Effect of intragrain pores on the swelling of UO2

Phase-field modeling of void migration and growth kinetics in materials under irradiation and temperature field

“…It is believed that the observed formation of central holes in spent nuclear fuels results from the migration of voids [5,6]. Since the thermo-mechanical properties [7][8][9][10][11], including thermal conductivity, ductility, and creep properties as well as structural instabilities such as volume swelling and cracking, strongly depend on the microstructure, it is desired to develop predictive simulation tools for investigating the kinetics of microstructure evolution for modeling the performance of nuclear reactor components. In turn, these microstructural simulation tools could be used to provide the fundamental thermodynamic and kinetic databases of irradiated materials for more macroscopic simulations.…”