| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2021 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Thermal Property Characterization, Modeling, and Theory in Extreme Environments
|
| Presentation Title |
An Experimentally Validated Mesoscale Model for the Effective Thermal Conductivity of U-Zr Fuels |
| Author(s) |
Karim Ahmed, Fergany Badry, Sean McDeavitt |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Karim Ahmed |
| Abstract Scope |
The effective thermal conductivity of nuclear fuels strongly depends on the underlying microstructure. We conducted a combined experimental and computational work to investigate this relationship in UZr fuels with different theoretical densities. A microstructure informed model was developed to simulate effective thermal conductivity of UZr fuels at different temperatures and porosity levels. The model accounts for the thermal resistance of the interfaces and able to predict the effective conductivity of the fuel for different fuel densities, microstructures, and temperatures. The model has been implemented in the MOOSE framework. A companion experimental work was also conducted to correlate the effective thermal conductivity of U-10Zr pellets measured using the laser flash method and the underlying microstructure. The model was validated against the experimental data obtained in this work. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |