Effect of the pore radius on the effective conductivity of UO2 in 2D and 3D: A computational approach

We performed 2D and 3D steady-state heat conduction simulations with a Crank–Nicolson implicit scheme implementation. The parameter ϕ is introduced, with a value of 1 within the matrix and 0 inside a pore. At the interface between a matrix and a pore, this parameter continuously changes from 0 to 1 or vice versa. We investigated the effect of not only the porosity but also the pore radius on the effective thermal conductivity of UO2. To perform large-scale 2D and 3D (10.242μm2, 10.243μm3) simulations, we utilized CUDA-accelerated parallel computing, which consumed only approximately 10% of the time required by serial computation to obtain the same results in 3D. We found that the pore radius, which has not previously been considered a notable microstructural parameter of porous UO2 nuclear fuel, significantly affects the effective thermal conductivity of UO2.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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