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Hardware-Accelerated Ray Tracing of CAD-Based Geometry for Monte Carlo Radiation Transport

Journal Article · · Computing in Science and Engineering
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Chicago, IL (United States)
  2. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
  3. UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), Abingdon (United Kingdom)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Monte Carlo radiation transport (MCRT) methods have been used to simulate radiation environments for many decades by tracking individual particles through a model to accumulate statistical information. MCRT geometry is historically formed using the constructive solid geometry (CSG). Recently, significant work has been performed to support simulations using computer-aided design (CAD)-based tessellated surfaces to support highly complex geometries. Ray tracing acceleration data structures from the rendering and visualization community are applied to accelerate particle tracking in CAD-based models. Despite these efforts, CSG representations provide the superior performance in surface intersection operations during particle flight. Concurrently, pseudo Monte Carlo methods have become prevalent in rendering applications to support more realistic models for scattering media, motivating innovations that are advantageous for MCRT simulations. Finally, the authors’ work extends these innovations by employing Intel’s Embree ray tracing kernel within a geometry toolkit for Monte Carlo to improve the simulation performance using CAD-based models by factors of 1.5 to 2.
Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1909565
Journal Information:
Computing in Science and Engineering, Journal Name: Computing in Science and Engineering Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 24; ISSN 1521-9615
Publisher:
IEEE Computer SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (9)

OpenMC: A state-of-the-art Monte Carlo code for research and development journal August 2015
Acceleration techniques for the direct use of CAD-based geometry in fusion neutronics analysis journal December 2010
Towards Cad-Based Geometry Modelling with the Random ray Method journal January 2021
Fast Ray-Tetrahedron Intersection Using Plucker Coordinates journal January 2003
OBBTree: a hierarchical structure for rapid interference detection conference January 1996
Embree: a kernel framework for efficient CPU ray tracing journal July 2014
MOAB: a mesh-oriented database. report April 2004
The Monte Carlo Method journal September 1949
Leveraging Intel's Embree Ray Tracing in the DAGMC Toolkit other January 2022

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Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
Monte Carlo
computational modeling
hardware acceleration
mathematical models
particle transport
ray tracing
solid modeling