| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2023 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Microstructural, Mechanical and Chemical Behavior of Solid Nuclear Fuel and Fuel-cladding Interface
|
| Presentation Title |
Small-scale Mechanics Quantification of UO2 Fracture Toughness |
| Author(s) |
Brent J. Heuser, Shen Dillon, Andrew Nelson, Sarah Finkeldei |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Brent J. Heuser |
| Abstract Scope |
Small-scale mechanical testing has allowed us to isolate grain boundaries in room temperature fracture toughness measurements of UO2 using cantilever specimens. We have also investigated the effect of alumina and chromia doping on fracture toughness. The goal of doping is to increase the grain size of the sintered fuel matrix. The fracture toughness in undoped urania is not significantly affected by grain boundary defects. Doping with either alumina or chromia increases the fracture toughness. We use two methods to determine fracture toughness from the load versus displacement curves, an analytical or geometric procedure based on linear elastic fracture mechanics and a FEA method based on the calculated J-integral. Both methods show general agreement. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Ceramics, Characterization, Nuclear Materials |