Modelling of thermo-mechanical and irradiation behavior of metallic and oxide fuels for sodium fast reactors

A robust and reliable code to model the irradiation behavior of metal and oxide fuels in sodium cooled fast reactors is developed. Modeling capability was enhanced by adopting a non-empirical mechanistic approach to the extent possible, so that to increase the ability to extrapolate the existing database with a reasonable accuracy. Computational models to analyze in-reactor behavior of U-Zr and U-Pu-Zr metallic alloy fuel pins and U0 2-PuO 2 mixed oxide fuel pins have been developed and implemented into a new code, the Fuel Engineering and Structural analysis Tool (FEAST). FEAST has several modules working in coupled form with an explicit numerical algorithm. These modules describe (1) Fission Gas Release and Swelling, (2) Fuel Chemistry and Restructuring, (3) Temperature Distribution, (4) Fuel Clad Chemical Interaction, (5) Fuel and Clad Mechanical Analysis and (6) Transient Creep- Fracture Model for the clad. Given the fuel pin geometry, composition and irradiation history, FEAST can analyze fuel and cladding thermo-mechanical behavior at both steady state and design-basis accident scenarios. FEAST was written in FORTRAN-90 program language. The FEAST-METAL code mechanical analysis module implements the old Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)'s LIFE code algorithm.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Karahan, Aydin

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jacopo Buongiorno.

• Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/57693

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/57693