Multi-scale nuclear fuel simulation: PLEIADES/VER software
Abstract
The VER software is part of PLEIADES platform dedicated for nuclear fuel simulation for different industries: water cooled reactors, sodium cooled fast neutron reactors, experimental reactors etc. The VER software simulates the microstructure of different types of fuels for the industries listed above. It aims at the comprehension of the thermo-mechanical phenomena at the microscopic scale, and their homogenisation for implementation of their effective behaviour in fuel performance software. Different types of heterogeneity can be simulated:Grains with random orientations in order to simulate the polycrystalline ceramic material of UO2 fuel for example,For MOX fuel, the Pu rich agglomerate are represented by spheres in a Pu poor matrix,They can also be represented by continuous field,In some cases, flat porosity around fuel agglomerate are represented,New concepts of fuel can be studied, for example, by adding a metallic phase around the agglomerate in order to enhance the fuel conductivity.Once the geometry is defined, microscopic thermo-mechanical laws are implemented, and calculations with periodic conditions are carried out. Thermal and mechanical equivalent properties are then deduced. Macroscopic laws are established using reduction techniques such as NTFA.
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