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Digitizing of the electrical power grid promotes the advantages of efficient energy management alongside the possibilities of major vulnerabilities. A typical inadequacy that needs critical attention to ensure the seamless operation of the smart grid system remains in the data transmission between consumer premises smart devices and the utility centres. Many researches aim at establishing security protocols to ensure secure and efficient energy management resulting in perfect demand–supply balance.

In this paper, the authentication of the smart meter data has been proposed with enhanced Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) key encryption using an efficient way of generating large prime numbers. The trapdoor one-way function applied in the RSA algorithm makes it almost impossible for the reverse engineering attempts of cracking the key pair.

The algorithm for generating prime numbers has been tested both with the convention method and with the enhanced method of including a low-level primality test with a first few hundred primes. The combination of low-level and high-level primality tests shows an improvement in execution time of the algorithm.

There is a considerable improvement in the time complexities when using the combination method. This efficient generation of prime numbers can be successfully applied to the smart meter systems, thereby increasing the strength and speed of the key encryption.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the corrosion behavior of the Zr₅₉Nb₃Al₁₀Ni₈Cu₂₀ amorphous alloy in aqueous 1M, 6M and 11.5M HNO₃ media using potentiodynamic polarization and weight loss determinations.

The electrochemical study, weight loss analysis and surface investigation were carried out on amorphous Zr₅₉Nb₃Al₁₀Ni₈Cu₂₀ alloy that had been immersed in aqueous HNO₃ medium at room temperature to understand the corrosion behavior of Zr-based amorphous Zr₅₉Nb₃Al₁₀Ni₈Cu₂₀ alloy. The amorphous state of the alloy was investigated using X-ray diffraction. Electrochemical studies were carried out in aqueous 1M, 6M and 11.5M HNO₃ media by recording open circuit potential/time and potentiodynamic polarization characteristics. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to examine the surface morphology of the alloy after the electrochemical tests and weight loss determinations.

The electrochemical results revealed that E_corr values shifted toward more noble values, as the concentration of the nitric acid was increased, and this was attributed to the higher oxidizing power of the nitric acid. The higher value of corrosion current density was obtained for the Zr₅₉Nb₃Al₁₀Ni₈Cu₂₀ amorphous alloy in aqueous 11.5M HNO₃ medium at room temperature. The optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy examinations revealed that the formation of protective oxide layer on the surface of amorphous Zr₅₉Nb₃Al₁₀Ni₈Cu₂₀ alloy leads to the improvement in the corrosion behavior in nitric acid medium at room temperature.

The results can be helpful in finding the suitable material for fuel reprocessing applications.