Peridynamic modeling of fuel pellet cracking

Selda Oterkus, Erdogan Madenci

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

81 Citations (Scopus)
240 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)23-37
Number of pages5
JournalEngineering Fracture Mechanics
Volume176
Early online date22 Feb 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2017

Keywords

  • peridynamics
  • fuel pellet
  • uranium dioxide
  • failure

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