Development of PRIME for irradiation performance analysis of U-Mo/Al dispersion fuel

Journal Article · Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Journal of Nuclear Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.02.028· OSTI ID:1434326

Jeong, Gwan Yoon ; Kim, Yeon Soo; Jeong, Yong Jin; Park, Jong Man; Sohn, Dong-Seong

A prediction code for the thermo-mechanical performance of research reactor fuel (PRIME) has been developed with the implementation of developed models to analyze the irradiation behavior of U-Mo dispersion fuel. The code is capable of predicting the two-dimensional thermal and mechanical performance of U-Mo dispersion fuel during irradiation. A finite element method was employed to solve the governing equations for thermal and mechanical equilibria. Temperature-and burnup-dependent material properties of the fuel meat constituents and cladding were used. The numerical solution schemes in PRIME were verified by benchmarking solutions obtained using a commercial finite element analysis program (ABAQUS).The code was validated using irradiation data from RERTR, HAMP-1, and E-FUTURE tests. The measured irradiation data used in the validation were IL thickness, volume fractions of fuel meat constituents for the thermal analysis, and profiles of the plate thickness changes and fuel meat swelling for the mechanical analysis. The prediction results were in good agreement with the measurement data for both thermal and mechanical analyses, confirming the validity of the code. (c) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1434326
• Journal Information: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 502, Issue C; ISSN 0022-3115
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English