Benchmark Analysis of the HTR-10 with the MAMMOTH Reactor Physics Application
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
This report documents a set of benchmarks used to validate the Serpent and MAMMOTH neutron transport models of the HTR-10 reactor developed at Idaho National Laboratory. The high-fidelity Serpent Monte Carlo models of the HTR-10 critical and full core configurations include both random, discrete distributions of TRISO particles in the pebbles and random, discrete pebble distributions in the pebble bed core. The Serpent results agree very well with the critical and control rod worth measurements provided in the International Re- actor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) report if the ENDF/B-VII.r1 data- set is used. These Serpent models are subsequently used to prepare cross sections and flux tallies in a 10 coarse energy group structure for the MAMMOTH Reactor Physics MOOSE- based application. We find that MAMMOTH can reproduce the Monte Carlo solution for the HTR-10 reactor by using the PJFNK-SPH equivalence method. In all cases studied, the MAMMOTH results are within 120 pcm of the Monte Carlo reference calculation and the maximum errors in neutron absorption and generation rates are within 0.536% and 0.215% from the reference calculation, respectively. A set of benchmark exercises from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) HTR-10 benchmark in IAEA-TECDOC-1382 were conducted including parts B1 (critical), B2 (temperature coefficient) and B3 (control rod worth). The results we obtain for the critical core are in excellent agreement with the expected value and we confirm that with ENDF/B-VII.r1 data we match the critical eigen- value keff=1 to within 100 pcm. Our temperature coefficient calculation is consistent with the VSOP results generated by the German participants. The Chinese and South African VSOP models produce lower temperature coefficients, a fact that was noted in the original IAEA benchmark, but for which no explanation was provided. Both a full and single control rod worth calculations with Serpent and MAMMOTH agree well with the results from the IAEA benchmark. Finally, and most importantly, this work demonstrates that MAM- MOTH can recover the Monte Carlo high-fidelity solutions to an excellent accuracy using the PJFNK-SPH method. This sets the stage for the ultimate goal of using MAMMOTH in transient, multi-physics scenarios where correction of the cross sections is obtained for steady-state conditions and then used in the transient scenario for which no Monte-Carlo solution is available.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1468643
- Report Number(s):
- INL/EXT-18-45453-Rev000; TRN: US1902581
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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