| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2025 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Microstructural, Mechanical, and Chemical Behavior of Solid Nuclear Fuel and Fuel-Cladding Interface II
|
| Presentation Title |
Direct Modeling of Irradiation Driven Microstructure Evolution and Swelling in Uranium Nitride |
| Author(s) |
Par Olsson, Qiuguo Yang, Ida Andersson Neretnieks, Jonas Planck, Aymeric Le Harivel de Gonneville, Ebrahim Mansouri |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Par Olsson |
| Abstract Scope |
For advanced reactors, high-performance fuels needs to be developed and qualified. Uranium nitride (UN) is a popular candidate fuel that will be used in several proposed reactor concepts. For its accelerated qualification, separate effect testing of its property evolution under irradiation is a crucial factor. We recently performed an experimental proton irradiation campaign in which the fuel pellet cracked from near surface localized swelling. We develop a model to better understand and decouple the observed effects by using a mix of electronic structure calculations of hydrogen implantation effects on the lattice as well as a creation-relaxation algorithm driven study of microstructure evolution in the UN matrix. These studies show that the localized swelling in the bulk-like near surface crack initiation volume was mainly driven by hydrogen implantation effects and that damage induced swelling should have saturated at levels near 6%. This combined model thus shows great promise for future studies. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Nuclear Materials, Modeling and Simulation, |