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Title: An assessment of coupling algorithms for nuclear reactor core physics simulations

Abstract

This paper evaluates the performance of multiphysics coupling algorithms applied to a light water nuclear reactor core simulation. The simulation couples the k-eigenvalue form of the neutron transport equation with heat conduction and subchannel flow equations. We compare Picard iteration (block Gauss–Seidel) to Anderson acceleration and multiple variants of preconditioned Jacobian-free Newton–Krylov (JFNK). The performance of the methods are evaluated over a range of energy group structures and core power levels. A novel physics-based approximation to a Jacobian-vector product has been developed to mitigate the impact of expensive on-line cross section processing steps. Furthermore, numerical simulations demonstrating the efficiency of JFNK and Anderson acceleration relative to standard Picard iteration are performed on a 3D model of a nuclear fuel assembly. Both criticality (k-eigenvalue) and critical boron search problems are considered.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [1];  [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  3. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
OSTI Identifier:
1247927
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1291340; OSTI ID: 1347462
Report Number(s):
SAND-2016-7579J
Journal ID: ISSN 0021-9991; NT0304000; NEAF343
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725; AC04-94AL85000
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Computational Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 311; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0021-9991
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS; Multiphysics; Jacobian-free Newton–Krylov; Anderson acceleration; Nuclear reactor analysis; 73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING; multiphysics; nuclear reactor analysis

Citation Formats

Hamilton, Steven, Berrill, Mark, Clarno, Kevin, Pawlowski, Roger, Toth, Alex, Kelley, C. T., Evans, Thomas, and Philip, Bobby. An assessment of coupling algorithms for nuclear reactor core physics simulations. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1016/j.jcp.2016.02.012.
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Hamilton, Steven, Berrill, Mark, Clarno, Kevin, Pawlowski, Roger, Toth, Alex, Kelley, C. T., Evans, Thomas, & Philip, Bobby. An assessment of coupling algorithms for nuclear reactor core physics simulations. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2016.02.012
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Hamilton, Steven, Berrill, Mark, Clarno, Kevin, Pawlowski, Roger, Toth, Alex, Kelley, C. T., Evans, Thomas, and Philip, Bobby. Fri . "An assessment of coupling algorithms for nuclear reactor core physics simulations". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2016.02.012. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1247927.
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@article{osti_1247927,
title = {An assessment of coupling algorithms for nuclear reactor core physics simulations},
author = {Hamilton, Steven and Berrill, Mark and Clarno, Kevin and Pawlowski, Roger and Toth, Alex and Kelley, C. T. and Evans, Thomas and Philip, Bobby},
abstractNote = {This paper evaluates the performance of multiphysics coupling algorithms applied to a light water nuclear reactor core simulation. The simulation couples the k-eigenvalue form of the neutron transport equation with heat conduction and subchannel flow equations. We compare Picard iteration (block Gauss–Seidel) to Anderson acceleration and multiple variants of preconditioned Jacobian-free Newton–Krylov (JFNK). The performance of the methods are evaluated over a range of energy group structures and core power levels. A novel physics-based approximation to a Jacobian-vector product has been developed to mitigate the impact of expensive on-line cross section processing steps. Furthermore, numerical simulations demonstrating the efficiency of JFNK and Anderson acceleration relative to standard Picard iteration are performed on a 3D model of a nuclear fuel assembly. Both criticality (k-eigenvalue) and critical boron search problems are considered.},
doi = {10.1016/j.jcp.2016.02.012},
journal = {Journal of Computational Physics},
number = C,
volume = 311,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2016.02.012
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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    An Assessment of Coupling Algorithms in HTR Simulator TINTE
    journal, April 2018

    Multi-physics coupling simulation in virtual reactors
    journal, October 2019

    Numerical methods for nonlinear equations
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    The Improvement of Coupling Method in TINTE by Fully Implicit Scheme
    journal, March 2018

    Convergence Analysis for Computation of Coupled Advection-Diffusion-Reaction Problems
    preprint, January 2020

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