Understanding the effect of crystal anisotropy on grain growth, texturing and transport via the orthorhombic ?-U system [Slides]

Technical Report · Thu May 30 04:00:00 EDT 2024

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2459280· OSTI ID:2459280

Jokisaari, Andrea M. ^[1]; Beeler, Benjamin ^[2]; Tonks, Michael ^[3]; Di Lemma, Fidelma Giulia ^[1]; Rezwan, Aashique ^[4]; Wang, Yuhao ^[5]; Yao, Tiankai ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
2. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC (United States)
3. Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
4. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
5. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

The alpha phase of uranium exhibits the orthorhombic crystal structure, resulting in significant physical property anisotropy. These complex properties make the material challenging to work with in engineering settings but provide a rich arena to investigate the fundamental, multi-scale effects of anisotropy on physical behaviors such as grain growth and microstructure evolution under irradiation. We apply molecular dynamics and phase field modeling to study mass transport and grain growth in alpha-uranium. We characterize the mobilities of crystalline defects and the interfacial energy, and We find that the grain boundary energy is highly variable depending on the interface structure and that the relative rates of defect transport change with temperature. We also find that anisotropic thermal expansion has a significant impact on grain growth kinetics and texture development. Our results are used to explain experimental observations and to provide a basis for further hypotheses into the complex physical behavior of alpha-uranium.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 2459280
• Report Number(s): INL/CON--21-64956-Rev001
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CHARIN
alpha uranium
defects
irradiation growth
molecular dynamics
phase field
thermal expansion