Hydrogen localization under thermal gradients in hydride forming metals

TL;DR

This paper presents a computational model to predict hydrogen distribution in hydride-forming metals under thermal gradients, accounting for thermodynamic fluctuations and applied to zirconium alloy fuel cladding.

Contribution

The study introduces a stochastic thermodynamic model for hydrogen localization in metals under thermal gradients, incorporating fluctuation effects and validated against experimental data.

Findings

Hydrogen concentrates in colder regions due to the Soret effect.

The model's hydrogen profiles align with experimental observations.

Hydrogen pickup in zirconium alloy cladding is effectively modeled.

Abstract

Migration of hydrogen and hydride formation under thermal gradient leads to hydrogen redistribution in certain metals. These metals include zirconium, titanium, hafnium and their alloys with tendency to form hydrides. A computational method for hydrogen localization in such metals is presented. The method utilizes the heat flux in a steady state to compute temperature distribution (as input), and hydrogen mass flux under temperature gradient to determine hydrogen distribution both in solid solution and in the hydride phase in a two-dimensional setting. Hydrogen precipitation to hydride is determined by a solid solubility relation with an exponential function of the enthalpy of mixing per a van 't Hoff relation. The enthalpy of mixing is treated here as a stochastic variable subject to thermodynamic fluctuations. Henceforth, the Einstein-Boltzmann fluctuation theory is adapted to calculate the spatial distribution of hydrogen in solid solution and in the hydride phase. Hydrogen concentration gets localized in the colder region of the body (Soret effect). We apply the model to the case of a zirconium alloy, Zircaloy-4, which is a material for fuel cladding utilized in pressurized water reactors. Cladding continuously picks up hydrogen due to Zr oxidation during reactor service, which we take into account. Our calculated results, hydrogen concentration profiles are comparable to experimental observations reported in the literature.