Multi-scale modeling of fuel fragmentation and microstructural evolution
An overview of NEAMS program activities to model fuel fragmentation and microstructual evolution to a group of industry attendees at a meeting hosted by EPRI. Topics include atomistic methods to determine grain boundary strength, phase-field fracture modeling to determine critical pressure at grain boundaries, and coupled phase-field-cluster dynamics to model microstructural evolution.
An integrated statistical-thermodynamic model for fission gas release and swelling in nuclear fuels
We propose a new model for burst fission gas release induced by microcracking in ceramic nuclear fuels such as uranium dioxide. The model stipulates that the densities of defects in the fuel material, such as microcracks and fission gas bubbles on grain boundaries, evolve in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics. Central to the […]
Compare predictions of transient fission gas release by empirical and mechanistic models to experiments in high burnup UO2 fuel
Understanding and predicting fuel performance at high burnup require improving our understanding of transient fission gas release. High-burnup operations enable new mechanisms of fission gas release, which affect fuel performance. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recently published its interpretation of existing fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal data in a research information letter. There, transient fission […]
Mesoscale modeling of Microstructural Evolution in High Burnup UO2 Fuel and Transient Response
Overview of work done to model UO2 HBS modeling at an upcoming DOE-CEA meeting.