• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권11호
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• pp.3723-3740
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• 2021

The harsh conditions in the reactor affect the thermal and mechanical performance of the fuel plate heavily. Some in-pile behaviors, like fission-induced swelling, can cause a large deformation of fuel plate at very high burnup, which may even disturb the flow of coolant. In this research, the emphasis is put on the thermal expansion, fission-induced swelling, interaction layer (IL) growth, creep of the fuel meat, and plasticity of the cladding for the U₃Si₂/Al dispersion fuel plate. A detailed model of the fuel meat swelling is developed. Taking these in-pile behaviors into consideration, the three-dimensional large deformation incremental constitutive relations and stress update algorithms have been developed to study its thermal-mechanical performance under normal conditions using Abaqus. Results have shown that IL can effectively decrease the thermal conductivity of fuel meat. The high Mises stress region mainly locates at the interface between fuel meat and cladding, especially around the side edge of the interface. With irradiation time increasing, the stress in the fuel plate gets larger resulting from the growth of fuel meat swelling but then decreases under the effect of creep deformation. For the cladding, plasticity deformation does not occur within the irradiation time.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.150-161
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• 1996

연구로용 우라늄-실리사이드 분산 핵연료에서의 응력 및 변형율 분포를 계산할 수 있는 변형모델을 개발하였다. 이 변형모델은 탄소성이론 및 지수법칙 크리프이론을 기초로 한 것이며, 또한 등방 핵연료팽윤 및 열팽창을 가정하였다. 개발된 모델을 HANARO 및 카나다의 NRU 핵연료에 적용하여 본 결과 핵연료의 변형을 성공적으로 계산하는 것으로 판단되었다. 계산결과에 따르면, 연구로용 우라늄-실리사이드 분산핵연료가 연소할 때 핵연료심에서 가장 중요한 변형기구는 팽윤이며, 피복관에서 가장 중요한 변형기구는 크리프이다. 또한, 피복관에서 원주방향 최대응력은 항상 5 MPa 이하로서 항복응력보다 훨씬 낮게 유지되었다. 여기서 고려한 두 핵연료설계에 대해서 전 연소도 범위에서 핵연료봉의 부피변화는 10% 이하로 예측되었다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제46권2호
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• pp.169-182
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• 2014

High-performance research reactors require fuel that operates at high specific power to high fission density, but at relatively low temperatures. Research reactor fuels are designed for efficient heat rejection, and are composed of assemblies of thin-plates clad in aluminum alloy. The development of low-enriched fuels to replace high-enriched fuels for these reactors requires a substantially increased uranium density in the fuel to offset the decrease in enrichment. Very few fuel phases have been identified that have the required combination of very-high uranium density and stable fuel behavior at high burnup. U-Mo alloys represent the best known tradeoff in these properties. Testing of aluminum matrix U-Mo aluminum matrix dispersion fuel revealed a pattern of breakaway swelling behavior at intermediate burnup, related to the formation of a molybdenum stabilized high aluminum intermetallic phase that forms during irradiation. In the case of monolithic fuel, this issue was addressed by eliminating, as much as possible, the interfacial area between U-Mo and aluminum. Based on scoping irradiation test data, a fuel plate system composed of solid U-10Mo fuel meat, a zirconium diffusion barrier, and Al6061 cladding was selected for development. Developmental testing of this fuel system indicates that it meets core criteria for fuel qualification, including stable and predictable swelling behavior, mechanical integrity to high burnup, and geometric stability. In addition, the fuel exhibits robust behavior during power-cooling mismatch events under irradiation at high power.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권5호
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• pp.1044-1062
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• 2017

The construction project of the Kijang research reactor (KJRR), which is the second research reactor in Korea, has been launched. The KJRR was designed to use, for the first time, U-Mo fuel. Plate-type U-7 wt.% Mo/Al-5 wt.% Si, referred to as U-7Mo/Ale5Si, dispersion fuel with a uranium loading of $8.0gU/cm^3$, was selected to achieve higher fuel efficiency and performance than are possible when using $U_3Si_2/Al$ dispersion fuel. To qualify the U-Mo fuel in terms of plate geometry, the first miniplates [HANARO Miniplate (HAMP-1)], containing U-7Mo/Al-5Si dispersion fuel ($8gU/cm^3$), were fabricated at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and recently irradiated at HANARO. The PIE (Post-irradiation Examination) results of the HAMP-1 irradiation test were analyzed in depth in order to verify the safe in-pile performance of the U-7Mo/Al-5Si dispersion fuel under the KJRR irradiation conditions. Nondestructive analyses included visual inspection, gamma spectrometric mapping, and two-dimensional measurements of the plate thickness and oxide thickness. Destructive PIE work was also carried out, focusing on characterization of the microstructural behavior using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Electron probe microanalysis was also used to measure the elemental concentrations in the interaction layer formed between the U-Mo kernels and the matrix. A blistering threshold test and a bending test were performed on the irradiated HAMP-1 miniplates that were saved from the destructive tests. Swelling evaluation of the U-Mo fuel was also conducted using two methods: plate thickness measurement and meat thickness measurement.