and zr-4, and the latter is zr-2.5 Nb. In zirconium tin alloy, the alloy elements tin, iron, chromium and nickel can improve the material's strength, corrosion resistance and heat conductivity of corrosion resistant film, and reduce the sensitivity of surface state to corrosion. Usually zr-2 alloy is used for boiling water reactor and zr-4 alloy is used for pressurized water reactor. In the zirconium and niobium alloy, when the amount of niobium added reaches the solid solution limit of zirconium crystal structure under the use temperature, the alloy has the best corrosion resistance. The zirconium alloy has homomorphic transformation, the crystal structure at high temperature is body centered cubic, and at low temperature is densely arranged hexagonal. Zirconium alloy has good plasticity, which can be processed into pipe, plate, bar and wire. It has good weldability and can be used for welding.
