Coupled Bison/Thermochimica Simulation of Hydride Formation in Zircalloy Cladding
The report describes implementation of the thermodynamics models for simulation of zirconium hydride formation in LWR fuel cladding. The current models for ZrH x formation are based on empirical rate models that must calibrated to materials and regimes of interest. The thermodynamic approach enables hydride formation calculations based on fundamental thermodynamics principles and material composition. Thermodynamic formulations and models were implemented in the Idaho National Laboratory fuel performance code Bison using Material, Kernel and AuxKernel methods. The results for the Material and Kernel implementation are shown in this report. The Material method implementation naturally fits the concept of modeling evolution of material state in the material models. Given the relatively high cost of thermodynamic computation, the advantage of the AuxKernel compared to Material implementation is the ability to control the execution and computational cost. The implemented formulations are illustrated on example problems which fit the experimental data and satisfy the computational requirements of conservation equations.