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Models of grain-boundary cracking and diffusion growth of integrain bubbles in rapidly heated irradiated fuel

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Abstract

Models describing the behavior of nonequilibrium grain-boundary bubbles with gas in irradiated nuclear fuel undergoing rapid heating in the absence of irradiation are proposed. Two mechanisms for the decrease in excess volume in bubbles are examined: a decrease due to cracking of the matrix along grain boundaries and a decrease due to diffusion entry of vacancies. A criterion for cracking onset and an expression for the finite size of cracks, determined by the internal volume in bubbles and the thermomechanical stresses in a pellet, are obtained. The dynamics of growth of supercompressed bubbles, which is determined by the diffusion fluxes of vacancies and interstices, is described for the case where cracking does not occur. 1 figure, 11 references.

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Authors
  1. V. V. Likhanskii
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  2. L. V. Matveev
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Additional information

State Science Center of the Russian Federation—TRINITI. Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 87, No. 1, pp. 33–39, July, 1999.

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Likhanskii, V.V., Matveev, L.V. Models of grain-boundary cracking and diffusion growth of integrain bubbles in rapidly heated irradiated fuel. At Energy 87, 490–495 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02673207

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02673207

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