ARC integration into the NEAMS Workbench

Abstract

One of the objectives of the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) Integration Product Line (IPL) is to facilitate the deployment of the high-fidelity codes developed within the program. The Workbench initiative was launched in FY-2017 by the IPL to facilitate the transition from conventional tools to high fidelity tools. The Workbench provides a common user interface for model creation, real-time validation, execution, output processing, and visualization for integrated codes.This report details the efforts under way for integrating the Argonne Reactor Computation (ARC) suite of codes into the Workbench. The ARC codes contain both legacy codes like DIF3D and REBUS-3 that were developed with over 30 years of experience, and newer NEAMS additions like MC 2 -3 and PERSENT. These codes are extremely attractive by their flexible capabilities and computational efficiency. However, they require knowledge of reactor physics and experience on fast reactor design in order to be familiar with the extent of their capabilities. The ARC codes employ an inconvenient input system, and users mostly rely on scripts, developed based on their experiences, to generate inputs. For these reasons, it was decided to integrate the ARC codes within the NEAMS Workbench, and to provide the user with a new common input allowing to build a core model and to describe the calculations requested.This new type of integration into the Workbench was successfully demonstrated through this project as the MC 2 -3, DIF3D, REBUS-3, and PERSENT codes can be used through the Workbench for solving real problems. A fast reactor type of geometry can be modeled through the Workbench, as demonstrated with a simple benchmark problem. However, some advanced calculation methodologies such as heterogeneous cross-section treatment in MC 2 -3 and equilibrium burnup calculation in REBUS-3 could not be implemented at this time and should be the focus of future effort. ARC integration into the NEAMS Workbench

NEAMS Workbench Status and Capabilities

“…Before the common input was developed, each of these calculations required a separate input file, and many of the input formats were so difficult to use that a specialized script was often required to generate them. With the ARC/Workbench integration creating the PyARC [16] Workflow manager, users can easily create engineering-style input, have the Workbench generate the input for the codes, launch the calculations using a customized runtime environment, and visualize the results with the embedded Workbench processor files and VisIt tool. An integrated ARC/Workbench input and associated workflow are shown in Figure 16.…”

NEAMS Workbench 1.0 Beta

“…Before the common input was developed, each of these calculations required a separate input file, and many of the input formats were so difficult to use that a specialized script was often required to generate them. With the ARC/Workbench integration creating the PyARC [13] Workflow manager, users can easily create engineering style input, have the Workbench generate the input for the codes, launch the calculations using a customized runtime environment, and visualize the results with the embedded Workbench processor files and VisIt tool. An integrated ARC/Workbench input and associated workflow are shown in Fig.…”

Status of the NEAMS and ARC fast reactor tools integration to the NEAMS Workbench

“…The Workbench provides a common user interface for model creation, real-time validation, execution, output processing, and visualization for integrated codes. The integration of the Argonne Reactor Computation (ARC) suite of codes into the NEAMS Workbench was initiated in FY-2017 [3][4][5] [6].…”