| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2023 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Composite Materials for Nuclear Applications II
|
| Presentation Title |
Correlating Heterogeneous Pore Distribution with Stochastic Fracture in the Pyrocarbon Buffer Layer in TRISO Fuel Particles |
| Author(s) |
Yongfeng Zhang, Aashique Rezwan , Claire Griesbach, Ramathasan Thevamaran, Wen Jiang, Tyler Gerczak, Karim Ahmed |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Yongfeng Zhang |
| Abstract Scope |
The tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel particle contains a U-bearing fuel kernel, enclosed by a pyrocarbon buffer, an inner pyrocarbon (IPyC), a SiC, and an outer pyrocarbon (OPyC) shells, respectively. The buffer is made of porous pyrocarbon and experiences fearing, i.e., formation of circumferential or radial cracks, during fuel operation. Both the crack location and orientation are stochastic, influencing the probability of eventual TRISO particle failure. Here, via three-dimensional characterization of porous microstructure using FIB-SEM tomography and finite-element-method (FEM) modeling using the BISON code, a correlation is established between heterogeneous pore distribution with stochastic fracture. Both the average porosity and its fluctuation are found to increase radially experimentally, with elongated pores orientated along the circumferential direction preferentially. Informed by the experiments on porosity distribution, FEM modeling show that the heterogeneous pore distribution dictates the stochastic nature of buffer fracture, which initiates preferentially along the circumferential direction near the buffer-IPyC interface. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Nuclear Materials, Computational Materials Science & Engineering, Characterization |