A comment on the thermal conductivity of (U,Pu)O2 and (U,Th)O2 by molecular dynamics with adjustment for phonon-spin scattering

Cooper, Michael William D.; Liu, Xiang -Yang; Stanek, Christopher Richard; Andersson, David Anders

doi:10.1557/adv.2016.519

A comment on the thermal conductivity of (U,Pu)O₂ and (U,Th)O₂ by molecular dynamics with adjustment for phonon-spin scattering

Journal Article · Fri Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · MRS Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2016.519· OSTI ID:1296685

Cooper, Michael William D. ^[1]; Liu, Xiang -Yang ^[1]; Stanek, Christopher Richard ^[1]; Andersson, David Anders ^[1]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

In this study, a new approach for adjusting molecular dynamics results on UO₂ thermal conductivity to include phonon-spin scattering has been used to improve calculations on U_x Pu_1–x O₂ and U_xTh_1xO₂. We demonstrate that by including spin scattering a strong asymmetry as a function of uranium actinide fraction, x, is obtained. Greater degradation is shown for U_xTh_1–xO₂ than U_xPu_1-xO₂. Minimum thermal conductivities are predicted at U_0.97Pu_0.03O₂ and U_0.58Th_0.42O₂, although the degradation in U_xPu_1–xO₂ is negligible relative to pure UO₂.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

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

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1296685

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--16-21839

Journal Information:: MRS Advances, Journal Name: MRS Advances; ISSN 2059-8521

Publisher:: Materials Research Society (MRS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited By (1)

The induced anisotropy in thermal conductivity of thorium dioxide and cerium dioxide Rahman, M. J.; Szpunar, B.; Szpunar, J. A. Materials Research Express, Vol. 4, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/aa7c34	journal	July 2017

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