Investigations on boron carbide oxidation for nuclear reactors safety—General modelling for ICARE/CATHARE code applications

Investigation on boron carbide oxidation for nuclear reactor safety: Experiments in highly oxidising conditions

“…This paper presents the results of these tests. A companion paper [3] presents the modelling that was developed for ASTEC and ICARE/CATHARE codes.…”

Exploring configurations and properties of boron carbide by first principle

“…For instance, based on the elastic matrix, all independent elastic constants (C ij ) can be obtained, bulk modulus (B) and shear modulus (G) can also be acquired based on C ij [40], and then Young's modulus (E), Poisson's ratio (ν) and hardness (Hv) can be further obtained based on modulus as B and G [40,41]. First, the calculated simplest form of elastic matrixes for ch, eq and po models B 4 The numerical unit is unified with GPa. Three elastic matrix are all symmetric about the main diagonal, and these symmetric nonzero data are represented by 'KK', the blank cell represents zero.…”

“…Boron carbide (B 4 C) has been a class of materials considered for scientific interest and engineering applications due to the physical and chemical properties [1]. B 4 C has an extensive nuclear application as shielding material, neutron radiation absorbent, neutron detector and control rod in nuclear reactors due to its high neutron absorbing cross-section with self-heal for radiation damage [2][3][4][5][6]. As a p-type semiconductor, B 4 C is identified as a potential candidate material for electronic devices with high operating temperatures [7].…”

“…B 4 C has a rhombohedral structure (figure 1), which has been determined by x-ray diffraction [8]. Firstly, its structure has been recognized as B12 icosahedra connected by C-C-C chains, namely chain model B 4 C (ch B 4 C), Boron atoms occupy two nonequivalent sets of 6h positions while the carbon atoms in lb and 2c positions form a triatomic chain [8].…”

Review on Core Degradation and Material Migration Research in Light-Water Reactors

“…ICARE/CATHARE is developed at the French Institute for Nuclear Protection and Safety (IPSN), to evaluate severe accidents comprehensively under primary systems (Chatelard et al, 2006;Seiler et al, 2008). The ICARE/CATHARE code is designed to calculate, in a mechanistic way, reactor core damage and primary circuit behavior in PWRs.…”