Fission gas bubbles and recrystallization-induced degradation of the effective thermal conductivity in U-7Mo fuels

Liang, Linyun; Kim, Yeon Soo; Mei, Zhi-Gang; Aagesen, Larry K.; Yacout, Abdellatif M.

doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.09.054

Title: Fission gas bubbles and recrystallization-induced degradation of the effective thermal conductivity in U-7Mo fuels

Full Record
Other Related Research

Abstract

We have developed a mesoscale model to calculate the degradation of the effective thermal conductivity in irradiated U-Mo alloys caused by the fission-induced gas bubbles and recrystallization. The phase-field approach is employed to generate the grain microstructures of U-7Mo fuels with intra- and inter-granular gas bubbles. Based on the phase-field microstructures, the thermal conductivities of U-7Mo as a function of the fission density can be predicted by the developed mesoscale model. The predicted values of effective thermal conductivities are consistent with available experimental data. Results show that the effective thermal conductivity decreases rapidly with recrystallization compared to the one prior to recrystallization, which can be attributed to the sudden increase of grain boundary densities and corresponding intergranular gas bubbles at high fission densities. Smaller grain size fuel structure has a lower thermal conductivity at the same fission density due to the increased grain boundary density. The current study can provide a better understanding of the fission-induced degradation mechanism of the thermal conductivity in U-Mo fuels.

Authors:

Liang, Linyun ^[1]; Kim, Yeon Soo ^[1]; Mei, Zhi-Gang ^[1]; Aagesen, Larry K. ^[2]; Yacout, Abdellatif M. ^[1]

Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Publication Date:: Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2018

Research Org.:: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

OSTI Identifier:: 1487201

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1635896

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Journal of Nuclear Materials

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 511; Journal ID: ISSN 0022-3115

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats


                    Liang, Linyun, Kim, Yeon Soo, Mei, Zhi-Gang, Aagesen, Larry K., and Yacout, Abdellatif M. Fission gas bubbles and recrystallization-induced degradation of the effective thermal conductivity in U-7Mo fuels.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.09.054.

Copy to clipboard


                    Liang, Linyun, Kim, Yeon Soo, Mei, Zhi-Gang, Aagesen, Larry K., & Yacout, Abdellatif M. Fission gas bubbles and recrystallization-induced degradation of the effective thermal conductivity in U-7Mo fuels.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.09.054

Copy to clipboard


                    Liang, Linyun, Kim, Yeon Soo, Mei, Zhi-Gang, Aagesen, Larry K., and Yacout, Abdellatif M. Sat .  
"Fission gas bubbles and recrystallization-induced degradation of the effective thermal conductivity in U-7Mo fuels".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.09.054.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1487201.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1487201,

  title        = {Fission gas bubbles and recrystallization-induced degradation of the effective thermal conductivity in U-7Mo fuels},

  author       = {Liang, Linyun and Kim, Yeon Soo and Mei, Zhi-Gang and Aagesen, Larry K. and Yacout, Abdellatif M.},

  abstractNote = {We have developed a mesoscale model to calculate the degradation of the effective thermal conductivity in irradiated U-Mo alloys caused by the fission-induced gas bubbles and recrystallization. The phase-field approach is employed to generate the grain microstructures of U-7Mo fuels with intra- and inter-granular gas bubbles. Based on the phase-field microstructures, the thermal conductivities of U-7Mo as a function of the fission density can be predicted by the developed mesoscale model. The predicted values of effective thermal conductivities are consistent with available experimental data. Results show that the effective thermal conductivity decreases rapidly with recrystallization compared to the one prior to recrystallization, which can be attributed to the sudden increase of grain boundary densities and corresponding intergranular gas bubbles at high fission densities. Smaller grain size fuel structure has a lower thermal conductivity at the same fission density due to the increased grain boundary density. The current study can provide a better understanding of the fission-induced degradation mechanism of the thermal conductivity in U-Mo fuels.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.09.054},

  journal      = {Journal of Nuclear Materials},

  number       = ,

  volume       = 511,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2018},

  month        = {Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2018}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Publisher's Version of Record

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.09.054

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 17 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

Fission-induced recrystallization effect on intergranular bubble-driven swelling in U-Mo fuel

Journal Article Liang, Linyun ; Mei, Zhi-Gang ; Yacout, Abdellatif M. - Computational Materials Science

We have developed a mesoscale phase-field model for studying the effect of recrystallization on the gas-bubble-driven swelling in irradiated U-Mo alloy fuel. The model can simulate the microstructural evolution of the intergranular gas bubbles on the grain boundaries as well as the recrystallization process. Our simulation results show that the intergranular gas-bubble-induced fuel swelling exhibits two stages: slow swelling kinetics before recrystallization and rapid swelling kinetics with recrystallization. We observe that the recrystallization can significantly expedite the formation and growth of gas bubbles at high fission densities. The reason is that the recrystallization process increases the nucleation probability of gasmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2017.06.013
Mesoscale model for fission-induced recrystallization in U-7Mo alloy

Journal Article Liang, Linyun ; Mei, Zhi -Gang ; Kim, Yeon Soo ; ... - Computational Materials Science

A mesoscale model is developed by integrating the rate theory and phase-field models and is used to study the fission-induced recrystallization in U-7Mo alloy. The rate theory model is used to predict the dislocation density and the recrystallization nuclei density due to irradiation. The predicted fission rate and temperature dependences of the dislocation density are in good agreement with experimental measurements. This information is used as input for the multiphase phase-field model to investigate the fission-induced recrystallization kinetics. The simulated recrystallization volume fraction and bubble induced swelling agree well with experimental data. The effects of the fission rate, initial grainmore »« less
Cited by 26
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2016.07.033

Full Text Available
Three-dimensional phase-field simulations of intragranular gas bubble evolution in irradiated U-Mo fuel

Journal Article Liang, Linyun ; Mei, Zhi-Gang ; Soo Kim, Yeon ; ... - Computational Materials Science

The evolution of fission gas bubbles in irradiated materials plays a critical role in the microstructural processes that leads to dimensional changes of U-Mo alloy fuels, e.g., fuel swelling. Although the intergranular bubbles-induced fuel swelling has been long-discussed for U-Mo fuel, there are very few computational studies of the formation of intragranular gas bubbles and its impact on fuel swelling. To this end, we develop a three-dimensional phase-field model to investigate the evolution of intragranular gas bubbles in U-Mo fuel. Fission induced defect formation and annihilation processes, such as vacancy-interstitial recombination, fission gas atom resolution, and interactions with dislocations andmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2017.12.061
Effect of Recrystallization on Gas Bubble Swelling in UMo Fuels

Journal Article Hu, Shenyang ; Lavender, Curt A. ; Joshi, Vineet - Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

The development of low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuels such as UMo dispersion fuels and monolithic UMo fuels is part of a global effort on nuclear nonproliferation. Although UMo fuels have the advantage of high density, excellent irradiation performance and good thermal conductivity, the volumetric swelling in irradiated metallic fuels is known to be an important design parameter because it affects not only the thermal conductivity of the fuels but also the mechanical integrity of fuel structures. Experiments also show that recrystallization dramatically affects the gas bubble swelling kinetics. A series of materials processes such as casting, mechanical rolling and thermal treatmentmore »« less
Microstructural characterization of an irradiated RERTR-6 U-7Mo/AA4043 alloy dispersion fuel plate specimen blister-tested to a final temperature of 500°C

Journal Article Keiser, Jr., Dennis D. ; Jue, Jan -Fong ; Gan, Jian ; ... - Journal of Nuclear Materials

The Material Management and Minimization (M3) Reactor Conversion Program, in the past called the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactor (RERTR) Program, is developing low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuels for application in research reactors. U–Mo alloy dispersion fuel is one type being developed. Blister testing has been performed on different fuel plate samples to determine the margin to failure for fuel plates irradiated to different fission densities. Microstructural characterization was performed using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy on a sample taken from a U-7Mo/AA4043 matrix dispersion fuel plate irradiated in the RERTR-6 experiment that was blister-tested up tomore »« less
Cited by 2
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2017.02.038

Full Text Available

Similar Records