About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2027 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Modeling, AI Applications, and Method Development in Nuclear Materials
|
| Presentation Title |
A modular phase-field framework coupling microstructure and mechanics for nuclear materials simulation: the INFERNO code |
| Author(s) |
Luca Messina, Louis Ganzer, Clément Introïni, Tommaso Barani |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Luca Messina |
| Abstract Scope |
Predictive modeling of nuclear materials under irradiation requires frameworks that couple microstructure evolution, composition, defects, and mechanics across scales. This work presents INFERNO, an object-oriented Python code for 3D multiphysics phase-field simulation of grain growth, sintering, and irradiation-driven diffusion in multiphase systems. It couples Allen–Cahn and Cahn–Hilliard models through a common grand-potential formulation, with interchangeable finite-difference and spectral FFT solvers. Elastic fields are provided by an external mechanical solver to the total free energy, closing the coupling between phase-field evolution and mechanics. Applications to sintering and fission-gas evolution in UO2 illustrate the framework. In the first one, INFERNO reproduces neck growth and densification driven by surface and grain-boundary diffusion, whereas in the second one, it follows gas evolution from intragranular diffusion through bubble nucleation and growth to grain-boundary coverage, percolation, and release. Comparison with analytical solutions and experimental data provides a preliminary validation of both implementation and physical models. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Modeling and Simulation, Nuclear Materials, Computational Materials Science & Engineering |