2007 International RERTR Meeting

Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the Meeting

MTR Plates Modeling with MAIA

V. Marelle, S. Dubois, M. Ripert, J. Noirot
DEN/DEC
CEA Cadarache, 13108 St Paul Lez Durance, France

And

P. Lemoine
DEN/DSOE
CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France

ABSTRACT

MAIA is a thermo-mechanical code dedicated to the modeling of MTR fuel plates. The main physical phenomena modeled in the code are the cladding oxidation, the interaction between fuel and Al-matrix, the swelling due to fission products and the Al/fuel particles interaction. The creeping of the plate can be modeled in the mechanical calculation. MAIA has been validated on U-Mo dispersion fuel experiments such as IRIS 1&2 and FUTURE. The results are in rather good agreement with post-irradiation examinations. MAIA can also be used to calculate in-pile behavior of U₃Si₂ plates as in the SHARE experiment irradiated in the SCK/Mol BR2 reactor. The main outputs given by MAIA throughout the irradiation are temperatures, cladding oxidation thickness, interaction thickness, volume fraction of meat constituents, swelling, displacements, strains and stresses. MAIA is originally a two-dimensional code but a three-dimensional version is currently under development.

 

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