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At least 37 records · Page 2

An assessment of total depletion uncertainties for a GBC-32 dry storage cask with PLUS7 fuels using Monte Carlo sampling and two-way ANOVA F-test

It is important to accurately evaluate depletion uncertainties that exist due to the limitations of a computer code on accuracy in a nuclear depletion calculation for criticality safety analysis. In this work, the bias and bias uncertainty in the effective neutron multiplication factor (k{sub eff}) for the generic 32 PWR-assembly burnup credit (GBC-32) cask system were assessed using the Monte Carlo uncertainty sampling method for three different burnups and the isotopic biases and uncertainties obtained with the calculated and measured isotopic concentrations. The PLUS7 used nuclear fuel assemblies discharged from the Hanbit Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 were assumed to be loaded into the GBC-32 cask. In addition, the statistical F-test in the two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was suggested to efficiently estimate the statistically converged total depletion uncertainty in k{sub eff}, with a significant reduction of computing efforts in the Monte Carlo criticality calculations, and it was applied to the GBC-32 cask system after a sensitivity analysis was performed to select the important nuclides having significant contributions to the total depletion uncertainty. With the statistical F-tests in the two-way ANOVA, 100 criticality calculations were needed to get a statistically converged total depletion uncertainty for 10 and 30 GWD/MTU, while 120 criticality calculations were needed for 50 GWD/MTU. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Using Importance Sampling Monte Carlo to Analyze Aircraft Takeoff and Landing

Aircraft have achieved high levels of reliability, so the probability of undesirable dynamics is very low. The low probability of a bad takeoff or landing challenges nondeterministic methods to quantify the uncertainty of these improbable events. In the present work, a Monte Carlo method is defined to more effectively quantify these unlikely events that is suitable for uncertainty analysis of a mature design with many uncertainty parameters. The proposed Monte Carlo method has been applied to the takeoff and landing of the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST). Takeoff and landing simulation profiles were defined using a combination of industry standards and piloted simulation experience. The proposed method is shown to be able to quantify events with significantly fewer samples than would be required with conventional Monte Carlo. These results improve understanding of the sensitivity of the takeoff and landing dynamics to inform further studies and test planning.

Jeffrey Ouellette↗

Using Importance Sampling Monte Carlo to Analyze Aircraft Takeoff and Landing

Aircraft have achieved high levels of reliability, so the probability of undesirable dynamics is very low. The low probability of a bad takeoff or landing challenges nondeterministic methods to quantify the uncertainty of these improbable events. In the present work, a Monte Carlo method is defined to more effectively quantify these unlikely events that is suitable for uncertainty analysis of a mature design with many uncertainty parameters. The proposed Monte Carlo method has been applied to the takeoff and landing of the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST). Takeoff and landing simulation profiles were defined using a combination of industry standards and piloted simulation experience. The proposed method is shown to be able to quantify events with significantly fewer samples than would be required with conventional Monte Carlo. These results improve understanding of the sensitivity of the takeoff and landing dynamics to inform further studies and test planning.

Jeffrey Ouellette↗

Accurate excited-state energetics by a combination of Monte Carlo sampling and equation-of-motion coupled-cluster computations

The recently introduced idea of identifying the most important higher-than-doubly excited determinants in the ground-state coupled-cluster (CC) calculations through stochastic configuration interaction Quantum Monte Carlo propagations [J.E. Deustua, J. Shen, and P. Piecuch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 223003 (2017)] is extended to excited electronic states via the equation-of-motion (EOM) CC methodology. The advantages of the new method are illustrated by calculations aimed at recovering the ground- and excited-state energies of the CH + molecule at the equilibrium and stretched geometries resulting from the EOMCC calculations with a full treatment of singles, doubles, and triples.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

High-level coupled-cluster energetics by Monte Carlo sampling and moment expansions: Further details and comparisons

We recently proposed a novel approach to converging electronic energies equivalent to high-level coupled-cluster (CC) computations by combining the deterministic CC(P;Q) formalism with the stochastic configuration interaction (CI) and CC Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) propagations. This article extends our initial study [J. E. Deustua, J. Shen, and P. Piecuch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 223003 (2017)], which focused on recovering the energies obtained with the CC method with singles, doubles, and triples (CCSDT) using the information extracted from full CI QMC and CCSDT-MC, to the CIQMC approaches truncated at triples and quadruples. It also reports our first semi-stochastic CC(P;Q) calculations aimed at converging the energies that correspond to the CC method with singles, doubles, triples, and quadruples (CCSDTQ). The ability of the semi-stochastic CC(P;Q) formalism to recover the CCSDT and CCSDTQ energies, even when electronic quasi-degeneracies and triply and quadruply excited clusters become substantial, is illustrated by a few numerical examples, including the F–F bond breaking in F 2 , the automerization of cyclobutadiene, and the double dissociation of the water molecule.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Detection of Delayed Neutrons from Fissionable Samples: Monte Carlo Modelling and Physical Assumptions for a Design of the DET-12 Device

An activation of fissionable materials with neutrons has been considered as a possible neutron diagnostic of D–D and D–T fusion plasma. Fission reaction caused by fusion neutrons leads up to emission of secondary neutrons: prompt and delayed. Physical assumptions have been outlined to design a new device (DET-12) for measurements of delayed neutrons emitted from samples of fissionable materials activated with neutrons at big fusion-plasma devices. The aim is to support a classic neutron activation method used as one of plasma diagnostics at tokamaks or stellarators. An interpretation of the time decay of delayed neutrons enables an assessment of the primary neutron flux which induced fission reaction. Monte Carlo calculations have been carried out in order to elaborate the method considered. Nuclides like: pure {sup 235}U, {sup 238}U and {sup 232}Th, have been selected as possible materials to be irradiated. Physical fundamentals of generation of the delayed neutrons are mentioned and a resulting concept of the DET-12 device, built in the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Poland, is presented. A general size and dimensions of particular constituent material layers, and a number and placement of neutron detectors are optimized by means of Monte Carlo modelling. Recommendations for a technical design of the measuring chamber were formulated. Detection efficiency of DET-12 has been also estimated.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Combining Landau–Zener theory and kinetic Monte Carlo sampling for small polaron mobility of doped BiVO 4 from first-principles

Transition metal oxides such as BiVO 4 are promising photoelectrode materials for solar-to-fuel conversion applications. However, their performance is limited by the low carrier mobility (especially electron mobility) due to the formation of small polarons. Recent experimental studies have shown improved carrier mobility and conductivity by atomic doping; however the underlying mechanism is not understood. A fundamental atomistic-level understanding of the effects on small polaron transport is critical to future material design with high conductivity. We studied the small polaron hopping mobility in pristine and doped BiVO 4 by combining Landau–Zener theory and kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulation fully from first-principles, and investigated the effect of dopant–polaron interactions on the mobility. We found that polarons are spontaneously formed at V in both pristine and Mo/W doped BiVO 4 , which can only be described correctly by density functional theory (DFT) with the Hubbard correction (DFT+U) or hybrid exchange-correlation functional but not local or semi-local functionals. We found that DFT+U and dielectric dependant hybrid (DDH) functionals give similar electron hopping barriers, which are also similar between the room temperature monoclinic phase and the tetragonal phase. The calculated electron mobility agrees well with experimental values, which is around 10 -4 cm 2 V -1 s -1 . We found that the electron polaron transport in BiVO4 is neither fully adiabatic nor nonadiabatic, and the first and second nearest neighbor hoppings have significantly different electronic couplings between two hopping centers that lead to different adiabaticity and prefactors in the charge transfer rate, although they have similar hopping barriers. Without considering the detailed adiabaticity through Landau–Zener theory, one may get qualitatively wrong carrier mobility. We further computed polaron mobility in the presence of different dopants and showed that Cr substitution of V is an electron trap while Mo and W are “repulsive” centers, mainly due to the minimization of local lattice expansion by dopants and electron polarons. The dopants with “repulsive” interactions to polarons are promising for mobility improvement due to larger wavefunction overlap and delocalization of locally concentrated polarons.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Adaptation of Temperature Dependent Thermal Neutron Libraries for Fast On-The-Fly Monte Carlo Sampling at Arbitrary Temperatures

Thermal neutron scattering data is necessary for reactor simulations of thermal reactors, but the data storage required can be unwieldy. This is exacerbated when simulations require a large temperature range, as is the case for accident scenarios and reactor start-up. Previous work conducted at RPI has explored and demonstrated a proof of concept of On-The-Fly (OTF) data storage with light water and crystalline graphite based on ENDF/B-VII.1. This provides an updated data storage paradigm for incoherent inelastic cross-sections that allow the data to be used to generate necessary sampling Cumulative Density Functions (CDFs) for any desired temperature. The work presented in this paper extends the previous work by implementing the proof of concept based on ENDF/B-VIII.0, instead of ENDF/B-VII.1, and to include additional materials, such as beryllium and oxygen in beryllium oxide and the new reactor grades of porous graphite. Completion of this work allows a single thermal data file to represent any thermal scattering event for a given material OTF for the temperature of interest, which greatly reduces the data storage needed with only a marginal cost in the calculation of the CDFs OTF. This paper will review the basic methodologies in generating the OTF data, as well as present the updates and improvements made in the generation process. Application of the methodologies covered in this paper show a significant reduction in the storage requirements for inelastic incoherent scattering events. In which, the evaluated ENDF/B-VIII.0 thermal scattering library can be reduced from 563.1 MB to 10.9 MB for light water and 339.3 MB to 13.6 MB for Be in BeO.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Fast On-The-Fly Monte Carlo Sampling of Temperature Dependent Thermal Scattering [Slides]

This presentation highlights the process of developing a thermal data library for MCNP6 to support on-the-fly S(alpha, beta) sampling for temperature ranges applicable to nuclear criticality safety. Advanced on-the-fly (OTF) strategy driven libraries have been developed for six materials based on ENDF/B-VIII.0. Validation of the OTF libraries is being conducted currently.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

A pure-sampling quantum Monte Carlo algorithm

The objective of pure-sampling quantum Monte Carlo is to calculate physical properties that are independent of the importance sampling function being employed in the calculation, save for the mismatch of its nodal hypersurface with that of the exact wave function. To achieve this objective, we report a pure-sampling algorithm that combines features of forward walking methods of pure-sampling and reptation quantum Monte Carlo (RQMC). The new algorithm accurately samples properties from the mixed and pure distributions simultaneously in runs performed at a single set of time-steps, over which extrapolation to zero time-step is performed. In a detailed comparison, we found RQMC to be less efficient. It requires different sets of time-steps to accurately determine the energy and other properties, such as the dipole moment. We implement our algorithm by systematically increasing an algorithmic parameter until the properties converge to statistically equivalent values. As a proof in principle, we calculated the fixed-node energy, static α polarizability, and other one-electron expectation values for the ground-states of LiH and water molecules. These quantities are free from importance sampling bias, population control bias, time-step bias, extrapolation-model bias, and the finite-field approximation. We found excellent agreement with the accepted values for the energy and a variety of other properties for those systems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Note: A pure-sampling quantum Monte Carlo algorithm with independent Metropolis

Recently, Ospadov and Rothstein published a pure-sampling quantum Monte Carlo algorithm (PSQMC) that features an auxiliary Path Z that connects the midpoints of the current and proposed Paths X and Y, respectively. When sufficiently long, Path Z provides statistical independence of Paths X and Y. Under those conditions, the Metropolis decision used in PSQMC is done without any approximation, i.e., not requiring microscopic reversibility and without having to introduce any G(x → x′; τ) factors into its decision function. This is a unique feature that contrasts with all competing reptation algorithms in the literature. An example illustrates that dependence of Paths X and Y has adverse consequences for pure sampling.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Efficient Uncertainty Quantification in Stochastic Economic Dispatch

Stochastic economic dispatch models usually address uncertainties in forecasts of renewable generation output by considering a finite number of realizations drawn from a stochastic process model, typically via Monte Carlo sampling. Accurate evaluations of expectations or higher order moments for quantities of interest, e.g., generating cost, can require a prohibitively large number of samples. We propose an alternative to Monte Carlo sampling based on polynomial chaos expansions. These representations enable efficient and accurate propagation of uncertainties in model parameters, using sparse quadrature methods. Furthermore, we use Karhunen-Loève expansions for efficient representation of uncertain renewable energy generation that follows geographical and temporal correlations derived from historical data at each wind farm. Considering expected production cost, we show that the proposed approach can yield several orders of magnitude reduction in computational cost for solving stochastic economic dispatch relative to Monte Carlo sampling, for a given target error threshold.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗