GPU Acceleration of Mean Free Path Based Kernel Density Estimators for Monte Carlo Neutronics Simulations

Technical Report · Thu Nov 19 00:00:00 EST 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1226887· OSTI ID:1226887

Burke, TImothy P. ^[1]; Kiedrowski, Brian C. ^[1]; Martin, William R. ^[1]; Brown, Forrest B. ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Kernel Density Estimators (KDEs) are a non-parametric density estimation technique that has recently been applied to Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations. Kernel density estimators are an alternative to histogram tallies for obtaining global solutions in Monte Carlo tallies. With KDEs, a single event, either a collision or particle track, can contribute to the score at multiple tally points with the uncertainty at those points being independent of the desired resolution of the solution. Thus, KDEs show potential for obtaining estimates of a global solution with reduced variance when compared to a histogram. Previously, KDEs have been applied to neutronics for one-group reactor physics problems and fixed source shielding applications. However, little work was done to obtain reaction rates using KDEs. This paper introduces a new form of the MFP KDE that is capable of handling general geometries. Furthermore, extending the MFP KDE to 2-D problems in continuous energy introduces inaccuracies to the solution. An ad-hoc solution to these inaccuracies is introduced that produces errors smaller than 4% at material interfaces.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Contributing Organization: Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1226887
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-15-29020; TRN: US1500899
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
MONTE CARLO METHOD
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
KERNELS
MEAN FREE PATH
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
REACTION KINETICS
CALCULATION METHODS
NEUTRON TRANSPORT
ACCURACY
DATA COVARIANCES
INTERFACES
RESOLUTION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
SLABS
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
ALGORITHMS
OPTIMIZATION
KDE
OpenMC