Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 154). / Modifying material properties provides another approach to optimize coated particle fuel used in pebble bed reactors. In this study, the MIT fuel performance model (TIMCOAT) was applied after benchmarking against the experiment results. The optimization study focuses on the fracture toughness of silicon carbide and Bacon anisotropy factor (BAF) of pyrocarbon. The variations on the silicon carbide toughness show that higher fracture toughness leads to a lower fuel failure probability, as expected. However, the results from the BAF variations reveal that a higher BAF lowers a fuel failure probability. This quite contradicts the generally believed notion that a higher BAF would increase fuel failures. In addition to the fuel design optimization, the failure characteristics of coated particle fuel are explained and the key factors influencing such characteristics are identified. / by Chaiyod Soontrapa. / S.M.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34455 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Soontrapa, Chaiyod |
| Contributors | Ronald G. Ballinger., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Nuclear Engineering., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering |
| Publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | M.I.T. Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 154 p., 7704041 bytes, 7710498 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 |
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