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MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik

MM 21: Topical Session (Symposium MM): Fundamentals of Fracture

MM 21.3: Vortrag

Dienstag, 13. März 2018, 11:00–11:15, TC 006

Exploring the mechanisms of Pellet-Cladding Interaction with atomistic simulation — •Adam Plowman, Conor Gillen, Alistair Garner, Philipp Frankel, and Christopher Race — University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Failure of fuel rods in light water nuclear reactors via the Pellet-Cladding Interaction (PCI) is thought to be driven by Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC), induced by aggressive fission products such as iodine. Empirical observations of PCI together with a limited mechanistic understanding of the phenomenon has led to stringent limits on operational parameters. An improved understanding of PCI would allow these limits to be relaxed and enable reactors to respond to energy demand changes more quickly, without compromising safety. Flexible power manoeuvring is critical to successfully combining nuclear power with fluctuating sources of renewable energy. In tandem with new experimental observations, we are using atomistic simulation to improve our mechanistic understanding of PCI. We present a systematic study of zirconium grain boundary properties, including cleavage energies, undertaken using density functional theory. We have further studied the thermodynamics of impurities (including iodine) in these boundaries and their effect on grain boundary cohesion. We compare our results with new experimental data on iodine-induced SC cracks in commercial Zr alloys.