An approach for coupled-code multiphysics core simulations from a common input

Journal Article · Wed Dec 10 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2014.11.015· OSTI ID:1265624

Schmidt, Rodney ^[1]; Belcourt, Kenneth ^[1]; Hooper, Russell ^[1]; Pawlowski, Roger P. ^[1]; Clarno, Kevin T. ^[2]; Simunovic, Srdjan ^[2]; Slattery, Stuart R. ^[2]; Turner, John A. ^[2]; Palmtag, Scott ^[3]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
3. Core Physics, Inc., Wilmington, NC (United States)

This study describes an approach for coupled-code multiphysics reactor core simulations that is being developed by the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) project in the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light-Water Reactors (CASL). In this approach a user creates a single problem description, called the “VERAIn” common input file, to define and setup the desired coupled-code reactor core simulation. A preprocessing step accepts the VERAIn file and generates a set of fully consistent input files for the different physics codes being coupled. The problem is then solved using a single-executable coupled-code simulation tool applicable to the problem, which is built using VERA infrastructure software tools and the set of physics codes required for the problem of interest. The approach is demonstrated by performing an eigenvalue and power distribution calculation of a typical three-dimensional 17 × 17 assembly with thermal–hydraulic and fuel temperature feedback. All neutronics aspects of the problem (cross-section calculation, neutron transport, power release) are solved using the Insilico code suite and are fully coupled to a thermal–hydraulic analysis calculated by the Cobra-TF (CTF) code. The single-executable coupled-code (Insilico-CTF) simulation tool is created using several VERA tools, including LIME (Lightweight Integrating Multiphysics Environment for coupling codes), DTK (Data Transfer Kit), Trilinos, and TriBITS. Parallel calculations are performed on the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory using 1156 cores, and a synopsis of the solution results and code performance is presented. Finally, ongoing development of this approach is also briefly described.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725; AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1265624
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1247843
• Journal Information: Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford), Vol. 84; ISSN 0306-4549
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
Couple-code
Multiphysics
Reactor core simulations