Thermal characterization of high temperature reactor particle layers by photothermal microscopy

Abstract

Thermal diffusivity of particle pyrolytic carbon layers deposited on 500 μm diameter spherical particle before irradiation has been measured using photoreflectance microscopy (PM). This technique is used to characterize of such small constituents at a microscopic scale and temperature controlled up to 1000 °C. Nevertheless, one of the layers – buffer layer – needs a particular analysis due to its porous structure. Indeed, measurements by PM on this material only permit to obtain the thermal diffusivity of the solid skeleton. These require the use of a numerical homogenization technique to estimate an effective thermal conductivity. The effect of temperature is discussed. Mapping of the thermal diffusivity of coated fuel particles provides useful data for modelling fuel performance during the nuclear reactors operation.