Distinguished Merit Award: Multiscale materials modelling

Andrew Prudil, Blair Bromley, Catalina Anghel, Chris Maxwell, Cong Dai, Edmanuel Torres, Ibrahim Cheik Njifon, Karen Colins, Michael Welland, and Thaneshwor Kaloni

For developing expertise in multiscale materials modelling.

From 2016 to 2022, project members brought their unique expertise together to develop a comprehensive suite of mechanistic models of fuel and cladding behaviour. This work contributes to the international effort of accelerating the design and qualification cycle of advanced / Small Modular Reactors (SMR) using modern computational material science techniques to interpret and guide experimental campaigns and extend the range of applicability of fuel performance predictions.

This project advanced many aspects of the Multiscale Modelling paradigm, an established framework within the computational materials science communities due to its robust predictive capabilities. This approach tailors modelling techniques to phenomena of interest according to spatio-temporal scale, with overlap to pass information. The move to mechanistic, multiscale materials models has been widely adopted by the international nuclear community, a fact this project has leveraged through supporting participation in several collaborations facilitated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD NEA) and peer institutions.

Besides establishing CNL as a leader in the field of multiscale fuel modelling, many of the tools developed are transferrable to other materials.

As this project supported staff’s enthusiasm and scientific interests, staff massively exceeded the planned deliverables. While 14 journal articles were planned, 45 articles were supported with a further 30 conference presentations.