Multiscale modeling of thermal conductivity of high burnup structures in UO2 fuels

Bai, Xian -Ming; Tonks, Michael R.; Zhang, Yongfeng; Hales, Jason D.

doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2015.12.028

Title: Multiscale modeling of thermal conductivity of high burnup structures in UO₂ fuels

Journal Article · Tue Dec 22 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Journal of Nuclear Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2015.12.028· OSTI ID:1252217

Bai, Xian -Ming ^[1]; Tonks, Michael R. ^[2]; Zhang, Yongfeng ^[1]; Hales, Jason D. ^[1]

Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)

The high burnup structure forming at the rim region in UO₂ based nuclear fuel pellets has interesting physical properties such as improved thermal conductivity, even though it contains a high density of grain boundaries and micron-size gas bubbles. To understand this counterintuitive phenomenon, mesoscale heat conduction simulations with inputs from atomistic simulations and experiments were conducted to study the thermal conductivities of a small-grain high burnup microstructure and two large-grain unrestructured microstructures. We concluded that the phonon scattering effects caused by small point defects such as dispersed Xe atoms in the grain interior must be included in order to correctly predict the thermal transport properties of these microstructures. In extreme cases, even a small concentration of dispersed Xe atoms such as 10^-5 can result in a lower thermal conductivity in the large-grain unrestructured microstructures than in the small-grain high burnup structure. The high-density grain boundaries in a high burnup structure act as defect sinks and can reduce the concentration of point defects in its grain interior and improve its thermal conductivity in comparison with its large-grain counterparts. Furthermore, an analytical model was developed to describe the thermal conductivity at different concentrations of dispersed Xe, bubble porosities, and grain sizes. Upon calibration, the model is robust and agrees well with independent heat conduction modeling over a wide range of microstructural parameters.

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Research Organization:: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC07-05ID14517

OSTI ID:: 1252217

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1359398

Report Number(s):: INL/JOU-15-36798; PII: S0022311515303974

Journal Information:: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 470, Issue C; ISSN 0022-3115

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 43 works

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Oxygen-18 Tracer Measurements of Anion Diffusion in Uranium Dioxide Thin Films Bernhardt, Joseph R.; Han, Xiaochun; Heuser, Brent J. JOM, Vol. 71, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-019-03796-y	journal	September 2019
Mesoscale Modeling of High Burn-Up Structure Formation and Evolution in UO2 Abdoelatef, M. Gomaa; Badry, Fergany; Schwen, Daniel JOM, Vol. 71, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-019-03830-z	journal	October 2019
An Experimentally Validated Mesoscale Model of Thermal Conductivity of a UO2 and BeO Composite Nuclear Fuel Badry, Fergany; Brito, Ryan; Abdoelatef, M. Gomaa JOM, Vol. 71, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-019-03831-y	journal	October 2019
Unified Effect of Dispersed Xe on the Thermal Conductivity of UO2 Predicted by Three Interatomic Potentials Chen, Weiming; Bai, Xian-Ming JOM, Vol. 72, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-019-03985-9	journal	January 2020
Three-dimensional phase field simulation of intragranular void formation and thermal conductivity in irradiated α-Fe Wang, Yuanyuan; Ding, Jianhua; Chen, Yonggang Journal of Materials Science, Vol. 53, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2376-3	journal	May 2018

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Title: Multiscale modeling of thermal conductivity of high burnup structures in UO₂ fuels