| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2025 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Mechanical Behavior of Nuclear Reactor Materials and Components IV
|
| Presentation Title |
Creep Testing of Uranium Mononitride |
| Author(s) |
Andre Broussard, Kevin Yan, Nathaniel Cavanaugh, Erofili Kardoulaki, Jie Lian |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Andre Broussard |
| Abstract Scope |
Uranium nitride (UN) is a potential fuel for advanced reactors therefore its creep mechanism and properties become a key parameter to ensure safety during reactor operation. Creep deformation slowly closes the gas gap between fuel and cladding affecting heat transfer properties and can lead to fuel-cladding interactions (chemical/mechanical). The creep mechanism of uranium nitride was investigated utilizing a compressive creep setup in a spark plasma sintering furnace under vacuum in temperature and pressure regimes from 1400-1500°C and 30-40 MPa. This creep setup allows for in-situ displacement measurements to calculate strain in the sample. The strain rate of secondary phase creep was determined under different temperature and pressure conditions. The activation energy and the stress exponent were calculated to determine the underlying creep mechanism (power-law creep). Limited historical creep data exists for UN, and new experimental data can be implemented into fuel performance modeling codes like BISON. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Nuclear Materials, Mechanical Properties, Other |