TY - JOUR
T1 - Phase-field simulations of fission gas bubbles in high burnup UO2 during steady-state and LOCA transient conditions
AU - Aagesen, Larry K.
AU - Biswas, Sudipta
AU - Jiang, Wen
AU - Andersson, David
AU - Cooper, Michael W.D.
AU - Matthews, Christopher
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by the Department of Energy Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program. This manuscript has been authored by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517 with the US Department of Energy. Los Alamos National Laboratory, an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer, is operated by Triad National Security, LLC, for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. 89233218CNA000001. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/12/15
Y1 - 2021/12/15
N2 - To improve the economics of commercial light water reactors, increased understanding of UO2 nuclear fuel with the high burnup structure (HBS) is required in both steady-state and transient conditions. Here, a phase-field model of the fission gas bubble microstructure in nuclear fuel is developed based on the Kim-Kim-Suzuki (KKS) formulation and implemented in Idaho National Laboratory's Marmot application for phase-field simulation of nuclear materials. The model includes the effects of gas pressure and the surface tension of the bubble-fuel matrix interface for arbitrary interfacial curvature. Simulations of bubble growth in the HBS region during steady-state conditions showed that initially overpressurized bubbles decreased in pressure during growth, but still remained above equilibrium pressure. During a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) transient, simulations of bubbles in the HBS region showed that bubble size did not change significantly. The bubble pressure in response to the LOCA transient was calculated for a variety of bubble sizes, initial pressures, and external restraint pressures.
AB - To improve the economics of commercial light water reactors, increased understanding of UO2 nuclear fuel with the high burnup structure (HBS) is required in both steady-state and transient conditions. Here, a phase-field model of the fission gas bubble microstructure in nuclear fuel is developed based on the Kim-Kim-Suzuki (KKS) formulation and implemented in Idaho National Laboratory's Marmot application for phase-field simulation of nuclear materials. The model includes the effects of gas pressure and the surface tension of the bubble-fuel matrix interface for arbitrary interfacial curvature. Simulations of bubble growth in the HBS region during steady-state conditions showed that initially overpressurized bubbles decreased in pressure during growth, but still remained above equilibrium pressure. During a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) transient, simulations of bubbles in the HBS region showed that bubble size did not change significantly. The bubble pressure in response to the LOCA transient was calculated for a variety of bubble sizes, initial pressures, and external restraint pressures.
KW - Fission gas
KW - High burnup
KW - LOCA
KW - Phase-field
KW - UO
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115027511&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/7ffdae05-4d6b-36a9-b68e-5fd6195bdf0a/
U2 - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153267
DO - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153267
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85115027511
SN - 0022-3115
VL - 557
JO - Journal of Nuclear Materials
JF - Journal of Nuclear Materials
M1 - 153267
ER -