BISON Theory Manual: The Equations behind Nuclear Fuel Analysis

Technical Report · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1107264· OSTI ID:1107264

Hales, J. D. ^[1]; Novascone, S. R. ^[1]; Pastore, G. ^[1]; Perez, D. M. ^[1]; Spencer, B. W. ^[1]; Williamson, R. L. ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

BISON is a finite element-based nuclear fuel performance code applicable to a variety of fuel forms including light water reactor fuel rods, TRISO particle fuel, and metallic rod and plate fuel. It solves the fully-coupled equations of thermomechanics and species diffusion, for either 1D spherical, 2D axisymmetric or 3D geometries. Fuel models are included to describe temperature and burnup dependent thermal properties, fission product swelling, densification, thermal and irradiation creep, fracture, and fission gas production and release. Plasticity, irradiation growth, and thermal and irradiation creep models are implemented for clad materials. Models are also available to simulate gap heat transfer, mechanical contact, and the evolution of the gap/plenum pressure with plenum volume, gas temperature, and fission gas addition. BISON is based on the MOOSE framework and can therefore efficiently solve problems using standard workstations or very large high-performance computers. This document describes the theoretical and numerical foundations of BISON.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1107264
• Report Number(s): INL/EXT--13-29930
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
BISON
Nuclear fuel performance analysis