Molecular-dynamics study of diffusional creep in uranium mononitride

AbdulHameed, Mohamed; Beeler, Benjamin W.; Galvin, Conor Oscar T.; Cooper, Michael William Donald; Elamrawy, Nermeen; Claisse, Antoine

doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.156153

Molecular-dynamics study of diffusional creep in uranium mononitride

Journal Article · Fri Sep 12 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Journal of Nuclear Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.156153· OSTI ID:3001489

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[3]; ^[1]; Claisse, Antoine ^[4]

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC (United States)
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC (United States); Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Westinghouse Electric Sweden, Västerås (Sweden)

Uranium mononitride (UN) is a promising advanced nuclear fuel due to its high thermal conductivity and high fissile density. Yet, many aspects of its mechanical behavior and microstructural features are currently unknown. In this paper, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to study UN's diffusional creep. Nanometer-sized polycrystals are used to simulate diffusional creep and to calculate an effective GB width. It is found that Nabarro-Herring creep is not dominant in the temperature range of 1700–2000 K and that the dominant diffusional creep mechanism is Coble creep with an activation energy of 2.28 ± 0.09 eV. A method is proposed to calculate the diffusional GB width and its temperature dependence in polycrystals. The effective GB width of UN is calculated as 2.69 ± 0.08 nm. This value fits very well with the prefactor of the phenomenological Coble creep formula. It is demonstrated that the most comprehensive thermal creep model for UN can be represented as the combination of our Coble creep model and the dislocation creep model proposed by Hayes et al.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

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

Grant/Contract Number:: AC07-05ID14517

OSTI ID:: 3001489

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2588838

Report Number(s):: INL/JOU--25-83421

Journal Information:: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Journal Name: Journal of Nuclear Materials Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 617; ISSN 0022-3115

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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