Modeling of High-Temperature Corrosion of Zirconium Alloys using eXtended Finite Element Method (X-FEM)
Oxidation modeling in modern nuclear fuel performance codes is currently limited by the lack of coupling with mechanics, thus preventing proper description of how high-temperature oxidation impacts mechanical properties. This is mostly due to the fact that the finite difference formalism adopted in corrosion models is incompatible with the direct coupling with mechanics in the […]
Verification of MOOSE/Bison’s heat conduction solver using combined spatiotemporal convergence analysis
Bison is a computational physics code that uses the finite element method to model the thermo-mechanical response of nuclear fuel. Since Bison is used to inform high-consequence decisions, it is important that its computational results are reliable and predictive. One important step in assessing the reliability and predictive capabilities of a simulation tool is the […]
Numerical Evaluation of AGR-2 Fission Product Release
The AGR-2 experiment produced normal operation and accident condition fuel performance data for tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particles with UCO and UO2 kernels. Data for compacts with no failed particles and for compacts with one or more failed particles are available. To model the fission product diffusion and release from these compacts, it is important to […]
BISON fuel performance modeling optimization for experiment X447 and X447A using axial swelling and cladding strain measurements
With the recent need to qualify new reactor designs such as the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), fuel performance calculations need to be performed to determine safety criteria of the proposed designs. In order to validate the fuel performance results obtained by a fuel performance code, BISON, for new reactor designs, legacy fuel from EBR-II and […]
Efficient high-fidelity TRISO statistical failure analysis using Bison: Applications to AGR-2 irradiation testing
The ability of tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel to contain fission products is largely dictated by the quality of the manufacturing process, since most of the fission product release is expected to occur due to coating layer failure in a small number of particles containing defects. The Bison fuel performance code has capabilities to predict failure […]
Dry In-Pile Fracture Test (DRIFT) for Separate-Effects Validation of Ceramic Fuel Fracture Models
Fracture is an important component of nuclear fuel behavior, and significant efforts have been invested into developing fuel performance models that are capable of accurately representing fracture. Usable data on the process of fracture propagation in nuclear fuel under realistic service conditions are very limited. To address this need, a series of separate-effects experiments were […]
Thermal-Shock Experiments for Separate-Effects Validation of UO2 Fuel Fracture Models
Because of the important role that fracture plays in the behavior of ceramic UO2 fuel in a nuclear reactor environment, fracture models are a major component of fuel performance codes. As with any aspect of fuel performance, it is crucial to validate these fracture models against experimental data; however, obtaining well-controlled data for conditions representative […]
A mortar thermomechanical contact computational framework for nuclear fuel performance simulation
Nuclear fuel performance simulations involve the modeling of complex physical phenomena, rang- ing from fission gas release to fuel swelling and other temperature-induced effects. For light-water reactors (LWRs), swelling of the fuel and the pressure it imposes on the clad when they come into contact causes permanent clad deformation. Accurately characterizing the fuel-cladding interaction, which […]
Efficient failure probability calculations and modeling interface debonding in TRISO particles with BISON
This document constitutes completion of the NEAMS milestone, which is titled: Demonstrate efficiency improvements in TRISO failure probability calculations and the effect of debonding on fission product transport in TRISO fuel particles in Bison. In this report we present the development of: (1) the anisotropic elasticity model of pyrolytic carbon and extended material models using […]
FEA-aided investigation of the effective thermal conductivity in a medium with embedded spheres
For multiple applications in nuclear energy, the ability to accurately represent material behavior with a simplified model is important to facilitate practical engineering-scale simulations. In this work, we focus on the homogenized thermal response of a medium containing spherical inclusions, similar to a fuel form (compact or pebble) containing (TRISO) particles. A review on effective […]