Review and Preliminary Investigation into Fuel Loss from Cermets Composed of Uranium Nitride and a Molybdenum-Tungsten Alloy for Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Using Mesoscale Simulations

Hirschhorn, Jacob; Hilty, Floyd; Tonks, Michael; Rosales, Jhonathan

doi:10.1007/s11837-021-04873-x

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The BISON fuel performance code provides a variety of material models for nuclear materials [61]. BISON offers material properties for W and Mo-30W CERMETs [62].…”

Section: Heat Conduction and Conjugate Heat Transfermentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear Thermal Propulsion

DeHart¹,

Schunert²,

Labouré³

2022

Nuclear Reactors - Spacecraft Propulsion, Research Reactors, and Reactor Analysis Topics

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This chapter will cover the fundamentals of nuclear thermal propulsion systems, covering basic principles of operation and why nuclear is a superior option to chemical rockets for interplanetary travel. It will begin with a historical overview from early efforts in the early 1950s up to current interests, with respect to fuel types, core materials, and ongoing testing efforts. An overview will be provided of reactor types and design elements for reactor concepts or testing systems for nuclear thermal propulsion, followed by a discussion of nuclear thermal design concepts. A section on system design and modeling will be presented to discuss modeling and simulation of driving phenomena: neutronics, materials performance, heat transfer, and structural mechanics, solved in a tightly coupled multiphysics system. Finally, it will show the results of a coupled physics model for a conceptual design with simulation of rapid startup transients needed to maximize hydrogen efficiency.

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“…The BISON fuel performance code provides a variety of material models for nuclear materials [61]. BISON offers material properties for W and Mo-30W CERMETs [62].…”

Section: Heat Conduction and Conjugate Heat Transfermentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear Thermal Propulsion

DeHart¹,

Schunert²,

Labouré³

2022

Nuclear Reactors - Spacecraft Propulsion, Research Reactors, and Reactor Analysis Topics

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“…Nevertheless, such traditional contact methods are hardly applied to various refractory metals, due to high chemical reactivity and the thermal expansion of a test apparatus at extremely high temperatures. Refractory metals are strongly preferred for applications under high temperatures (>2000 K) including materials for nuclear fusion reactors [11], hypersonic aircraft [12], and nuclear or thermal propulsion for spacecraft [13]. However, the choice of their manufacturing processes is limited due to their high level of hardness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precise density measurement and its uncertainty evaluation for refractory liquid metals over 3000 K using electrostatic levitation

et al. 2022

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Accurate density measurement of molten refractory metals over 3000 K is very challenging, which is difficult to be achieved with conventional methods. Although containerless techniques have been the most effective and well-established methods to measure the density of molten metals at such high temperatures, a large discrepancy in the containerlessly measured density values has been reported. Here, we identify the uncertainty factors of the density measurement and their influence on the measured density of molten refractory metals over 3000 K using an electrostatic levitator (ESL). We find that intensely focused laser beams can cause rotation-induced deformation of a levitated droplet and thus the large uncertainty in the measured density. Moreover, the combination of sample rotation and precession seriously affects the measurements of density and temperature dependence of density (i.e., volume thermal expansion). By minimizing such rotation and precession, we successfully measure the density and volume expansion coefficient of refractory liquids (tantalum, molybdenum, and niobium) with the significantly improved reproducibility and accuracy, and evaluate the uncertainties associated with the density measurement using ESL.

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