Phase-field simulations of intragranular fission gas bubble evolution in UO2 under post-irradiation thermal annealing

Journal Article · Wed May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section B, Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 303:62-67

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2012.11.028· OSTI ID:1091987

Li, Yulan; Hu, Shenyang Y.; Montgomery, Robert O.; Gao, Fei; Sun, Xin

Fission gas bubble is one of evolving microstructures, which affect thermal mechanical properties such as thermo-conductivity, gas release, volume swelling, and cracking, in operating nuclear fuels. Therefore, fundamental understanding of gas bubble evolution kinetics is essential to predict the thermodynamic property and performance changes of fuels. In this work, a generic phasefield model was developed to describe the evolution kinetics of intra-granular fission gas bubbles in UO2 fuels under post-irradiation thermal annealing conditions. Free energy functional and model parameters are evaluated from atomistic simulations and experiments. Critical nuclei size of the gas bubble and gas bubble evolution were simulated. A linear relationship between logarithmic bubble number density and logarithmic mean bubble diameter is predicted which is in a good agreement with experimental data.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1091987
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-90991; NT0108020
• Journal Information: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section B, Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 303:62-67, Journal Name: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section B, Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 303:62-67
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Phase-field approach
Intra-granular gas bubbles evolution
post-irradiation annealing
UO2