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Abstract: This paper focuses on the investigation of the 3D mathematical model to simulate the coupled heat and liquid moisture transfer in hygroscopic porous fibrous media. The flow of the liquid moisture, the water vapor sorption/desorption by fibers and the diffusion of the water vapor are taken into account in this 3D model. Prediction-corrector method is used to solve the 3D governing equations. A series of computational results of the coupled heat and moisture transfer are obtained with the specific initial conditions and boundary conditions. The distribution of the water vapor concentration in the void spaces, the volume fraction of the liquid water in the void spaces, the distribution of the water content in fibers and the changes of the temperature in porous fibrous media are computed. It is shown that the effects of the gravity and capillary actions are significant in hygroscopic porous fibrous media. The comparison with the experimental measurements shows the reasonable agreement between the two. The results illustrate that the 3D model of the coupled heat and liquid moisture transfer in hygroscopic porous fibrous media is satisfactory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A novel technique has been developed to fabricate uranium-ceramic nuclear fuel using the depleted uranium (DU), U3O8 powder, and allylhydridopolycarbosilane (AHPCS) polymer precursor. This process involves a continuous change of the composition, porosity, and material properties. To fabricate nuclear fuel with a uniform structure/volume ratio, it is important to understand the transport phenomena during high temperature processing and at different length scales. In our prior work, a system-level model based on the reactive porous medium theory was developed to account for pyrolysis process during the uranium-ceramic fuel fabrication. In this paper, a mesoscopic model based on the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is developed to simulate the synthesis of filler U3O8 particles and SiC matrix. The system-level model provides the necessary thermal boundary conditions for the mesoscopic simulation. The evolution of the particle concentration and the structure as well as the composition of the composite produced is investigated. Since the process heat flux plays an important role in the material quality and uniformity, the effect of the heating rate, filler particle size and distribution on the uniformity and the structure of the final product are investigated. The uncertainty issue is also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]