The swelling pressure induced by irradiation in ceramic dispersion fuel meat

• Published in: Progress in nuclear energy (New series) Vol. 151; p. 104337
• Main Authors: Dong, Yingxuan, Lv, Junnan, Zuo, Hong, Li, Qun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2022
• Subjects: Ceramic dispersion fuel; Failure; Irradiation swelling; Metal matrix; Thermo-mechanical coupling; Ceramic dispersion fuel; Metal matrix; Irradiation swelling; Thermo-mechanical coupling; Failure
• ISSN: 0149-1970
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pnucene.2022.104337

Within plate-type ceramic dispersion fuel element, fuel particles swell and exercise the swelling pressure on surrounding matrix after irradiation, which will result in failure of fuel meat. In this paper, taking into account the thermo-mechanical coupling constitutive equation of the ceramic fuel particle under irradiation, the analytical solution of swelling pressure exerting on matrix was determined in terms of temperature and burnup. Effect of swelling pressure on failure of dispersion fuel meat has been investigated by numerical simulation. The relationships between irradiation conditions and the maximum Mises stress in matrix have been established by applying the swelling pressure. With the aid of the presented formalism, the failure behaviors can be investigated for irradiated metal matrix. It's identified that swelling pressure will increase with the growth of temperature and burnup. The conclusion is drawn that the failure temperature will reduce with the promotion of burnup. But with increasing of particle spacing in dispersion fuel meat, the failure temperature raises. The particle spacing is suggested to exceed 0.2Rf particle spacing under burnup of 0.2 FIMA and temperature of 500–600 °C. Besides, the maximum Mises stress distributes at the interaction layer of matrix. Effect of environmental pressure will reduce the maximum Mises stress and improve the safety of the dispersion fuel meat. This work provides a method to determine the failure temperature and safe particle spacing of dispersion fuel meat, and lays a foundation for optimizing the design of fuel structures. •A method is developed to investigate failure conditions of fuel meats by combining analytic and numerical simulation method.•The irradiation swelling pressurePf produced by fuel particles has been represented and numerically solved.•By applying the presented formalism in simulation, effect of irradiation on failure conditions in matrix was analyzed.