Sensitivity analysis of VERA-CS and FRAPCON coupling in a multiphysics environment

Blakely, Cole; Zhang, Hongbin; Ban, Heng

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2017.09.029

Title: Sensitivity analysis of VERA-CS and FRAPCON coupling in a multiphysics environment

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Abstract

A demonstration and description of the LOCA Toolkit for US light water reactors (LOTUS) is presented. Through LOTUS, the core simulator VERA-CS developed by CASL is coupled with the fuel performance code FRAPCON. The coupling is performed with consistent uncertainty propagation with all model inconsistencies being well-documented. Monte Carlo sampling is performed on a single 17 × 17 fuel assembly with a three cycle depletion case. Both uncertainty quantification (UQ) and sensitivity analysis (SA) are used at multiple states within the simulation to elucidate the behavior of minimum departure from nucleate boiling ratio (MDNBR), maximum fuel centerline temperature (MFCT), and gap conductance at peak power (GCPP). The SA metrics used are the Pearson correlation coefficient, Sobol sensitivity indices, and the density-based, delta moment independent measures. Results for MDNBR show consistency among all SA measures, as well for all states throughout the fuel lifecycle. MFCT results contain consistent rankings between SA measures, but show differences throughout the lifecycle. GCPP exhibits predominantly linear relations at low and high burnup, but highly nonlinear relations at intermediate burnup due to abrupt shifts between models. As a result, such behavior is largely undetectable to traditional regression or variance-based methods and demonstrates the utility of density-basedmore » methods.« less

Authors:

Blakely, Cole ^[1];

^[2]; Ban, Heng ^[1]

Utah State Univ., Logan, UT (United States)
Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Publication Date:: Sat Oct 07 00:00:00 EDT 2017

Research Org.:: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)

OSTI Identifier:: 1478504

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1549356

Report Number(s):: INL/JOU-17-42278-Rev000
Journal ID: ISSN 0306-4549

Grant/Contract Number:: AC07-05ID14517

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford)

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Name: Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford); Journal Volume: 111; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0306-4549

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS; LOTUS; Multiphysics environment; Uncertainty quantification; Sensitivity analysis; VERA-CS; FRAPCON

Citation Formats


                    Blakely, Cole, Zhang, Hongbin, and Ban, Heng. Sensitivity analysis of VERA-CS and FRAPCON coupling in a multiphysics environment.  United States: N. p., 2017. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2017.09.029.

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                    Blakely, Cole, Zhang, Hongbin, & Ban, Heng. Sensitivity analysis of VERA-CS and FRAPCON coupling in a multiphysics environment.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2017.09.029

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                    Blakely, Cole, Zhang, Hongbin, and Ban, Heng. Sat .  
"Sensitivity analysis of VERA-CS and FRAPCON coupling in a multiphysics environment".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2017.09.029.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1478504.

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@article{osti_1478504,

  title        = {Sensitivity analysis of VERA-CS and FRAPCON coupling in a multiphysics environment},

  author       = {Blakely, Cole and Zhang, Hongbin and Ban, Heng},

  abstractNote = {A demonstration and description of the LOCA Toolkit for US light water reactors (LOTUS) is presented. Through LOTUS, the core simulator VERA-CS developed by CASL is coupled with the fuel performance code FRAPCON. The coupling is performed with consistent uncertainty propagation with all model inconsistencies being well-documented. Monte Carlo sampling is performed on a single 17 × 17 fuel assembly with a three cycle depletion case. Both uncertainty quantification (UQ) and sensitivity analysis (SA) are used at multiple states within the simulation to elucidate the behavior of minimum departure from nucleate boiling ratio (MDNBR), maximum fuel centerline temperature (MFCT), and gap conductance at peak power (GCPP). The SA metrics used are the Pearson correlation coefficient, Sobol sensitivity indices, and the density-based, delta moment independent measures. Results for MDNBR show consistency among all SA measures, as well for all states throughout the fuel lifecycle. MFCT results contain consistent rankings between SA measures, but show differences throughout the lifecycle. GCPP exhibits predominantly linear relations at low and high burnup, but highly nonlinear relations at intermediate burnup due to abrupt shifts between models. As a result, such behavior is largely undetectable to traditional regression or variance-based methods and demonstrates the utility of density-based methods.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.anucene.2017.09.029},

  journal      = {Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford)},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 111,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Sat Oct 07 00:00:00 EDT 2017},

  month        = {Sat Oct 07 00:00:00 EDT 2017}

}

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