Addie Lupercio, a PhD candidate in the Advanced Materials Laboratory, recently published her work entitled, “Equibiaxial Flexural Strength Determination of UO2 Using a Ball-On-Ring Test”. The article discusses the mechanical behavior of nuclear fuels for light water reactors. Fracture of nuclear fuels affects nuclear reactor performance and reliability. Addie studied a ball-on-ring biaxial flexure test method to assess fracture behavior, or transverse rupture strength (TRS), in uranium ceramic fuels. Biaxial tests require geometries similar to nuclear fuel pellets and minimal sample preparation, reducing fabrication costs and handling hazards. The larger sample size (over 60 pellets) in this study enabled a more robust Weibull statistical analysis than alternative test methods, which may not capture the stochastic failure of typical ceramics. Experimental TRS results from this study can be implemented in modeling codes to predict fuel performance, which is critical to fuel burnup extension and advanced nuclear fuel technologies.
Addie’s interest in nuclear energy inspired her to join the AML in her junior year of the Materials Science and Engineering undergraduate program at Boise State University. She decided to continue on to pursue her Ph.D. in the Materials Science and Engineering program at Boise State University. During her time in the Advanced Materials Laboratory, she has worked on developing and validated the ball-on-ring biaxial flexure technique to measure the statistical fracture of nuclear fuels in collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In addition, her work involves the optimization and fabrication of doped UO2 advanced technology fuels.