Project Summary

Representative first wall/blanket design

The objective of this project is to develop an integrated computational model linking the materials physics scale with the component-level scale to simulate the thermomechanical response of the full first wall/blanket structures during fusion reactor operation. Phenomena of interest at the three modeling scales include:

  1. Fundamental properties (“Level 1”)
    1. Transmutant inventory changes
    2. Dose- and material chemistry-dependent PKA energy distributions
    3. Displacement cascades in isotopically-changing environments
    4. Chemical environment-dependent defect structures
    5. Irradiation defect distributions
    6. Tritium transport/trapping in chemically evolving environments
  2. Microstructural evolution (“Level 2”)
    1. Irradiation hardening, creep, and swelling
    2. Grain growth/recrystallization
    3. Tritium permeation and retention
  3. Component evaluation (“Level 3”)
    1. Integrated thermomechanical evolution of selected design(s)
    2. Design findings/recommendations

We will also carry out assessments of the uncertainties associated with various phenomena to inform the integrated models.

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Publications and Presentations

Our most recent publications include…

Publications

  • Maron, M., Li, Y., Lalani, I., Baker, K., Flores, B. R., Black, T., Hollenbeck, J., Ghoniem, N., & Po, G. (2024). Spatially-resolved cluster dynamics modeling of irradiation growth. International Journal of Plasticity, 177, 103989. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijplas.2024.103989
    Abstract

    We develop here a spatially resolved, three-dimensional continuum model coupling cluster dynamics (SR-CD) and crystal plasticity to investigate irradiation growth in zirconium. The model uses scale separation to divide the population of the irradiation cluster into mobile and immobile families. Small interstitial and vacancy clusters are modeled using anisotropic reaction–diffusion equations. Among the immobile clusters, an atomistically-informed vacancy cluster to vacancy loop transition is taken into account. The coupling between the evolution equation of CD and the plastic deformation of the material is two-fold, with stress-informed bias factors and local inelastic strains computed from the evolution of the evolving cluster population. The numerical implementation of the model utilizes the finite element method to analyze both single-crystal and polycrystalline samples. The growth strains that are computed align well with the experimental data provided by Carpenter for single-crystal Zr. Furthermore, the transformation of a vacancy cluster into a complete vacancy loop, occurring at a size of 14 nm, is in agreement with experimental observations and atomistic simulations. The density, size, and growth rate of the dislocation loops, denoted as 〈c〉 and 〈a〉, also exhibit good agreement with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis of irradiated Zr and its alloys. Our findings demonstrate that there is a spatial correlation between the growth of these dislocation loops and growth strains, significantly influenced by the crystal size. To explain the expansion of the 〈a〉 axis and the contraction of the 〈c〉 axis in irradiated Zr, it is necessary to consider the diffusion anisotropy difference (DAD) of mobile interstitial species. We show that the PWR Kearns parameters, specifically fr = 0.63, ft = 0.32, fa = 0.05, confer enhanced irradiation resistance to Zr along the principal directions when compared to single crystals. Additionally, reducing the grain size to nanograins further enhances the resistance to irradiation-induced growth, particularly along the direction with the highest volume fraction of basal poles [0001].

    BibTeX
    @article{Maron-2024-src,
  title = {Spatially-resolved cluster dynamics modeling of irradiation growth},
  journal = {International Journal of Plasticity},
  volume = {177},
  pages = {103989},
  year = {2024},
  month = jun,
  issn = {0749-6419},
  doi = {10.1016/j.ijplas.2024.103989},
  url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749641924001165},
  author = {Maron, Matthew and Li, Yang and Lalani, Inam and Baker, Kristopher and Flores, Benjamin Ramirez and Black, Thomas and Hollenbeck, James and Ghoniem, Nasr and Po, Giacomo},
  keywords = {Spatially resolved, Cluster dynamics, Crystal plasticity, Polycrystal, Irradiation growth, Zirconium}
}

Presentations

  • Marian, J., & Trelewicz, J. (2024). Integrated Thermomechanical Model of First Wall Components Under Evolving Chemistry and Microstructure During Fusion Reactor Operation: ThermChem-FW. invited talk, 2024 SciDAC-5 Principal Investigator (PI) Meeting, Rockville, Maryland. https://thermchem-fw.github.io/assets/documents/2024-07-marian-scidac-pi-meeting.pdf
    BibTeX
    @misc{2024-07-marian-scidac-pi-meeting,
  author = {Marian, Jaime and Trelewicz, Jason},
  howpublished = {invited talk, 2024 SciDAC-5 Principal Investigator (PI) Meeting, Rockville, Maryland},
  title = {Integrated Thermomechanical Model of First Wall Components Under Evolving Chemistry and Microstructure During Fusion Reactor Operation: ThermChem-FW},
  year = {2024},
  month = {16--18 July}
}

Other Documents

  • Marian, J., Trelewicz, J., Szlufarska, I., Po, G., Cereceda, D., Cusentino, M. A., Sargsyan, K., Setyawan, W., Bernholdt, D., Humrickhouse, P., Permann, C., & Spencer, B. (2023). Integrated Thermomechanical Model of First Wall Components Under Evolving Chemistry and Microstructure During Fusion Reactor Operation (ThermChem-FW). Proposal to the U. S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences and Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, funding opportunity announcement DE-FOA-0002924, Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing (SCiDAC) - FES Partnerships. https://thermchem-fw.github.io/assets/documents/thermochem-fw-proposal-2023.pdf
    BibTeX
    @misc{thermochem-fw-proposal-2023,
  author = {Marian, Jaime and Trelewicz, Jason and Szlufarska, Izabela and Po, Giacomo and Cereceda, David and Cusentino, Mary Alice and Sargsyan, Khachik and Setyawan, Wahyu and Bernholdt, David and Humrickhouse, Paul and Permann, Cody and Spencer, Benjamin},
  howpublished = {Proposal to the U. S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences and Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, funding opportunity announcement DE-FOA-0002924, Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing (SCiDAC) - FES Partnerships},
  title = {Integrated Thermomechanical Model of First Wall Components Under Evolving Chemistry and Microstructure During Fusion Reactor Operation  (ThermChem-FW)},
  year = {2023},
  note = {Note: this version does not include scope changes in response to budget changes at award time.}
}

See all…

Team

Institution Principal Investigator(s)* Additional Personnel
UCLA logo Jaime Marian (FES, Lead PI) Abhijeet Gangan, Alan He, Shao-Ching Huang, Scarlett Liang, Lily Wang
INL logo Cody Permann (ASCR) Peter German, Benjamin Spencer, Dewen Yushu
ORNL logo David E. Bernholdt (ASCR)
Paul Humrickhouse (FES)		 Sergey Yakubov
PNNL logo Wahyu Setyawan (FES) Yucheng Fu
SNL logo Mary Alice Cusentino (FES)
Khachik Sargsyan (ASCR)		 Cristian Lacey
Stony Brook U logo Jason Trelewicz (FES) Yusheng Jin, Anus Manzoor, Spencer Thomas
U Miami logo Giacomo Po (FES) Abdulmohssen Abaalkhail, Harsh Dudhatra
U Wisconsin logo Izabela Szlufarska (FES) Dane Morgan, Rafi Ullah
Villanova U logo David Cereceda (FES) Jie Peng

* PIs are listed for the Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) and Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) funding components, as appropriate. The first person listed is the institutional PI.

This project is part of the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program, and is jointly sponsored by the Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) and Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) programs within the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The project is part of the fifth funding cycle of the SciDAC program, under FOA DE-FOA-0002924. The project’s period of performance is 2023-09-22/2027-09-21.

DOE Office of Science logo