TY - JOUR
T1 - A modelling study of the inter-diffusion layer formation in U-Mo/Al dispersion fuel plates at high power
AU - Ye, Bei
AU - Hofmann, Gerard L.
AU - Leenaers, Ann
AU - Bergeron, Aurélien
AU - Kuzminov, Vadim
AU - Van den Berghe, Sven
AU - Kim, Yeon Soo
N1 - Score=10
PY - 2018/2/1
Y1 - 2018/2/1
N2 - Post irradiation examinations of full-size U-Mo/Al dispersion fuel plates fabricated with ZrN- or Sicoated U-Mo particles revealed that the reaction rate of irradiation-induced U-Mo-Al inter-diffusion, an important microstructural change impacting the performance of this type of fuel, transited at a threshold temperature/fission rate. The existing inter-diffusion layer (IL) growth correlation, which does not describe the transition behavior of IL growth, was modified by applying a temperature-dependent multiplication factor that transits around a threshold fission rate. In-pile irradiation data from four tests in the BR2 reactors, including FUTURE, E-FUTURE, SELEMIUM, and SELEMIUM-1a, were utilized to determine and validate the updated IL growth correlation. Irradiation behavior of the plates was simulated with the DART-2D computational code. The general agreement between the calculated and measured fuel meat swelling and constituent volume fractions as a function of fission density demonstrated the plausibility of the updated IL growth correlation. The simulation results also suggested the
temperature dependence of the IL growth rate, similar to the temperature dependence of the intermixing rate in ion-irradiated bi-layer systems.
AB - Post irradiation examinations of full-size U-Mo/Al dispersion fuel plates fabricated with ZrN- or Sicoated U-Mo particles revealed that the reaction rate of irradiation-induced U-Mo-Al inter-diffusion, an important microstructural change impacting the performance of this type of fuel, transited at a threshold temperature/fission rate. The existing inter-diffusion layer (IL) growth correlation, which does not describe the transition behavior of IL growth, was modified by applying a temperature-dependent multiplication factor that transits around a threshold fission rate. In-pile irradiation data from four tests in the BR2 reactors, including FUTURE, E-FUTURE, SELEMIUM, and SELEMIUM-1a, were utilized to determine and validate the updated IL growth correlation. Irradiation behavior of the plates was simulated with the DART-2D computational code. The general agreement between the calculated and measured fuel meat swelling and constituent volume fractions as a function of fission density demonstrated the plausibility of the updated IL growth correlation. The simulation results also suggested the
temperature dependence of the IL growth rate, similar to the temperature dependence of the intermixing rate in ion-irradiated bi-layer systems.
KW - U-Mo dispersion fuel
KW - U-Mo/Al inter-diffusion
KW - Fuel performance modelling
UR - http://ecm.sckcen.be/OTCS/llisapi.dll/open/34241188
U2 - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2017.11.035
DO - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2017.11.035
M3 - Article
SN - 0022-3115
VL - 499
SP - 191
EP - 203
JO - Journal of Nuclear Materials
JF - Journal of Nuclear Materials
ER -