Peridynamic modeling of fuel pellet cracking

This study presents the peridynamic simulation of thermal cracking behaviour in uranium dioxide, UO₂ fuel pellets that are used in light water reactors (LWR). The performance of the reactor is influenced by the thermo-mechanical behaviour of the pellets. During the fission process, the pellets are subjected to high temperature gradients, and the oxygen diffusion significantly affects the temperature distribution. Therefore, a coupled analysis of temperature and oxygen diffusions and deformation is unavoidable in order to predict accurate cracking behavior in a fuel pellet. The accuracy of the predictions is verified qualitatively by comparing with the previous studies.