Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Sub-Department

College of Engineering and Computing

First Advisor

Travis W. Knight

Abstract

Very durable ceramic waste forms have been proposed which offer longterm stability by binding certain radionuclides in their specific crystalline network. Moreover, multiple such ceramic phases can be tailored to contain specific radionuclides generated in the fuel cycle. Many such candidate ceramic forms are in the early stages of development with limited data. Modeling and simulation including modeling of diffusion can inform and provide direction to ongoing fabrication and experimental efforts. Material properties important in modeling can be obtained through laboratory measurement where available and atomistic simulation. Since diffusion occurs over multiple scales and follows multiple pathways, multiscale modeling is important to capture the detailed behavior from different material phases and microstructures. In light of this, a MOOSE based application (TREX) has been developed to meet these conditions. Different kernel, material, and postprocessor objects have been created in TREX to model anisotropic multiphase, multiscale, multipath diffusion, radionuclide decay , multiphase, multiscale thermal conduction and other physics.

Rights

© 2016, Jonathon Gardner

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