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成川 隆文; 濱口 修輔*; 高田 孝*; 宇田川 豊
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 411, p.112443_1 - 112443_12, 2023/09
被引用回数:0For realizing a highly reliable fracture limit evaluation of fuel cladding tubes during loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs) in light-water reactors, we developed a method to quantify the fracture limit uncertainty of high-burnup advanced fuel cladding tubes. This method employs a hierarchical Bayesian model that can quantify uncertainty even with limited experimental data. The fracture limit uncertainty was quantified as a probability using the amount of oxidation (Equivalent cladding reacted: ECR) and the initial hydrogen concentration (the hydrogen concentration in the fuel cladding tubes before the LOCA-simulated tests) as explanatory variables. We divided the regression coefficients of this model into a hierarchical structure with an overall average term common to all types of fuel cladding tubes and a term representing differences among various types of fuel cladding tubes. This hierarchical structure enabled us to quantify the fracture limit uncertainty through the effective use of prior knowledge and data, even for high-burnup advanced fuel cladding tubes with a small number of data points. The fracture limits representing a 5% fracture probability with 95% confidence of the high-burnup advanced fuel cladding tubes evaluated by the hierarchical Bayesian model were higher than 15% ECR for the initial hydrogen concentrations of up to 700-900 wtppm and restraint loads below 535 N. These fracture limits were comparable to the limit of the unirradiated Zircaloy-4 cladding tube, indicating that the burnup extension and use of the advanced fuel cladding tubes do not significantly lower the fracture limit of fuel cladding tubes. Further, we proposed a method to reduce the fracture limit uncertainty by using non-binary data, instead of the binary data, depending on the condition of the fuel cladding tube specimens after performing the LOCA-simulated test, thereby increasing the amount of information in the data.
成川 隆文; 近藤 啓悦; 藤村 由希; 垣内 一雄; 宇田川 豊; 根本 義之
Journal of Nuclear Materials, 582, p.154467_1 - 154467_12, 2023/08
被引用回数:0 パーセンタイル:0.02(Materials Science, Multidisciplinary)To evaluate the behavior of an oxide-dispersion-strengthened FeCrAl (FeCrAl-ODS) cladding tube under loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) conditions of light-water reactors (LWRs), the following two laboratory-scale LOCA-simulated tests were performed: the burst and integral thermal shock tests. Four burst and three integral thermal shock tests were performed on unirradiated, stress-relieved FeCrAl-ODS cladding tube specimens, simulating ballooning and rupture, oxidation, and quenching, which were postulated during a LOCA. The burst temperature of the FeCrAl-ODS cladding tube was 200-300 K higher than that of the Zircaloy cladding tube, and the FeCrAl-ODS cladding tube's maximum circumferential strain was smaller than or equal to the Zircaloy-4 cladding tube. These results indicate that the FeCrAl-ODS cladding tube has higher strength at high temperatures than the conventional Zircaloy cladding tube. The FeCrAl-ODS cladding tube did not fracture after being subjected to an axial restraint load of 5000 N, which is more than 10 times higher than the axial restraint load estimated for existing LWRs, during quenching, following isothermal oxidation at 1473 K for 1 h. The FeCrAl-ODS cladding tube was hardly oxidized during this isothermal oxidation condition. However, it melted after a short oxidation at 1673 K and fractured after abnormal oxidation at 1573 K for 1 h. Based on these results, the FeCrAl-ODS cladding tube should not fracture in the time range expected during LOCAs below 1473 K, where no melting or abnormal oxidation occurs.
三原 武; 垣内 一雄; 谷口 良徳; 宇田川 豊
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(5), p.512 - 525, 2023/05
被引用回数:0 パーセンタイル:0.01(Nuclear Science & Technology)Fuels with additives are expected to provide enhanced fuel performance in fission gas retention owing to their large grain size, which elongates fission gas migration path. To investigate behavior of the fuels during a reactivity-initiated accident (RIA), RIA-simulated experiments OS-1 and LS-4 were performed on ADOPT (chromia- and alumina-doped UO) fuel of 64 GWd/t and chromia-doped UO
fuel of 48 GWd/t, respectively. The OS-1 rod failed at a fuel enthalpy increase of 160 J/g due to pellet-cladding mechanical interaction failure, which was the lowest failure limit among the test results ever obtained at the NSRR on high-burnup fuels from 40 to 65 GWd/tU. Comparison of the hydride morphologies in the cladding metallic layer between the rods subjected to the past NSRR tests suggests the contribution of radially oriented hydrides during base irradiation to the low failure limit. The LS-4 rod survived for a peak fuel enthalpy increase of 549 J/g, which resulted in cladding deformation of
2.4% in the residual hoop strain and FGR of 1.4%-6.1%. Whereas the low fission gas release exhibits the effect of additives, the cladding deformation is within the range explained by the deformation mechanism essentially identical to those recognized for high-burnup undoped fuels.
古本 健一郎; 宇田川 豊
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(5), p.500 - 511, 2023/05
被引用回数:0 パーセンタイル:0.01(Nuclear Science & Technology)In order to contribute to better modeling and evaluation of fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal expected under loss of coolant accident (LOCA) conditions, LOCA-simulated cladding burst experiments were performed on as-received nonirradiated 17 17 type Zircaloy-4 cladding specimens that were internally pressurized. The experiments were designed to terminate at burst occurrence to focus on ballooning and rupture opening formation and to investigate the effects of various factors. The postburst cladding hoop strain decreased with the increase in azimuthal temperature distribution (ATD) of the cladding, as found previously. The rupture opening size increased with the increase in ATD and the increase in energy of the pressurized gas stored inside the pressure boundary of the test sample system. Comparison with the existing database, which included tests on irradiated rods containing fuel pellets, suggested that formation of the rupture opening was influenced by the characteristic behavior of high burnup fuels, such as limited gas migration in the cladding tube due to fuel-cladding bonding and interaction of the ejected fuel fragments with the cladding tube.
垣内 一雄; 天谷 政樹; 宇田川 豊
Journal of Nuclear Materials, 573, p.154110_1 - 154110_7, 2023/01
被引用回数:0 パーセンタイル:0.01(Materials Science, Multidisciplinary)The irradiation growth behavior of coupon specimens prepared from improved Zr-based alloys for light-water reactor fuel cladding, which have various additive elements and fabrication conditions, was investigated by conducting an irradiation test at 573 and 593 K under typical PWR coolant conditions up to a fast-neutron fluence of 7.8
10
(n/cm
, E
1 MeV) in the Halden reactor in Norway. Based on the dimensional change data measured at interim and final inspections, the amounts of irradiation growth of the improved Zr-based alloys were formulated from the viewpoint of engineering. The trends of the parameters which express the effects of additive elements on irradiation growth behavior were in good agreement with those previously reported, and it was found that the amount of irradiation growth can be expressed by using a summation rule of the effect of each additive element on irradiation growth.
Mohamad, A. B.; 宇田川 豊
Nuclear Technology, 16 Pages, 2023/00
被引用回数:0 パーセンタイル:0.02(Nuclear Science & Technology)In the Power to Melt and Maneuverability (P2M) project, a simulation exercise on two past power ramp experiments xM3 on medium burn-up rod and HBC4 on high burn-up rod were performed with the fuel performance code FEMAXI-8 to investigate the fuel behavior under high power and high-temperature conditions toward centerline fuel melting. In order to treat fuel melting, empirical melting temperature models have been incorporated into the FEMAXI-8 code. The present analysis gave reasonable predictions not only on cladding deformation but also on the fuel melting behavior of the HBC4 rod, in which the UO liquidus temperature was reached during the transient. On the other hand, model improvement appeared to be needed for a more accurate treatment of fuel melting behavior of the xM3 rod, in which fuel center temperature reached solidus line, whereas may not reached liquidus line. A reasonable agreement of estimated FGR with the measurement suggested that the high temperature FGR at the given conditions are essentially temperature dependent phenomenon: rate-limited primarily by thermally activated elementary processes such as fission gas diffusion.
Li, F.; 三原 武; 宇田川 豊
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 59(12), p.1455 - 1464, 2022/12
被引用回数:8 パーセンタイル:95.76(Nuclear Science & Technology)The mechanical properties of fuel cladding near the elastic limit are essential in considering its failure limit during a pellet-cladding mechanical interaction phase under reactivity-initiated accident (RIA) conditions. The mechanical properties of a Zircaloy-4 cladding tube, such as orthotropic elasticity and anisotropic constants for Hill's plasticity law, were evaluated based on the biaxial stress test data, focusing on the equivalent plastic strain up to ~2.5%. Samples with various fabrication conditions, such as cold-worked, recrystallized, and stress relieved after cold-work with Q-factors of 2, 3, and 4 were investigated. The cold worked samples and recrystallized samples showed high yield stress and Young's modulus, respectively. The evaluated mechanical properties of the stress relieved samples revealed a limited impact of Q-factors on mechanical behavior, including their anisotropic feature. The derived mechanical properties were applied to evaluate the fracture mechanics parameter, J-integral, based on failure limit data from biaxial-expansion-due-to-compression tests on precracked tubes. This evaluation produced systematically lower J-integral values of the stress relieved tube than previously evaluated based on the failure limit data from in-pile RIA-simulated tests.
成川 隆文; 濱口 修輔*; 高田 孝*; 宇田川 豊
Proceedings of Asian Symposium on Risk Assessment and Management 2022 (ASRAM 2022) (Internet), 11 Pages, 2022/12
To realize a more reliable safety evaluation of loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs) in light-water-reactors, we developed a quantification method of the fracture limit uncertainty of high-burnup advanced fuel cladding tubes using a hierarchical Bayes model that can quantify uncertainty even when experimental data are limited. The fracture limit uncertainty was quantified as a probability using the amount of oxidation and the initial hydrogen concentration (the hydrogen concentration in fuel cladding tubes before the LOCA-simulated tests) as explanatory variables. The hierarchical Bayes model was developed by dividing the regression coefficients into a hierarchical structure with an overall average term common to all types of fuel cladding tubes and a term representing differences between types of fuel cladding tubes. Using the developed model, we showed that the fracture limits of the high-burnup advanced fuel cladding tubes tended to be on average equal to or higher than that of an unirradiated conventional fuel cladding tube. Further, we proposed a method to reduce the fracture limit uncertainty by using non-binary data depending on the condition of the fuel cladding tube specimens after the LOCA-simulated test instead of the binary data, thereby increasing the amount of information in each data.
垣内 一雄; 山内 紹裕*; 天谷 政樹; 宇田川 豊; 北野 剛司*
Proceedings of TopFuel 2022 (Internet), p.409 - 418, 2022/10
In order to examine the influence of cladding microstructural changes upon the mechanical property of the fuel cladding under LOCA conditions in a more direct and quantitative manner, the nanoindentation method has been applied to Zircaloy-4 cladding specimens after LOCA simulated tests (about 1473 K, ECR 20%, quench at 973 K after slow cooling); results for two specimens taken from the rupture opening part and secondary hydriding part were compared. In addition to hardness and Young's modulus, the plastic work fraction that corresponds to the relative ductility was evaluated from the load-displacement curve. The plastic work fraction at the secondary hydriding part was found to be obviously lower than that at the rupture opening part and closer to that in -Zr(O) layers beneath the outer surface. This result from the nanoindentation method agrees with the conventional knowledge about low ductility at the secondary hydriding part.
垣内 一雄; 宇田川 豊; 山内 紹裕*
JAEA-Research 2022-001, 21 Pages, 2022/06
冷却材喪失事故(LOCA)時想定される被覆管脆化の主たる要因は、高温酸化に伴う金属層中酸素濃度の増大とこれに起因する微細組織の変化である。被覆管が破裂した場合には、燃料棒内に侵入した水蒸気によって生じる被覆管内面の酸化及びこれに伴う燃料棒内水素分圧の上昇の結果、破裂開口部からやや離れた軸方向位置で局所的な水素吸収が起こり(二次水素化)、二次水素化部では水素脆化による延性低下も重畳する。これら微細組織の変化がLOCA条件下における燃料棒の機械特性に及ぼす影響をより詳細かつ定量的に把握するため、LOCA模擬試験後試料の破裂開口部及び二次水素化部の延性評価にナノインデンテーション法を適用した。硬さやヤング率に加えて、押込み荷重-変位曲線から算出される塑性仕事割合を評価したところ、二次水素化部の金属層(prior-相)における塑性仕事割合は、被覆管外周のZrO
層と
-Zr(O)層に近い水準であり、破裂開口部に比べて酸素濃度が低いにもかかわらず、水素の影響により有意に延性が低下していることが示唆された。
垣内 一雄; 天谷 政樹; 宇田川 豊
Annals of Nuclear Energy, 171, p.109004_1 - 109004_9, 2022/06
被引用回数:3 パーセンタイル:84.2(Nuclear Science & Technology)In order to understand the dimensional stability of the fuel rod during long-term use in commercial LWRs, an irradiation growth testing in the Halden reactor of Norway was conducted on various fuel cladding materials including the improved Zr alloy. In this paper, the effect of hydrogen, which was absorbed in the cladding tube due to corrosion, on the irradiation growth behavior was evaluated. Comparison between the specimens with or without pre-charged hydrogen revealed that the effect of hydrogen absorption, accelerating irradiation growth, became significant when the hydrogen content exceeded the hydrogen solubility limit in the corresponding irradiation temperature. Analysis based on this understanding derived growth acceleration effect (0.060.01)%/100 ppm, whose denominator is defined as the amount of absorbed hydrogen involved in hydride precipitation under irradiation as a relevant parameter.
田崎 雄大; 宇田川 豊; 天谷 政樹
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 59(3), p.382 - 394, 2022/03
被引用回数:0 パーセンタイル:0.01(Nuclear Science & Technology)This study develops a new fission gas release (FGR) model for mixed oxide (MOX) fuels with a fundamentally heterogeneous microstructure. The model adopted in FEMAXI-8 was applied to irradiation Instrumented Fuel Assembly (IFA)-626 and 702 tests in which two types of MOX fuels had different heterogeneity in their microstructure, while the other spec were similar. Upon analyzing these fuels, the original FGR model predicted lower FGR from the fuel with a remarkably heterogeneous microstructure than the other MOX fuel. This estimation contradicts the experimental observation. However, the new FGR model improved the consistency because of the early release of fission gas from Pu agglomerate region, and showed issues for aiming further improvement. Therefore, the above results confirmed a certain validity of the developed model for studying heterogeneity effect.
三原 武; 垣内 一雄; 谷口 良徳; 宇田川 豊
Proceedings of TopFuel 2021 (Internet), 10 Pages, 2021/10
Test OS-1, the reactivity-initiated-accident (RIA) -simulated test on 64 GWd/tU high burnup fuel with ADOPT (chromia-and-alumina-doped UO
) pellets resulted in a failure at the lowest fuel enthalpy increase among the tests ever performed at the NSRR on high burnup fuels from 40 to 65 GWd/tU. Roles of both fuel pellets and cladding behaviours in this remarkable observation are being investigated. A comparative RIA-simulated test OS-2 was thus performed on undoped fuel that had been base-irradiated in the identical fuel assembly with the OS-1 rod. The transient records acquired during Test OS-2 indicated that the rod survived without fuel failure. Radially projected hydride lengths in the cladding metallic layer were evaluated from the metallograph images observed in the vicinity of the OS-2 test rod and compared with other failure test cases. The comparison suggested that the hydride morphologies affected the low failure limit of the OS-1 rod and also explains the survival of the OS-2 rod, to some extent. Nevertheless, as the OS-2 rod survived 100 J/g higher peak fuel enthalpy than the OS-1 failure limit, further experimental and analytical studies are desired to pursue other possible causes: additional loading specific to ADOPT
pellets, difference in the pellet/cladding bonding condition, and so on.
成川 隆文; 宇田川 豊
Proceedings of TopFuel 2021 (Internet), 10 Pages, 2021/10
To clarify the mechanism and temperature threshold for fuel fragmentation during loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs), out-of-pile heating tests on bare fuel pellet pieces taken from a high-burnup PWR UO fuel rod (segment average burnup: 81 GWd/tU) were performed. The fuel pellet pieces taken from various regions in the radial direction of the fuel pellet were inductively heated with no cladding restraint in vacuum up to 1473 K at a rate of 5 K/s. During the heating tests, the fission gases released from the fuel pellet pieces were continuously analyzed in-situ using a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Following the heating tests, microstructural observation of the fuel pellet fragments was carried out. Based on the relationship between the extent of fuel fragmentation and the terminal temperature, and the time history of fission gas release, temperature thresholds for minor fuel fragmentation and slightly more fuel fragmentation were estimated to be 973 - 1073 K and 1173 - 1273 K, respectively. The extent of fuel fragmentation and the amount of fission gas release became more pronounced with increasing temperature. Further, the microstructural observations after the heating tests revealed that most of the fuel fragments smaller than approximately 500 - 750
m have microstructures consisting of many micropores and subgrains, which are characteristic of the dark zone or high-burnup structure. On the basis of these results, the mechanism of fuel fragmentation during LOCAs was discussed.
谷口 良徳; 三原 武; 宇田川 豊
Proceedings of TopFuel 2021 (Internet), 10 Pages, 2021/10
Scattering of hydride precipitates in a fuel cladding tube was simply modeled by mapping of multiple cracks in finite element system based on the image-processed hydride morphologies observed in post-test cladding samples and the mechanical interactions of these cracks were simulated by damage mechanics calculation. This is a part of ongoing efforts to analyze the effect of the radially oriented hydride precipitates in the cladding tube on the fuel-failure limit observed in Test OS-1: a reactivity-initiated accident (RIA)-simulated test on the BWR fuel with additives irradiated to 64 GWd/tU, which resulted in a fuel failure with the lowest failure limit among the tests ever performed at the NSRR for high burnup BWR rods. The LS-1 test fuel rod, with similar burnup to the OS-1 rod, was selected as another RIA-simulated test rod to be compared with. Sensitivity was examined for damage model parameters, which dominate strain level at which a finite element becomes softened and finally loses its load-carrying capacity, and two sets of plasticity model parameters calibrated for irradiated and unirradiated materials. In the calculation, large stress concentration occurred in the regions between the tips of two adjacent cracks, and one pair of such cracks, typically one of the longest radial cracks existing in the outer periphery of the cladding, then linked to form a longer crack. The simulated macroscopic circumferential strain at failure of the OS-1 cladding model was lower than that of the LS-1 cladding model by about 40% or more. Limited sensitivity of the damage and plasticity model parameters, observed for the investigated range, suggests that the reduction of failure strain primarily reflects the difference in crack distributions between the two simulated rods. The results support the interpretation that the radially oriented hydrides contributed to the low PCMI-failure limit observed in Test OS-1.
三原 武; 宇田川 豊; 杉山 智之; 天谷 政樹
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 58(8), p.872 - 885, 2021/08
被引用回数:1 パーセンタイル:21.98(Nuclear Science & Technology)To evaluate the effects of the hydride morphology and initial temperature of fuel cladding on the pellet-cladding mechanical interaction failure under reactivity-initiated accident (RIA) conditions, RIA-simulated experiments were performed on high-burnup fuels with stress-relieved annealed (SR) and recrystallized (RX) M-MDA cladding at room and high (
280
C) temperatures. The results demonstrated that the failure-limit trend of RX-cladded fuels being lower than that of SR-cladded fuels for a similar hydrogen content holds up to at least about 700 wtppm. The observation of the fracture surfaces of failed RX cladding suggests a contribution of radially-oriented hydrides to the crack formation and/or penetration, which coincides with the aforementioned failure-limit trend. The temperature effect, namely the failure-limit rise at a high temperature, is evident irrespective of the hydride morphology, while the degree of the temperature effect decreases as the hydrogen content increases.
宇田川 豊; 田崎 雄大
JAEA-Data/Code 2021-007, 56 Pages, 2021/07
FEMAXI-8は、軽水炉燃料の通常運転時及び過渡条件下の挙動解析を目的として日本原子力研究開発機構が開発・整備を進めてきたFEMAXIコードの最新バージョンとして、2019年3月に公開された。本報告では、公開以降新たに整備を進めた、燃料結晶粒内核分裂生成物(FP)ガスバブルの多群/非平衡モデルについてまとめた。結晶粒内で様々なサイズを持って分布しているFPガスバブルを単一の大きさのガスバブルにより近似していた従来のモデルに対し、このモデルでは、バブルサイズに関する2群以上の群構造と非平衡な挙動の双方を表現することが出来る。これによって、妥当なオーダーのガスバブル圧力算定が可能となるなど、主に過渡的な挙動の再現性改善が見込めると共に、粒内FPガスバブル挙動についてより厳密な記述が可能となり、FP挙動モデリング全体としての高度化余地が拡大している。今回のモデル整備では、まず、任意の群数や空間分割に対応する粒内FP挙動解析モジュールを開発した。次に、FEMAXI-8上で容易に運用可能な2群モデルとして扱うため、同モジュールとFEMAXI-8間のインタフェースを開発し、両者を接続した。これによりFEMAXI-8から利用可能となった2群モデルについては改めて検証解析を実施した。多群/非平衡モデル適用時にも一定の性能を確保できるモデルパラメータを決定し、公開パッケージ向けに整備した。
垣内 一雄; 宇田川 豊; 天谷 政樹
Annals of Nuclear Energy, 155, p.108171_1 - 108171_11, 2021/06
被引用回数:0 パーセンタイル:0.01(Nuclear Science & Technology)In order to investigate fission gas release behavior of high-burnup mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel pellet for LWR under reactivity-initiated accident (RIA), the tests called BZ-3 and BZ-4 were conducted at the Nuclear Safety Research Reactor (NSRR) in Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). Electron probe microanalysis and rod-puncture tests were performed on the fuel pellets before and after pulse irradiation tests, and from the comparison between the puncture test results and the results evaluated from EPMA, it was suggested that fission gas release from not only the Pu-spot but also the Pu-spot-excluded region.
宇田川 豊
日本原子力学会誌ATOMO, 62(10), p.555 - 559, 2020/10
核燃料や燃料被覆管のふるまいに係る研究で得られた知見やデータは、燃料挙動解析コードにモデルとして集約され、燃料設計や安全評価に活用されている。著者らは、国産/公開の燃料挙動解析コードとして産官学で広く利用されてきたFEMAXIの最新バージョンFEMAXI-8を開発した。FPガス移行挙動モデル等のモデル高度化および機能拡充を進めるとともに、燃料分野における産官学の研究開発をより強力にサポートする技術基盤とすべく、体系的検証による性能評価を経て、一定の信頼性が確認された標準モデルセットを提供した。2019年3月の公開に至るまでの取組みを概説する。
宇田川 豊; 更田 豊志*
Comprehensive Nuclear Materials, 2nd Edition, Vol.2, p.322 - 338, 2020/08
This article aims at providing a general outline of fuel behavior during a reactivity-initiated accident (RIA) postulated in light water reactors (LWRs) and at showing experimental data providing technical basis for the current RIA-related regulatory criteria in Japan.