Development of a hybrid model for fuel performance analysis of spherical fuel elements under normal conditions

The spherical fuel element (SFE) dispersed with many tri-isotropic fuel (TRISO) particles has been primarily employed in the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. Owing to the complex structure of SFE, behaviors will be evolved for both TRISO particles and the fuel matrix with the increasing burnup. To evaluate the fuel performance of SFE, the homogenization method has been conventionally adopted for SFE scale modeling, and dispersed TRISO particles are analyzed subsequently with fixed temperature boundary conditions. However, owing to the varying properties of TRISO particles under reactor operation, the homogenization models dedicated to certain circumstances can hardly reflect the properties evolution of TRISO with high fidelity, which may lead to uncertainties in analysis results. To this end, a hybrid model, namely the conventional homogenization model informed by the lower scale model online, has been developed in this paper, which may increase modeling fidelity for both SFE and particles. Specifically, property models for the TRISO particle and graphite matrix have been implemented in COMSOL. Subsequently, based on the linking of COMSOL and MATLAB, the hybrid model for SFE analysis was established. Through the hybrid model, the temperature field and stress distribution of TRISO, the evolution of effective properties, and the thermal and mechanical state of the SFE were obtained and analyzed. The results show that within the scope of this paper, the central temperature of TRISO in the innermost region rises with the increasing burnup for the decreasing thermal conductivity of materials, and the peak value is about 1324 K, which is about 60 K higher than that in the outermost region. The difference in the maximum plenum pressure is more than 5 MPa among TRISO particles, which is mainly caused by the variations in CO production. Consequently, the hoop stress of SiC in the outermost region is slightly elevated. The distribution of effective thermal conductivity (ETC) for TRISO is nearly 4.3 W/(m·K) at the beginning of life (BOL), while it was reduced to 3.6 W/(m·K) at the end of life (EOL). There are marginal variations along the radial direction for the ETC of TRISO. Meanwhile, the ETC of SFE decreases from about 21 W/(m·K) for fresh fuel to 13 W/(m·K) for spent fuel. The predicted effective elastic modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion of SFE increase gradually versus time. The former is caused by the densification of pyrolytic carbon, and the latter is mainly determined by the high volume fraction of matrix and the changes of CTE for pyrolytic carbon. In addition, the comparison in the temperature field between the proposed model and the Differential Effective Material Theory (D-EMT) model may further demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the hybrid model.