Effects of sizes and mechanical properties of fuel coupon on the rolling simulation results of monolithic fuel plate blanks

Abstract

High-density UMo/Zr monolithic nuclear fuel plates have a promising application prospect in high flux research and test reactors. The solid state welding method called co-rolling is used for their fabrication. Hot co-rolling simulations for the composite blanks of UMo/Zr monolithic nuclear fuel plates are performed. The effects of coupon sizes and mechanical property parameters on the contact pressures between the to-be-bonded surfaces are investigated and analyzed. The numerical simulation results indicate that 1) the maximum contact pressures between the fuel coupon and the Zircaloy cover exist near the central line along the plate length direction; as a whole the contact pressures decrease toward the edges in the plate width direction; and lower contact pressures appear at a large zone near the coupon corner, where de-bonding is easy to take place in the in-pile irradiation environments; 2) the maximum contact pressures between the fuel coupon and the Zircaloy parts increase with the initial coupon thickness; after reaching a certain thickness value, the contact pressures hardly change, which was mainly induced by the complex deformation mechanism and special mechanical constitutive relation of fuel coupon; 3) softer fuel coupon will result in lower contact pressures and form interfaces being more out-of-flatness. Keywords: Numerical simulation, UMo/Zr monolithic fuel plate, Co-rolling simulation, Composite blank, Size and mechanical property