Diffusion of Fission Gas in Uranium Dioxide: A First-Principles Study

Author(s):  
Qiang Zhao ◽  
Zheng Zhang ◽  
Yang Li ◽  
Xiaoping Ouyang

Uranium dioxide (UO2) is the typical fuel that is used in nuclear fission reactor, fission gas are produced during and after the reactor operation, and the fission gas have a significant impact on the performance of UO2 in reactor. In this paper, we investigated the effects of the fission gas on the performance of UO2 by using the first-principles calculation method based on the density functional theory. The results are that, the volume of UO2 increased when there is a fission gas atom enter in UO2 supercell; fission gas prefer to occupy the octahedral interstitial site over the uranium vacancy site and the oxygen vacancy site, and the oxygen vacancy site is the most difficult occupied site due to the formation of an oxygen vacancy is more difficult than that of the uranium vacancy; our results of the UO2 elastic constants are in good agreement with other simulation results and experimental data, and the fission gas atoms make the ductility of UO2 decreased. Our works may shed some light on the development of the UO2 fuel and the spent fuel reprocessing.

Author(s):  
Qiang Zhao ◽  
Zheng Zhang ◽  
Xiaoping Ouyang

Uranium dioxide (UO2) is the typical fuel that is used in the current nuclear power plant; fission gas atoms are produced during and after the nuclear reactor operation; the fission gas atoms have a significant effect on the performance of UO2 fuel in the nuclear reactor. In this paper, we investigated the diffusion of the fission gas atoms in the UO2 fuel by using the first-principles calculation method based on the density functional theory (DFT). The results indicate that the volume of the UO2 cell increased when there is a fission gas atom enters in the UO2 supercell; the elastic properties of UO2 are in good agreement with other simulation results and experimental data and the fission gas atoms make the ductility of UO2 decreased; the fission gas atoms prefer to occupy the octahedral interstitial site (OIS) over the uranium vacancy site and the oxygen vacancy site, and the oxygen vacancy site is the most difficult occupied site due to the formation of an oxygen vacancy is more difficult than that of the uranium vacancy; the diffusion barrier of a He atom in the UO2 supercell is higher than that of an oxygen atom, that means that the diffusion of the He atom in UO2 fuel is weaker than that of the oxygen atom. Our works may shed some light on the formation mechanism of the bubbles caused by the fission gas atoms in the UO2 fuel.


2008 ◽  
Vol 1125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken-ichi Ebihara ◽  
Masatake Yamaguchi ◽  
Hideo Kaburaki ◽  
Yutaka Nishiyama

ABSTRACTWe have evaluated phosphorus (P) segregation in ion-irradiated nickel (Ni) by the rate theory model incorporating the results of first principles calculations. We find from our first principles calculation that the transport of P via the rotation mode of a mixed-dumbbell is unlikely to occur, and the transport coefficient of phosphorus by the vacancy mechanism is much larger than that reported previously. On the basis of our first principles results, we have also proposed to include the effect of free migration of P via the octahedral interstitial site of FCC Ni crystal in the rate theory model. With all these renewed parameters, we have successfully obtained the P distribution in irradiated Ni, which is very close to experiment, by adjusting the effect of P transport by the vacancy mechanism.


2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (15n16) ◽  
pp. 2749-2755 ◽  
Author(s):  
YE WEI ◽  
YING ZHANG ◽  
GUANG-HONG LU ◽  
HUIBIN XU

We employed a first-principles method based on the density functional theory to investigate the effect of impurity O on the site preference and elastic properties of α2- Ti 3 Al . We found that the O atom prefers to occupy the Ti -rich octahedral interstitial site in α2- Ti 3 Al . We calculated the elastic constants of α2- Ti 3 Al with single O atom, which demonstrate that the O presence has no large effect on α2- Ti 3 Al according to the empirical criterions. Other factors such as O cluster should be taken into account to understand the deleterious effect of O on α2- Ti 3 Al . Our results provide a useful reference to further study the mechanical properties of TiAl alloys.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiayao Qin ◽  
Zhigao Liu ◽  
Wei Zhao ◽  
Dianhui Wang ◽  
Yanli Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Hydrogen embrittlement causes deterioration of materials used in hydrogen energy systems. Alloying is an effective means for overcoming this issue. In this study, the first-principles calculation method was used to investigate the effects of alloying Ni on the stability, dissolution, trapping, and diffusion behaviour of interstitial/vacancy H atoms in V. The calculated phonon spectra and solution energies of the vacancy/interstitial H atoms revealed that the V–Ni phase was dynamically and thermodynamically stable, and Ni addition could reduce the stability of V hydrides and improve their resistance to H embrittlement. H atoms in the interstitials and vacancies preferentially occupied the tetrahedral interstitial site (TIS) and octahedral interstitial site (OIS) with the lowest solution energies and diffused along the TIS → TIS and OIS → OIS paths with the minimum diffusion barrier energies. The trapping energy of the vacancy H atoms indicated that the addition of Ni could reduce the H trapping capability of the vacancies and suppress the retention of H in V. Detailed analysis of the calculated H diffusion barriers indicated that the presence of monovacancy defects blocked the diffusion of H atoms more than the presence of interstitials, and Ni doping did not enhance the H diffusion coefficient.


2020 ◽  
Vol 310 ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Sarantuya Nasantogtokh ◽  
Xin Cui ◽  
Zhi Ping Wang

The electronic and magnetic properties of palladium hydrogen are investigated using first-principles spin-polarized density functional theory. By studying the magnetic moments and electronic structures of hydrogen atoms diffusing in face-centered cubic structure of transition metal Pd, we found that the results of magnetic moments are exactly the same in the two direct octahedral interstitial site-octahedral interstitial site diffusion paths-i.e. the magnetic moments are the largest in the octahedral interstitial site, and the magnetic moments are the lowest in saddle point positions. We also studied on the density of states of some special points, with the result that the density of states near the Fermi level is mainly contributed by 4d electrons of Pd and the change of magnetic moments with the cell volume in the unit cell of transition metal Pd with a hydrogen atom.


1993 ◽  
Vol 319 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Kioussis ◽  
H. Watanabe ◽  
R.G. Hemker ◽  
W. Gourdin ◽  
A. Gonis ◽  
...  

AbstractUsing first-principles electronic structure calculations based on the Linear-Muffin-Tin Orbital (LMTO) method, we have investigated the effects of interstitial boron and hydrogen on the electronic structure of the L12 ordered intermetallic Ni3A1. When it occupies an octahedral interstitial site entirely coordinated by six Ni atoms, we find that boron enhances the charge distribution found in the strongly-bound “pure” Ni3AI crystal: Charge is depleted at Ni and Al sites and enhanced in interstitial region. Substitution of Al atoms for two of the Ni atoms coordinating the boron, however, reduces the interstitial charge density between certain atomic planes. In contrast to boron, hydrogen appears to deplete the interstitial charge, even when fully coordinated by Ni atoms. We suggest that these results are broadly consistent with the notion of boron as a cohesion enhancer and hydrogen as an embrittler.


Author(s):  
Huai-Yang Sun ◽  
Shuo-Xue Li ◽  
Hong Jiang

Prediction of optical spectra of complex solids remains a great challenge for first-principles calculation due to the huge computational cost of the state-of-the-art many-body perturbation theory based GW-Bethe Salpeter equation...


RSC Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (38) ◽  
pp. 31968-31975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuai Zhao ◽  
Liguo Gao ◽  
Chunfeng Lan ◽  
Shyam S. Pandey ◽  
Shuzi Hayase ◽  
...  

In this work, we present a detailed first-principles investigation on the stoichiometric and oxygen-deficient structures of double perovskites, Sr2BMoO6 (B = Mg, Co and Ni), using the density functional theory (DFT) method.


Materials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2091 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tie Yang ◽  
Liyu Hao ◽  
Rabah Khenata ◽  
Xiaotian Wang

In this work, we systematically studied the structural, electronic, magnetic, mechanical and thermodynamic properties of the fully compensated spin-gapless inverse Heusler Ti2MnAl compound under pressure strain condition by applying the first-principles calculation based on density functional theory and the quasi-harmonic Debye model. The obtained structural, electronic and magnetic behaviors without pressure are well consistent with previous studies. It is found that the spin-gapless characteristic is destroyed at 20 GPa and then restored with further increase in pressure. While, the fully compensated ferromagnetism shows a better resistance against the pressure up to 30 GPa and then becomes to non-magnetism at higher pressure. Tetragonal distortion has also been investigated and it is found the spin-gapless property is only destroyed when c/a is less than 1 at 95% volume. Three independent elastic constants and various moduli have been calculated and they all show increasing tendency with pressure increase. Additionally, the pressure effects on the thermodynamic properties under different temperature have been studied, including the normalized volume, thermal expansion coefficient, heat capacity at constant volume, Grüneisen constant and Debye temperature. Overall, this theoretical study presents a detailed analysis of the physical properties’ variation under strain condition from different aspects on Ti2MnAl and, thus, can provide a helpful reference for the future work and even inspire some new studies and lead to some insight on the application of this material.


2014 ◽  
Vol 887-888 ◽  
pp. 378-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Chen ◽  
Zheng Jun Yao ◽  
Ping Ze Zhang ◽  
Dong Bo Wei ◽  
Xi Xi Luo ◽  
...  

The structure stability, mechanical properties and electronic structures of B2 phase FeAl intermetallic compounds and FeAl ternary alloys containing V, Cr or Ni were investigated using first-principles density functional theory calculations. Several models are established. The total energies, cohesive energies, lattice constants, elastic constants, density of states, and the charge densities of Fe8Al8 and Fe8XAl7 ( X=V, Cr, Ni ) are calculated. The stable crystal structures of alloy systems are determined due to the cohesive energy results. The calculated lattice contants of Fe-Al-X ( X= V, Cr, Ni) were found to be related to the atomic radii of the alloy elements. The calculation and analysis of the elastic constants showed that ductility of FeAl alloys was improved by the addition of V, Cr or Ni, the improvement was the highest when Cr was used. The order of the ductility was as follows: Fe8CrAl7 > Fe8NiAl7 > Fe8VAl7 > Fe8Al8. The results of electronic structure analysis showed that FeAl were brittle, mainly due to the orbital hybridization of the s, p and d state electron of Fe and the s and p state electrons of Al, showing typical characteristics of a valence bond. Micro-mechanism for improving ductility of FeAl is that d orbital electron of alloying element is maily involved in hybridization of FeAl, alloying element V, Cr and Ni decrease the directional property in bonding of FeAl.


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