Thermophysical properties of U3Si5 to 1773Â K

Possible use of U3Si5 as a nuclear reactor fuel requires knowledge of its thermophysical properties as a function of temperature. While limited data is available for U-Si compounds containing higher uranium densities, no investigations of U3Si5 have been presented in the literature to date. High purity U3Si5 was fabricated to facilitate a set of experiments to determine the coefficient of thermal expansion, heat capacity, thermal diffusivity, and thermal conductivity from room temperature to 1773 K. Each measurement on nearly stoichiometric U3Si5 showed the existence of a phase transformation at 723 K, which is not consistent with the most recently published phase diagram.