Current Capabilities of the Fuel Performance Modeling Code PARFUME.

Download or read book Current Capabilities of the Fuel Performance Modeling Code PARFUME. written by G. K. Miller and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The success of gas reactors depends upon the safety and quality of the coated particle fuel. A fuelperformance modeling code (called PARFUME), which simulates the mechanical and physico-chemicalbehavior of fuel particles during irradiation, is under development at the Idaho National Engineering andEnvironmental Laboratory. Among current capabilities in the code are: 1) various options for calculatingCO production and fission product gas release, 2) a thermal model that calculates a time-dependenttemperature profile through a pebble bed sphere or a prismatic block core, as well as through the layers ofeach analyzed particle, 3) simulation of multi-dimensional particle behavior associated with cracking inthe IPyC layer, partial debonding of the IPyC from the SiC, particle asphericity, kernel migration, andthinning of the SiC caused by interaction of fission products with the SiC, 4) two independent methods fordetermining particle failure probabilities, 5) a model for calculating release-to-birth (R/B) ratios ofgaseous fission products, that accounts for particle failures and uranium contamination in the fuel matrix, and 6) the evaluation of an accident condition, where a particle experiences a sudden change intemperature following a period of normal irradiation. This paper presents an overview of the code.