Mesoscale Simulation of Porosity Evolution in Oxide Fuels

Abstract

The behavior of fission gas within oxide fuel, notably accommodation within intra- and intergranular bubbles, influences the oxide fuel macroscopic properties and overall performance. This work discusses progress to capture key phenomena with modern mesoscale techniques: the interaction of intragranular bubbles and irradiation is captured by phase-field crystal methods; overpressurised intragranular bubble migration in a vacancy gradient is captured by a linearized phase-field model; and intergranular bubble interlinkage and percolation are captured by the included phase model.