TY - JOUR
T1 - A phase-field model of quasi-brittle fracture for pressurized cracks
T2 - Application to UO2 high-burnup microstructure fragmentation
AU - Jiang, Wen
AU - Hu, Tianchen
AU - Aagesen, Larry K.
AU - Biswas, Sudipta
AU - Gamble, Kyle A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This manuscript was authored by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517 with the U.S. Department of Energy, with funding from the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), United States under strategic partnership project (SPP) agreement 19827 . The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.
Funding Information:
This research made use of the resources of the High Performance Computing Center at Idaho National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Science User Facilities under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517 .
Funding Information:
This manuscript was authored by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517 with the U.S. Department of Energy, with funding from the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), United States under strategic partnership project (SPP) agreement 19827. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. This research made use of the resources of the High Performance Computing Center at Idaho National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Science User Facilities under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - In this paper, we present a phase-field model of quasi-brittle fracture with pressurized cracks, with dedicated applications for polycrystalline materials. The model is formulated as a minimization problem within the variational framework. The external work done by pressure on the crack surfaces is included in the objective function. Several careful modeling choices lead to a regularization-length-independent critical strength. The model is constructed to give a softening response with an underlying linear traction-separation law. The pressure-dependent softening response and the regularization of the prescribed pressure are demonstrated with a (quasi) one-dimensional numerical analysis. In a two-dimensional numerical analysis under plane strain assumptions, the critical stress corresponding to crack propagation (as predicted by our quasi-brittle fracture model) is compared with linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) analytical solutions. Our model is further utilized to simulate fission-gas-induced fragmentation of the UO2 high-burnup structure (HBS). Simulation results show that pressurized bubbles can cause crack nucleation and propagation, and that the bubble size and the surrounding external pressure affect the critical pressure corresponding to crack nucleation. Simulations of a partial HBS at different recrystallization stages show that different grain structures (due to recrystallization) also influence crack paths and fragmentation morphology.
AB - In this paper, we present a phase-field model of quasi-brittle fracture with pressurized cracks, with dedicated applications for polycrystalline materials. The model is formulated as a minimization problem within the variational framework. The external work done by pressure on the crack surfaces is included in the objective function. Several careful modeling choices lead to a regularization-length-independent critical strength. The model is constructed to give a softening response with an underlying linear traction-separation law. The pressure-dependent softening response and the regularization of the prescribed pressure are demonstrated with a (quasi) one-dimensional numerical analysis. In a two-dimensional numerical analysis under plane strain assumptions, the critical stress corresponding to crack propagation (as predicted by our quasi-brittle fracture model) is compared with linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) analytical solutions. Our model is further utilized to simulate fission-gas-induced fragmentation of the UO2 high-burnup structure (HBS). Simulation results show that pressurized bubbles can cause crack nucleation and propagation, and that the bubble size and the surrounding external pressure affect the critical pressure corresponding to crack nucleation. Simulations of a partial HBS at different recrystallization stages show that different grain structures (due to recrystallization) also influence crack paths and fragmentation morphology.
KW - Fragmentation
KW - High-burnup structure
KW - Phase-field fracture
KW - UO
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129707089&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/294139ee-8d41-3705-93bd-3a3c1fca7a2b/
U2 - 10.1016/j.tafmec.2022.103348
DO - 10.1016/j.tafmec.2022.103348
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85129707089
SN - 0167-8442
VL - 119
JO - Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics
JF - Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics
M1 - 103348
ER -