| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2020 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Thermal Transport in Crystalline and Non-crystalline Solids: Theory and Experiments
|
| Presentation Title |
Thermal Transport Properties of Uranium Aluminides by First-principles |
| Author(s) |
Zhi-Gang Mei, Abdellatif Yacout |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Zhi-Gang Mei |
| Abstract Scope |
U-Mo dispersion-type fuel is a promising candidate fuel for high-performance research reactors using low-enriched uranium. However, the interaction layer (IL) formed between fuel particle and Al matrix under irradiation degrades the fuel performance, such as thermal conductivity. So far there is no study of the thermal conductivity of the IL. To this end, we investigated the thermal transport properties of the phases formed in the IL using first-principles calculations. The thermal conductivities of uranium aluminides UAlx (x=2,3,4) were predicted including both electronic and phonon contributions. We investigated the roles of alloying and non-stoichiometry on the thermal conductivity of uranium aluminides, which were found to significantly reduce the thermal conductivity due to elastic phonon scattering. Finally, we studied the impact of amorphization on the thermal conductivity of uranium aluminides. The current study is expected to be useful to the fuel performance modeling of U-Mo dispersion fuel using engineering scale simulations. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: Supplemental Proceedings volume |