Spark Plasma Sintering Preparation of Dispersion Coated Particle Surrogate Fuel Pellet with ZrC-SiC Matrix

Abstract:

ZrC-SiC composite matrix dispersion coated particle fuel surrogate pellets were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. The effects of different TRISO (TRistructural ISOtropic) packing fraction on the microstructure and sintering densification process of surrogate pellets were investigated, and the distribution of TRISO particles was characterized. The results show that under the sintering conditions of 1900 ℃/ 30 MPa/10 min, dispersion coated particle fuel pellet samples with TRISO packing volume fraction up to 40%, uniform particle distribution, integral microstructure and good matrix densification can be obtained. The TRISO packing fraction has little effect on the sintering densification process of fuel pellet samples.