BISON validation of FeCrAl cladding mechanical failure during simulated reactivity-initiated accident conditions

Soon K. Lee, Ben E. Garrison, Nathan A. Capps, Giovanni Pastore, Caleb P. Massey, Kory D. Linton, Nicholas R. Brown

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

A reactivity-initiated accident (RIA) is a postulated design basis accident in light water reactors (LWRs) in which a rapid reactivity insertion induces a fission rate increase and a fuel pellet temperature rise. During RIA, the fuel pellet thermally expands and may cause pellet-cladding mechanical interaction (PCMI). Separate effects PCMI tests were performed on C26M FeCrAl cladding tube samples, introducing biaxial stress via a well understood modified burst test (MBT) system. A high-speed camera in the MBT system captured the projections, covering a 360° view of the cladding deformation and enabling a digital image correlation (DIC) method to quantify the surface strains with high fidelity. Representative hot zero-power RIA mechanical loading conditions were applied to the sample, and the test duration ranged from 20 to 500 ms at an average temperature of 573 K. BISON finite element–based fuel performance code modeling was performed against the high-fidelity DIC data produced from the MBTs. Validation calculations were conducted with 2D models and systematically compared with test data of the burst time, burst pressure, burst hoop strains, and hoop strain rates. Based on the behaviors from the separate effects test, BISON calculations satisfactorily predicted the cladding deformation behaviors. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify highly influential mechanical properties responsible for the cladding failure behavior during the MBT experiments. The results highlight the significance of the cladding's mechanical strength in governing cladding strain, followed by the significance of the mechanical interactions between the pellet and the cladding.

Original languageEnglish
Article number153676
JournalJournal of Nuclear Materials
Volume564
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2022

Funding

This research was sponsored by the Advanced Fuels Campaign (AFC) Program of the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Nuclear Energy. The article was authored by UT-Battelle LLC under contract no. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with DOE.

FundersFunder number
Nuclear Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
UT-BattelleDE-AC05-00OR22725

    Keywords

    • Accident-tolerant fuel
    • BISON
    • FeCrAl
    • PCMI
    • Reactivity-initiated accident

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