Abstract

A myriad of nuclear reactor designs are currently being considered for next-generation power production. These designs utilize unique geometries and materials and can rely on multiphysics effects for safety and operation. This work develops a neutron transport tool, MOCkingbird, capable of three-dimensional (3D), full-core reactor simulation for previously intractable geometries. The solver is based on the method of characteristics, utilizing unstructured mesh for the geometric description. MOCkingbird is built using the MOOSE multiphysics framework, allowing for straightforward linking to other physics in the future. A description of the algorithms and implementation is given, and solutions are computed for two-dimensional/3D C5G7 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology BEAVRS benchmark. The final result shows the application of MOCkingbird to a 3D, full-core simulation utilizing 1.4 billion elements and solved using 12 000 processors.

摘要

无数的核反应堆设计目前正在考虑用于下一代电力生产。这些设计利用独特的几何形状和材料，并且可以依靠多物理场效应来确保安全和操作。这项工作开发了一种中子传输工具 MOCkingbird，能够对以前难以处理的几何形状进行三维 (3D) 全核反应堆模拟。求解器基于特征法，利用非结构化网格进行几何描述。MOCkingbird 是使用 MOOSE 多物理场框架构建的，允许在未来直接链接到其他物理场。给出了算法和实现的描述，并计算了二维/3D C5G7 和麻省理工学院 BEAVRS 基准的解决方案。