The Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA): Design and architecture

Turner, John A.; Clarno, Kevin; Sieger, Matt; Bartlett, Roscoe; Collins, Benjamin; Pawlowski, Roger; Schmidt, Rodney; Summers, Randall

doi:10.1016/j.jcp.2016.09.003

The Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA): Design and architecture

Journal Article · 08 September 2016 · Journal of Computational Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2016.09.003· OSTI ID:1326477

^[1]; Clarno, Kevin ^[1]; Sieger, Matt ^[1]; Bartlett, Roscoe ^[1]; Collins, Benjamin ^[1]; Pawlowski, Roger ^[2]; Schmidt, Rodney ^[2]; ^[2]

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

VERA, the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications, is the system of physics capabilities being developed and deployed by the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL), the first DOE Hub, which was established in July 2010 for the modeling and simulation of commercial nuclear reactors. VERA consists of integrating and interfacing software together with a suite of physics components adapted and/or refactored to simulate relevant physical phenomena in a coupled manner. VERA also includes the software development environment and computational infrastructure needed for these components to be effectively used. We describe the architecture of VERA from both a software and a numerical perspective, along with the goals and constraints that drove the major design decisions and their implications. As a result, we explain why VERA is an environment rather than a framework or toolkit, why these distinctions are relevant (particularly for coupled physics applications), and provide an overview of results that demonstrate the application of VERA tools for a variety of challenging problems within the nuclear industry.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Consortium for Advanced Simulation of LWRs (CASL); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)

Sponsoring Organization:: DOE Office of Science; USDOE; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000; AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1326477

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1460048
OSTI ID: 22622217

Journal Information:: Journal of Computational Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Computational Physics Journal Issue: C Vol. 326; ISSN 0021-9991

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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