Development and application of Monte Carlo and COMSOL coupling code for neutronics/thermohydraulics coupled analysis

A conceptual design for a 100 MW(th) organic cooled reactor is proposed with the application of organic fluid HB-40 as a coolant. In order to obtain the axial and radial power distribution, a physical model for the proposed core is developed using the Monte Carlo particle transport code MCNP. Moreover, a single-channel model is developed using multi-physics simulation software COMSOL to calculate the temperature distribution of the fuel elements and corresponding coolant channels. A neutronics-thermohydraulics coupling calculation method is established to couple the MCNP code and COMSOL software by means of mesh mapping and data transfer. Through coupling calculation, the high fidelity power and temperature distribution can be obtained. The key thermohydraulics parameters of the hottest channel in the core are investigated, and the changes after coupling calculation are analyzed. The proposed core design and coupling method can be used as a reference for further optimization of organic cooled reactors.

Section: Single-channel Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutronics and Thermohydraulics Coupling Analysis on Novel Organic Cooled Reactor Based on Single-Channel Model

Wang

Guan

et al. 2022

“…DH system mainly includes particle-dispersed burnable poison and particle-dispersed fuel, which has a complex geometric structure due to the random distribution of its dispersed particle (Weng et al, 2021). The double heterogeneity leads to high computational costs for fine calculations, and DH system cannot be described by traditional neutronic calculation programs (Sanchez and Pomraning, 1991;Hébert, 1993;Kim et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An improved optical length research on the physical boundary of particle-dispersed fuel

Liu,

Chen,

et al. 2024

The Volumetric Homogenization Method (VHM) is one of the most commonly used methods for neutronics calculation in reactors or components. However, the use of VHM for the Double-Heterogeneous (DH) System may lead to a large deviation in reactivity calculation. The deviation of DH System using the VHM can be expressed by the theoretically modified optical length. When the theoretically modified optical length is less than 10−4, the deviation caused by the VHM will be less than 100 pcm. This paper points out that the existing theoretically modified optical length for some cases of DH systems is not accurate, and this method is only for pin cell. In this paper, by calculating a series of DH models and their corresponding VHM models, it is found that the water-uranium ratio and the shape of fuel region seriously affects the reactivity calculation deviation of particle-dispersed fuel, the original modified optical length does not take this into account, resulting in unacceptable errors. On this basis, the application of optical length to physical boundaries for DH system is further discussed and the shape correction factor is taken into consideration. Therefore, an improved optical length is proposed, which greatly expands the range of application of the physical boundary judgment methods for the double heterogeneity of dispersed particle fuel. The numerical results show that the accuracy of the improved optical length in defining the physical boundary of double heterogeneous system is higher than the theoretically modified optical length.

“…The OpenFOAM Fuel Behavior Analysis Tool OFFBEAT was coupled with Monte Carlo code Serpent for determining an accurate fuel radial power profile (Scolaro et al, 2019). The Monte Carlo neutron transport code SERPENT 2 was coupled with the fuel performance code TRANSURANUS in two-way strategy to enhance fuel performance analyses (Suikkanen et al, 2020) and the Monte Carlo code RMC was coupled with multiphysics software COMSOL for FCM fuel segment (Weng et al, 2021). Recently, coupling between the fuel performance code TRANSURANUS and neutronics solver Serpent was further improved by transferring and utilizing nuclide compositions within the coupled calculations (Rintala et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of multiphysics coupling system for nuclear fuel rod with COMSOL and RMC

Liu

Zeng²,

Qi³

et al. 2023

Self Cite

Coupling fuel performance and neutronics can help improve the prediction accuracy of fuel rod behavior, which is important for fuel design and performance evaluation. A fuel rod multiphysics coupled system was developed with multiphysics software COMSOL and 3D Monte Carlo neutron transport code RMC. The fuel performance analysis module was built on top of COMSOL with the ability to simulate the fuel behavior in two-dimensional axisymmetric (2D-RZ) or three-dimensional (3D) mode. RMC was innovatively wrapped as a component of COMSOL to communicate with the fuel performance analysis module. The data transferring and the coupling process was maintained using COMSOL’s functionality. Two-way coupling was achieved by mapping power distribution and fast neutron flux fields from RMC to COMSOL and the temperature and coolant density fields from COMSOL to RMC. A fuel rod pin lattice was modeled to demonstrate the coupling. Results show that the calculated power and temperature distributions are reasonable. Considering the flexibility of the coupled system, it can be applied to the performance evaluation of new fuel design.