Stability and accuracy of 3D neutron transport simulations using the 2D/1D method in MPACT

Benjamin Collins; Shane Stimpson; Blake W. Kelley; Mitchell T.H. Young; Brendan Kochunas; Aaron Graham; Edward W. Larsen; Thomas Downar; Andrew Godfrey

doi:10.1016/j.jcp.2016.08.022

Stability and accuracy of 3D neutron transport simulations using the 2D/1D method in MPACT

Benjamin Collins, Shane Stimpson, Blake W. Kelley, Mitchell T.H. Young, Brendan Kochunas, Aaron Graham, Edward W. Larsen, Thomas Downar, Andrew Godfrey

Research and Test Reactor Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

161 Scopus citations

Abstract

A consistent “2D/1D” neutron transport method is derived from the 3D Boltzmann transport equation, to calculate fuel-pin-resolved neutron fluxes for realistic full-core Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) problems. The 2D/1D method employs the Method of Characteristics to discretize the radial variables and a lower order transport solution to discretize the axial variable. This paper describes the theory of the 2D/1D method and its implementation in the MPACT code, which has become the whole-core deterministic neutron transport solver for the Consortium for Advanced Simulations of Light Water Reactors (CASL) core simulator VERA-CS. Several applications have been performed on both leadership-class and industry-class computing clusters. Results are presented for whole-core solutions of the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 and compared to both continuous-energy Monte Carlo results and plant data.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	612-628
Number of pages	17
Journal	Journal of Computational Physics
Volume	326
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2016.08.022
State	Published - Dec 1 2016

Funding

This research used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 . This research was supported by the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors ( www.casl.gov ), an Energy Innovation Hub ( http://www.energy.gov/hubs ) for Modeling and Simulation of Nuclear Reactors under U.S. Department of Energy Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 .

Funders	Funder number
Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors
Energy Innovation Hub
Modeling and Simulation of Nuclear Reactors
U.S. Department of Energy	DE-AC05-00OR22725
Office of Science

Keywords

2D/1D method
MOC
MPACT

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10.1016/j.jcp.2016.08.022

Cite this

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title = "Stability and accuracy of 3D neutron transport simulations using the 2D/1D method in MPACT",

abstract = "A consistent “2D/1D” neutron transport method is derived from the 3D Boltzmann transport equation, to calculate fuel-pin-resolved neutron fluxes for realistic full-core Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) problems. The 2D/1D method employs the Method of Characteristics to discretize the radial variables and a lower order transport solution to discretize the axial variable. This paper describes the theory of the 2D/1D method and its implementation in the MPACT code, which has become the whole-core deterministic neutron transport solver for the Consortium for Advanced Simulations of Light Water Reactors (CASL) core simulator VERA-CS. Several applications have been performed on both leadership-class and industry-class computing clusters. Results are presented for whole-core solutions of the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 and compared to both continuous-energy Monte Carlo results and plant data.",

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author = "Benjamin Collins and Shane Stimpson and Kelley, {Blake W.} and Young, {Mitchell T.H.} and Brendan Kochunas and Aaron Graham and Larsen, {Edward W.} and Thomas Downar and Andrew Godfrey",

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AU - Collins, Benjamin

AU - Stimpson, Shane

AU - Kelley, Blake W.

AU - Young, Mitchell T.H.

AU - Kochunas, Brendan

AU - Graham, Aaron

AU - Larsen, Edward W.

AU - Downar, Thomas

AU - Godfrey, Andrew

PY - 2016/12/1

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N2 - A consistent “2D/1D” neutron transport method is derived from the 3D Boltzmann transport equation, to calculate fuel-pin-resolved neutron fluxes for realistic full-core Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) problems. The 2D/1D method employs the Method of Characteristics to discretize the radial variables and a lower order transport solution to discretize the axial variable. This paper describes the theory of the 2D/1D method and its implementation in the MPACT code, which has become the whole-core deterministic neutron transport solver for the Consortium for Advanced Simulations of Light Water Reactors (CASL) core simulator VERA-CS. Several applications have been performed on both leadership-class and industry-class computing clusters. Results are presented for whole-core solutions of the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 and compared to both continuous-energy Monte Carlo results and plant data.

AB - A consistent “2D/1D” neutron transport method is derived from the 3D Boltzmann transport equation, to calculate fuel-pin-resolved neutron fluxes for realistic full-core Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) problems. The 2D/1D method employs the Method of Characteristics to discretize the radial variables and a lower order transport solution to discretize the axial variable. This paper describes the theory of the 2D/1D method and its implementation in the MPACT code, which has become the whole-core deterministic neutron transport solver for the Consortium for Advanced Simulations of Light Water Reactors (CASL) core simulator VERA-CS. Several applications have been performed on both leadership-class and industry-class computing clusters. Results are presented for whole-core solutions of the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 and compared to both continuous-energy Monte Carlo results and plant data.

KW - 2D/1D method

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JO - Journal of Computational Physics

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ER -

Stability and accuracy of 3D neutron transport simulations using the 2D/1D method in MPACT

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Keywords

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