An Experimentally Validated Mesoscale Model of Thermal Conductivity of a UO2 and BeO Composite Nuclear Fuel

Badry, Fergany; Brito, Ryan A.; Abdoelatef, M. Gomaa; McDeavitt, Sean M.; Ahmed, K.

doi:10.1007/s11837-019-03831-y

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…This special topic presents several recent studies with a primary focus on the UO 2 fuel, including the anion diffusion properties in intrinsic UO 2 , 5 grain subdivision in UO 2 , 6 and the effects of second phase and fission gas on thermal transport. 7 One study on the corrosion behavior of CrAlSiN coatings deposited on Zr alloy substrates 8 is also included. Specifically, the following list summarizes the papers being published under the topic of ''Ceramic Materials for Nuclear Energy Applications.''…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In their paper ''An Experimentally Validated Mesoscale Model of Thermal Conductivity of a UO 2 and BeO Composite Nuclear Fuel,'' a mesoscale model is developed by Badry et al 7 to describe the thermal conductivity of a UO 2 and BeO composite nuclear fuel. The effects of the second-phase (BeO) fraction and morphology, temperature, and interface thermal resistance were investigated.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Ceramic Materials for Nuclear Energy Applications

Zhang

Bai

2019

JOM

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confidence: 99%

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Ceramic Materials for Nuclear Energy Applications

Zhang

Bai

2019

JOM

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“…MOOSE is an open-source framework that provides users with several capabilities to solve partial differential equations (PDEs). It contains a multitude of built-in features such as different linear and non-linear solvers, different integration schemes, mesh and time adaptivity, mesh generation and post-processing options, and many more (Permann et al, 2020) MOOSE has been utilized before to investigate irradiation effects and coevolution of microstructure and properties in materials (Ahmed and El-Azab, 2018;Ozturk et al, 2018;Tonks et al, 2018;Abdoelatef et al, 2019;Badry et al, 2019;Ozturk, 2019;Ahmed and El-Azab, 2020;Badry, 2021). We conducted 1D simulations in this study.…”

Section: Model Parameters and Numerical Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface and Size Effects on the Behaviors of Point Defects in Irradiated Crystalline Solids

2021

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We present an elaborate study of the surface and size effects on the transient and steady-state behaviors of point defects in irradiated solids. In this investigation, both pure Ni and binary Ni-Cr were utilized as model systems. We utilize the spatially-resolved rate-theory (SRRT) modeling approach, and directly account for the effects of dose rate, production bias, and defects recombination, reactions with volumetric sinks, and diffusion to surface sinks. Several simulations were conducted to investigate the effects of these parameters in both coupled and decoupled manners. In the presence of production bias, the effects of surface and size persist even as the surface to volume ratio decreases. This was associated with a surface-induced and size-regulated instability. This instability is only triggered above a critical size between 100 and 500 nm. The critical size decreases with increasing dose rate, increasing production bias, or lowering the temperature. Moreover, this instability results in a pattern that favors the separation of vacancies and interstitials. Once this pattern develops, anomalies in the dependence on size for the transient and steady-state concentrations of point defects and the surface/boundary sink strength are observed. These anomalies tend to render irradiation damage more severe. For pure Ni, it was shown that vacancy supersaturation increases with size, and the rate of increase also rises with size. For the binary Ni-Cr system, it was shown that the magnitude of enrichment/depletion of Ni/Cr at the boundary increases with size, and the width of the enrichment/depletion layer also increases with size. The results obtained here agree well with experimental observations in irradiated materials such as the formation of void denuded zones adjacent to grain boundaries and the size and temperature dependence of the radiation resistance of nanomaterials. The size-dependent behaviors reported here also shed new light on the radiation tolerance of nanomaterials, i.e., the irradiation-induced instabilities are suppressed in such materials. Lastly, the implications of the results obtained here on the development of efficient reduced order models or the utilization of ion irradiation as a surrogate to neutron irradiation are discussed.

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“…However, its low thermal conductivity has led to a variety of problems related to the performance and safety of the reactor, such as large centerline temperatures, pellet cracking and fuel relocation. An approach that has been demonstrated to be effective in improving the thermal conductivity of UO2 is to incorporate a high conductivity phase in UO2 fuel [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beryllium oxide (BeO) is a promising additives due to its high thermal conductivity, low thermal neutron absorption cross-section, good chemical compatibility with UO2, and high resistance to water steam. Significant efforts have been made to investigate the effects of BeO content and distribution on UO2 thermal conductivity [1][2][3][4][5][6]. It was demonstrated that the increase in BeO content can lead to an effective improvement of UO2 thermal conductivity, and a continuous BeO phase leads to a higher thermal conductivity than dispersed BeO.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%