Modeling fission product diffusion in TRISO fuel particles with BISON

Abstract The diffusion of fission products in intact TRISO particles depends on particle geometry, fission product source rates, time, temperature, and temperature-dependent diffusion coefficients. Simulating this diffusion process requires models for source rates and diffusion coefficients, plus a computation of the temperature field if not prescribed. In addition, the simulation quality depends on the discretization of the geometry, appropriate time stepping, and the accuracy of the solution method. In this paper, we explore the simulation of fission product diffusion in TRISO fuel particles using the finite element method via the fuel performance code BISON. Recent material model development has occurred in BISON for each material present in tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles: the buffer, inner pyrolytic carbon, silicon carbide, and outer pyrolytic carbon layers, as well as the fuel kernel. Also, new mesh generation and fission product release fraction capabilities have been added. Diffusion capabilities are shown to converge to the correct solution via formal verification tests. A large number of code benchmarking problems are also given, with good results, showing that BISON’s computed release fractions closely match those of other software tools. Finally, a significant validation effort is detailed in which fission product release, measured as part of the AGR-1 capsule experiments, is compared to BISON outputs. BISON outputs compare favorably to the experimental data and to PARFUME results.