| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
MS&T21: Materials Science & Technology
|
| Symposium
|
Advanced Characterization of Materials for Nuclear, Radiation, and Extreme Environments
|
| Presentation Title |
Modeling of Graphite Oxidation in Water Vapor Ingress Accidental Conditions for High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors |
| Author(s) |
Yi Je Cho, Kathy Lu |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Kathy Lu |
| Abstract Scope |
Water vapor ingress is one of the probable accidents in high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs), which can oxidize vulnerable graphite components and fuel elements. Graphite oxidation involves burn-off that leads to deteriorating mechanical properties, formation of flammable hydrogen gas, and structural integrity loss. Two different types of graphite (nuclear and matrix graphite) are utilized in HTGRs, which show different oxidation phenomena. Also, the oxidation of the fuel elements occurs at two different scales and needs to be considered simultaneously in order to understand the oxidation behaviors during an accident. In this study, a modeling framework is established to investigate the oxidation behaviors of graphite in water vapor. The model consists of a prismatic fuel block with a coolant channel to predict the water vapor permeation and location effects. The results are compared with experimental results. |