Model of fracture for the Zry cladding of nuclear fuel rods included in the code DIONISIO 1.0 Original Research Article

The DIONISIO code describes most of the main phenomena occurring in a fuel rod during normal operation of a nuclear power reactor. Starting from the irradiation history, the code predicts the temperature distribution, elastic and plastic stress and strain, creep, swelling and densification, release of fission gases, caesium and iodine to the internal rod volume, gas mixing, pressure increase, irradiation growth of the cladding, development of an oxide layer on its surface and hydrogen uptake, restructuring and grain growth in the pellet. This work presents the model of Zircaloy fracture included in the code DIONISIO 1.0. The model of pellet–cladding mechanical interaction (PCMI) provides the forces caused by the solid–solid contact which add to the changing internal pressure and to the constant external pressure. Besides, the program evaluates the effects of a corrosive atmosphere (stress corrosion cracking, SCC) internal or external. With these data, the code calculates the J integral around the tip of an initiated crack, and proceeds to analyze, according to the quantity of corrosive substance dissolved and the cladding stress field, if the crack remains unchanged, if it grows due to the I-SCC mechanism, or if propagation is ductile, following the R curve of the material. Results corresponding to different PHWR and PWR reactors are presented and compared with code results. In particular, good agreement is obtained in the simulation of MOX experiments, where the cladding failed due to propagation of cracks originated in SCC.