About this Abstract |
Meeting |
2020 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
Symposium
|
Computational Materials Science and Engineering of Materials in Nuclear Reactors
|
Presentation Title |
Mesoscale Modeling and Experiments for Predicting the Thermal Conductivity of UZr Fuels |
Author(s) |
Karim Ahmed, Sean Mcdeavitt, Mitchell Meyer |
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 fuel pellets. A combined phase-field and finite-element model was developed to simulate effective thermal conductivity of these pellets. The model accounts for the thermal resistance of the interfaces and able to predict the effective conductivity of the fuel for different fuel compositions, 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 quantified via 3D X-ray tomography. The model was validated against the experimental data. The model results agree well with the experimental data obtained in this work and from literature. |
Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: Supplemental Proceedings volume |