Fuel performance modeling of FeCrAl cladding failure during loss of coolant conditions

Conference · Sun Sep 10 04:00:00 EDT 2017

OSTI ID:1635348

Gamble, K. A. ^[1]; Hales, J. D. ^[1]; Pastore, G. ^[1]; Barani, T. ^[2]; Pizzocri, D. ^[2]; Terrani, K. A. ^[3]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory
2. Politecnico di Milano
3. Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Accident tolerant materials are defined as those that provide significantly increased response time in the event of an accident while providing similar or improved performance as the conventional UO2/Zircaloy-4 fuel rods during normal operation. One avenue for materials to demonstrate enhanced accident tolerance is to have improved reaction (e.g., oxidation) kinetics with steam, resulting in slower hydrogen (or other combustible gases) generation rate, while maintaining acceptable thermo-mechanical properties, fuel-clad interactions, and fission product behavior. Due to their improved reaction kinetics with steam compared to Zircaloy-4, iron-chromium-aluminum (FeCrAl) alloys are being considered as an accident tolerant cladding material. In order to determine whether FeCrAl alloys are indeed accident tolerant materials, comparisons between conventional zirconium-based claddings under accident conditions is required. To this end, we have developed a burst (failure) criterion for FeCrAl using existing experimental data for first-generation alloys. This model was incorporated into the BISON fuel performance code to perform comparative studies with Zircaloy-4 cladding tubes under non-oxidizing and oxidizing LOCA conditions. The separate effects LOCA conditions considered were adopted from the PUZRY and REBEKA test series. Due to the fact that FeCrAl alloys have a larger thermal absorption cross-section and higher stiffness than Zircaloy-4, cladding thickness will be smaller for FeCrAl than for Zircaloy-4. Three different cladding thicknesses were analyzed in this work. The results indicate that for both non-oxidizing (PUZRY) and oxidizing (REBEKA) LOCA conditions, FeCrAl has similar burst behavior (i.e., time to burst and pressure at burst) as Zircaloy-4. It should be noticed that this study used data for first-generation FeCrAl alloys to develop the burst criterion. Although no burst data?currently exists for C35M (a second-generation FeCrAl alloy under development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory), improved burst behavior is anticipated. As burst data for C35M becomes available the burst criterion will be updated and the simulations revisited to determine the accident tolerance of second-generation FeCrAl alloys.

• 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: 1635348
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-17-40866-Rev000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
Accident Tolerant Fuel
BISON
FeCrAl
Fuel Performance
LOCA