Comparative analysis of modeling approaches for sulfide-induced corrosion of copper disposal canisters in a 3-dimensional domain

Abstract

Copper canisters are commonly employed to contain HLW for the long-term, making it crucial to understand how corrosion affects the canister. This study conducted a comparative analysis of two widely used calculation methods for modeling canister corrosion within a 3-D DGR domain. The first method, termed transport-limited corrosion, assumes an immediate sulfide-copper reaction and has been traditionally used due to its conservative nature. The second method, known as the potential-limited corrosion, considers coupled redox reactions at the canister surface and computes corrosion rates through anodic current density. From the results, we found that the edge of the canister geometry and the omission of electrochemical kinetics impose critical limitations with the transport-limited corrosion method. These limitations include the singularity problem, excessive sensitivity to the curvature of the canister's edge, and an inability to evaluate the distribution of corrosion rate over the canister surface as a function of the sulfide concentration. On the other hand, the potential-limited corrosion method avoided the limitations found in the other method. Since the factors relating to these limitations are critical to the design and optimization of the copper disposal canister, careful consideration when selecting appropriate calculation methods for corrosion will be required.

Keywords

• Deep geological repository
• Disposal canister
• Copper
• Corrosion
• Modeling method
• Finite element method