The Influence of Microstructures on the Thermal Conductivity of Polycrystalline UO2
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Chen Liu; Heming He; Enze Jin
- Source
- Volume 1: Operations and Maintenance, Aging Management and Plant Upgrades; Nuclear Fuel, Fuel Cycle, Reactor Physics and Transport Theory; Plant Systems, Structures, Components and Materials; I&C, Digital Controls, and Influence of Human Factors.
- Subject
- Materials science
Thermal conductivity
Particle-size distribution
Crystallite
Irradiation
Composite material
Microstructure
Porosity
Finite element method
Grain size
- Language
The thermal conductivity is one of the most important properties for UO2. The influences of microstructure are especially important for UO2 due to the severe structural changes under irradiation conditions. In this study, we have investigated the thermal conductivity of UO2 with different microstructures using Finite Element Method. The thermal conductivity increases with increasing grain size. The grain size distribution has obvious influence on the thermal conductivity especially when there are pores in the polycrystal. The influences of porosity and pore size are very sensitive to the position of the pores. The results obtained in this study are useful for prediction of property changes of UO2 fuel in pile and important to gain some design guidance to tune the properties through the control of the microstructure.Copyright © 2016 by ASME