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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Database of CFD-Based Buffet Forcing Functions for Artemis I Structural Response Evaluation

Time-accurate FUN3D simulations are utilized to estimate buffet-induced unsteady forces experienced by the Space Launch System during the Artemis I (AR01) flight. A set of FUN3D simulations was developed that employed time-accurate mesh translations to simulate the changing velocity and attitude based on the AR01 best estimated trajectory. In these simulations, referred to as accelerating-flow simulations, the freestream Mach number increased from 0.80 to 1.92. Additional time-accurate simulations were obtained at constant freestream Mach number equal to 0.95, 1.18, 1.70, thereby simulating stationary conditions experienced by the flow in a wind-tunnel. On the grounds of favorable comparisons between simulated and flight-measured environments, the FUN3D-based surface pressures were utilized to develop a buffet forcing function (BFF) database. This BFF database was analyzed to characterize the spatial distribution and frequency content of the buffet forces during transonic and supersonic portions of the AR01 flight. The region of interest is located downstream of the forward attachment (FA) hardware between the core stage and the solid rocket boosters where vortex shedding off the FA protuberance produces significant unsteadiness. The analysis reveals that, at transonic and supersonic conditions, buffet forces that are based on constant freestream Mach number data are a good approximation of those based on accelerating-flow simulations.

transonic buffet↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Database of CFD-Based Buffet Forcing Functions for Artemis I Structural Response Evaluation

FUN3D↗

NASA NTRS1979

Reduction of rotor-turbulence interaction noise in static fan noise testing

Three effective inlet cleanup methods are described. A flared reverse cone inlet is used to eliminate wakes from the fan casings and/or probe supports. Boundary layer suction is employed ahead of the fan rotor and on the outer flare of the cone to reduce the boundary layer turbulence and remove any residual wakes. To reduce the midstream turbulent intensity and length scales, a turbulence control structure is used which is constructed with both a layer of honeycomb and a fine mesh screen. The effects of these cleanup methods are quantified by measuring the far-field noise in an anechoic chamber, using a high-speed 20-in.-diam fan of the current high passband type. The changes in the turbulent field impinging on this rotor are quantified by mapping the streamwise and transverse turbulent properties (spectra, intensity and length scale) with crossed hot film probes. It is convincingly shown that it is possible to clean up the inlet flow of a static fan noise test facility to a point where the static acoustic data simulate flight data.

Kantola, R. A.↗

NASA NTRS1993

The NASA/industry Design Analysis Methods for Vibrations (DAMVIBS) program: Boeing Helicopters airframe finite element modeling

Mathematical models based on the finite element method of structural analysis, as embodied in the NASTRAN computer code, are routinely used by the helicopter industry to calculate airframe static internal loads used for sizing structural members. Historically, less reliance has been placed on the vibration predictions based on these models. Beginning in the early 1980's NASA's Langley Research Center initiated an industry wide program with the objective of engendering the needed trust in vibration predictions using these models and establishing a body of modeling guides which would enable confident future prediction of airframe vibration as part of the regular design process. Emphasis in this paper is placed on the successful modeling of the Army/Boeing CH-47D which showed reasonable correlation with test data. A principal finding indicates that improved dynamic analysis requires greater attention to detail and perhaps a finer mesh, especially the mass distribution, than the usual stress model. Post program modeling efforts show improved correlation placing key modal frequencies in the b/rev range with 4 percent of the test frequencies.

Gabel, R.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Modeling fission product diffusion in TRISO fuel particles with BISON

Diffusion of fission products in intact TRISO particles depends on particle geometry, fission product source rates, time, temperature, and temperature-dependent diffusion coefficients. Simulating this diffusion process requires models for source rates and diffusion coefficients, plus computation of the temperature field if not prescribed. In addition, simulation quality depends on discretization of the geometry, appropriate time stepping, and the accuracy of the solution method. In this paper, we explore the simulation of fission product diffusion in TRISO fuel particles using the finite element method via the fuel performance code Bison. Recent material model development has occurred in Bison for each material present in tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles: the buffer, inner pyrolytic carbon, silicon carbide, and outer pyrolytic carbon layers, as well as the fuel kernel. Also, new mesh generation and fission product release fraction capabilities have been added. Diffusion capabilities are shown to converge to the correct solution via formal verification tests. A large number of code benchmarking problems are also given, with good results, showing that Bison’s computed release fractions closely match those of other software tools. Finally, a significant validation effort is detailed in which fission product release, measured as part of the AGR-1 capsule experiments, is compared to Bison outputs. Bison outputs compare very well to the experimental data and to PARFUME results.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Advance study of fiber-reinforced self-compacting concrete

Incorporation in concrete composition of steel macro- and micro – fiber reinforcement with structural function increases the degree of ductility of typically brittle cement-containing composites, which in some cases can replace completely or partially conventional steel reinforcement in the form of rods and meshes. Thus, that can reduce manufacturing, detailing and placement of conventional reinforcement, which enhances productivity and economic efficiency of the building process. In this paper, six fiber-reinforced with different amounts of steel fiber cement-containing self-compacting compositions are investigated. The results of some of their main strength-deformation characteristics are presented. Advance approach for the study of structural and material properties of these type composites is proposed by using the methods of industrial computed tomography. The obtained original tomography results about the microstructure and characteristics of individual structural components make it possible to analyze the effective macro-characteristics of the studied composites. The resulting analytical data are relevant for the purposes of multi-dimensional modeling of these systems. Multifactor structure-mechanical analysis of the obtained with different methods original scientific results is proposed. It is presented a conclusion of the capabilities and effectiveness of complex analysis in the studies to characterize the properties of self-compacting fiber-reinforced concrete.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2019

Geomechanical Simulation of Big Hill Strategic Petroleum Reserve - Calibration of Model Containing Shear Zone

A finite element numerical analysis model, that consists of a realistic mesh capturing the geometries of Big Hill (BH) Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) site using the multi-mechanism deformation (MD) salt constitutive model and including data taken daily of the wellhead pressure and level of the oil-brine interface, has been upgraded. The upgraded model contains the shear zone to examine the interbed behavior in a realistic manner. The salt creep rate is not uniform in the salt dome, and creep test data for BH salt is limited. Therefore, a model calibration is necessary to simulate the geomechanical behavior of the salt dome. Cavern volumetric closures of SPR caverns calculated from sonar survey reports are used for the field baseline measurement. The structure factor, A 2 , and transient strain limit factor, K 0 , in the M-D constitutive model are used for model calibration. An A 2 value obtained experimentally from the BH salt and K 0 value of WIPP salt are used as the baseline values. To adjust the magnitude of A 2 and K 0 , multiplication factors A 2 F and K 0 F are defined, respectively. The A 2 F and K 0 F values of the salt dome and salt drawdown layer of elements surrounding each SPR cavern have been determined through a number of back fitting analyses. The trendlines of the predictions and sonar data match up well for BH 101, 103, 104, 106, 110, 111, 112, and 113. The prediction curves are close to the sonar data for BH 102 and 114. However, the prediction curves for BH 105, 107, 108, and 109 are not close to the sonar data. An inconsistency was found in the sonar data, i.e. the volume measured later is larger than that before in some time intervals, even if the leached volume is taken into account, for BH 101, 104, 106, 107, and 112. Project discussions are needed to determine possibilities on how to resolve the issues and determine the best path forward for future computer modeling attempts.

02 PETROLEUM↗

DOE OSTI2016

Collaborative Research: A Model of Partially Ionized Plasma Flows with Kinetic Treatment of Neutral Atoms and Nonthermal Ions

Interactions of flows of partially ionized, magnetized plasma are frequently accompanied by the presence of both thermal and non-thermal (pickup) ion components. Such interactions cannot be modeled using traditional MHD equations and require more advanced approaches to treat them. If a nonthermal component of ions is formed due to charge exchange and collisions between the thermal (core) ions and neutrals, it experiences the action of magnetic field, its distribution function is isotropized, and it soon acquires the velocity of the ambient plasma without being thermodynamically equilibrated. This situation, e. g., takes place in the outer heliosphere –- the part of interstellar space beyond the solar system whose properties are determined by the solar wind interaction with the local interstellar medium. This is also possible in laboratory, at million degrees and above, when plasma is conducting electricity far too well, which makes Ohmic heating ineffective. To attain the target temperatures one needs additional heating eventually playing a dominant role. Among such sources is a so-called neutral particle beam heating. This is a wide-spread technique (Joint European Torus and International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor experiments) based on the injection of powerful beams of neutral atoms into ohmically preheated plasma. In this project we have investigated the energy and density separation between the thermal and nonthermal components in the solar wind and interstellar plasmas. A new model has been developed in which we solve the ideal MHD equations for mixture of all ions and the kinetic Boltzmann equation to describe the transport of neutral atoms. As a separate capability, we can treat the flow of neutral atoms in a multi-component fashion, where neutral atoms born in each thermodynamically distinct region are governed by the Euler gas dynamic equations. We also describe the behavior of pickup ions either kinetically, using the Fokker--Planck equation, or as a separate fluid. Our numerical simulations have demonstrated that pickup ions play a major role in the interaction of the solar wind and (partially ionized) interstellar medium plasmas. Our teams have investigated the stability of the surface (the heliopause) that separates the solar wind from the local interstellar medium, the transport of galactic cosmic rays, the properties of the heliotail flow, and modifications to the bow wave in front of the heliopause due to charge exchange between the neutral H atoms born in the solar wind and interstellar ions. Modeling results have been validated against observational data, such as obtained by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), and made it possible to shed light on the structure of energetic neutral atom maps created by this spacecraft.. We have also demonstrated that charge-exchange modulated heliosphere is a source of anisotropy of the multi-TeV cosmic ray flux observed in a number of Earth-bound air shower experiments. Newly developed codes are implemented within a Multi-Scale Fluid-Kinetic Simulation Suite (MS-FLUKSS), a publicly available code being developed by our team for over 12 years. MS-FLUKSS scales well up to 160,000 computing cores and has been ported on major supercomputers in the country. Efficient parallelization and data choreography in the continuum simulation modules are provided by Chombo, an adaptive mesh refinement framework managed by Phillip Colella's team at LBNL. We have implemented in-house, hybrid (MPI+OpenMP) parallelization of the kinetic modules that solve the Boltzmann equation with a Monte Carlo method. Currently, the kinetic modules are being rewritten to take advantage of the modern CPU-GPU supercomputer architecture. The scope of the project allowed us to enhance plasma research and education in such broad, multidisciplinary field as physics of partially ionized plasma and its application to space physics and fusion science. Besides the impact on the modeling of complex physical systems, our approach to computational resource management for complex codes utilizing multiple algorithm technologies appears to be a major advance on current approaches. The development of sophisticated resource management will be essential for all future modeling efforts that incorporate a diversity of scales and physical processes. Our effort provided leadership in promoting computational science and plasma physics within the UAH and FIT campuses and, through the training of a broad spectrum of scientists and engineers, fostering new technologies across the country.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2016

Collaborative Research: A Model of Partially Ionized Plasma Flows with Kinetic Treatment of Neutral Atoms and Nonthermal Ions

Interactions of flows of partially ionized, magnetized plasma are frequently accompanied by the presence of both thermal and non-thermal (pickup) ion components. Such interactions cannot be modeled using traditional MHD equations and require more advanced approaches to treat them. If a nonthermal component of ions is formed due to charge exchange and collisions between the thermal (core) ions and neutrals, it experiences the action of magnetic field, its distribution function is isotropized, and it soon acquires the velocity of the ambient plasma without being thermodynamically equilibrated. This situation, e. g., takes place in the outer heliosphere - the part of interstellar space beyond the solar system whose properties are determined by the solar wind interaction with the local interstellar medium. This is also possible in laboratory, at million degrees and above, when plasma is conducting electricity far too well, which makes Ohmic heating ineffective. To attain the target temperatures one needs additional heating eventually playing a dominant role. Among such sources is a so-called neutral particle beam heating. This is a wide-spread technique (Joint European Torus and International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor experiments) based on the injection of powerful beams of neutral atoms into ohmically preheated plasma. In this project we have investigated the energy and density separation between the thermal and nonthermal components in the solar wind and interstellar plasmas. A new model has been developed in which we solve the ideal MHD equations for mixture of all ions and the kinetic Boltzmann equation to describe the transport of neutral atoms. As a separate capability, we can treat the flow of neutral atoms in a multi-component fashion, where neutral atoms born in each thermodynamically distinct regions are governed by the Euler gas dynamic equations. We also describe the behavior of pickup ions either kinetically, using the Fokker–Planck equation, or as a separate fluid. Our numerical simulations have demonstrated that pickup ions play a major role in the interaction of the solar wind and (partially ionized) interstellar medium plasmas. Our teams have investigated the stability of the surface (the heliopause) that separates the solar wind from the local interstellar medium, the transport of galactic cosmic rays, the properties of the heliotail flow, and modifications to the bow wave in front of the heliopause due to charge exchange between the neutral H atoms born in the solar wind and interstellar ions. Modeling results have been validated against observational data, such as obtained by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), and made it possible to shed light on the structure of energetic neutral atom maps created by this spacecraft.. We have also demonstrated that charge-exchange modulated heliosphere is a source of anisotropy of the multi-TeV cosmic ray flux observed in a number of Earth-bound air shower experiments. Newly developed codes are implemented within a Multi-Scale Fluid-Kinetic Simulation Suite (MS-FLUKSS), a publicly available code being developed by our team for over 12 years. MS-FLUKSS scales well up to 160,000 computing cores and has been ported on major supercomputers in the country. Efficient parallelization and data choreography in the continuum simulation modules are provided by Chombo, an adaptive mesh refinement framework managed by Phillip Colella’s team at LBNL. We have implemented in-house, hybrid (MPI+OpenMP) parallelization of the kinetic modules that solve the Boltzmann equation with a Monte Carlo method. Currently, the kinetic modules are being rewritten to take advantage of the modern CPU-GPU supercomputer architecture. The scope of the project allowed us to enhance plasma research and education in such broad, multidis- ciplinary field as physics of partially ionized plasma and its application to space physics and fusion science. Besides the impact on the modeling of complex physical systems, our approach to computational resource management for complex codes utilizing multiple algorithm technologies appears to be a major advance on current approaches. The development of sophisticated resource management will be essential for all future modeling efforts that incorporate a diversity of scales and physical processes. Our effort provided leadership in promoting computational science and plasma physics within the UAH and FIT campuses and, through the training of a broad spectrum of scientists and engineers, foster new technologies across the country.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2026

Integrated Neutronics Modeling for Inertial Fusion Energy Systems: Development and Application to LD-FIRST

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is proposing a new Laser Driven Fusion Integration Research and Science Test Facility (LD-FIRST) with the goal of providing an experimental testbed for future Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) systems. However, IFE systems require detailed and accurate multiphysics modeling to quantify material damage, thermal loading, and tritium breeding within complex chamber environments. This article presents the first step in an integrated multiphysics framework that couples meshed CAD-based geometry within Monte Carlo neutronic simulations to enable high-fidelity analysis of IFE chamber concepts, with future coupling to external codes. The neutronics workflow utilizes OpenMC and its third-party capability to use CAD-based geometries through DAGMC and tally on unstructured meshes with Libmesh to evaluate neutron transport behavior, geometric fidelity, and material performance under reactor-relevant conditions. The use of tailored tallies on unstructured meshes in this framework allows direct transfer without interpolating to CFD simulation tools. Two IFE chambers were evaluated, both conceived by LLNL: HYLIFE-II and Laser IFE (LIFE). This work produced high-fidelity conformal surface and volumetric meshes of the HYLIFE-II and LIFE chambers with mapped spatial insight into material damage, thermal loading, and tritium breeding. The HYLIFE-II model was built utilizing available resources and used as a test case to verify that the neutronics framework can handle complex geometries. The LIFE chamber CAD was provided by LLNL and was the main focus of this work. This work analyzes multiple ternary alloy breeding materials for the LIFE chamber, across different 6 Li enrichments to produce data relevant to the LD-FIRST project. This work also investigates the level of model fidelity for the LIFE chamber, and results show that inclusion of detailed first wall and coolant structures increased the predicted tritium breeding ratio (TBR) by ~30%, highlighting the sensitivity of tritium breeding and the need for a high-fidelity simulation framework for IFE chambers. These developments provide a scalable toolset for the design and optimization of next-generation IFE chambers, forming a solid foundation for future coupled multiphysics analysis.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

NASA NTRS1988

An investigation of turbulence models

The accuracy to which a turbulent boundary layer or wake can be predicted numerically depends on the validity of the turbulence closure model used. The modeling of turbulence physics is one of the most difficult problems in computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In fact, it is one of the pacing factors in the development of CFD. In general, there are three main approaches to the description of trubulence physics. First is turbulence modeling in which the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations are used and some closure approximation is made for the Reynolds stresses. A second approach to turbulence is large eddy simulation (LES) in which the computational mesh is taken to be fine enough that the large scale structure of the turbulence can be calculated directly. An empirical assumption must be made for the small scale sub-grid turbulence. The third approach is direct simulation. In this technique the Navier-Strokes equations are solved directly on a mesh which if fine enough to resolve the smallest length scale of the turbulence. The Reynolds averaged equations are not used and no closure assumption is required. These last two approaches require extensive computer resources and as such are not engineering tools. The purpose of the work was to investigate the various engineering turbulence models for accuracy and ease of programming. This involved comparison of the models with each other and with experimental data.

Doria, Michael L.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Graph convolutional networks applied to unstructured flow field data

Abstract Many scientific and engineering processes produce spatially unstructured data. However, most data-driven models require a feature matrix that enforces both a set number and order of features for each sample. They thus cannot be easily constructed for an unstructured dataset. Therefore, a graph based data-driven model to perform inference on fields defined on an unstructured mesh, using a graph convolutional neural network (GCNN) is presented. The ability of the method to predict global properties from spatially irregular measurements with high accuracy is demonstrated by predicting the drag force associated with laminar flow around airfoils from scattered velocity measurements. The network can infer from field samples at different resolutions, and is invariant to the order in which the measurements within each sample are presented. The GCNN method, using inductive convolutional layers and adaptive pooling, is able to predict this quantity with a validation R 2 above 0.98, and a Normalized Mean Squared Error below 0.01, without relying on spatial structure.

Ogoke, Francis (ORCID:0000000224327783)↗

NASA NTRS2014

An Examination of Parameters Affecting Large Eddy Simulations of Flow Past a Square Cylinder

Separated flow over a bluff body is analyzed via large eddy simulations. The turbulent flow around a square cylinder features a variety of complex flow phenomena such as highly unsteady vortical structures, reverse flow in the near wall region, and wake turbulence. The formation of spanwise vortices is often times artificially suppressed in computations by either insufficient depth or a coarse spanwise resolution. As the resolution is refined and the domain extended, the artificial turbulent energy exchange between spanwise and streamwise turbulence is eliminated within the wake region. A parametric study is performed highlighting the effects of spanwise vortices where the spanwise computational domain's resolution and depth are varied. For Re=22,000, the mean and turbulent statistics computed from the numerical large eddy simulations (NLES) are in good agreement with experimental data. Von-Karman shedding is observed in the wake of the cylinder. Mesh independence is illustrated by comparing a mesh resolution of 2 million to 16 million. Sensitivities to time stepping were minimized and sampling frequency sensitivities were nonpresent. While increasing the spanwise depth and resolution can be costly, this practice was found to be necessary to eliminating the artificial turbulent energy exchange.

Mankbadi, M. R.↗

NASA NTRS1979

Structure of the Turbulent Separated Flow Around a Stalled Airfoil

Hot-wire measurements were made in the boundary layer, the separated region, and the near wake for flow past a NACA 4412 airfoil at maximum lift. The Reynolds number based on chord was 1,500,000. Special care was taken to achieve a two-dimensional mean flow. Data were obtained at several thousand locations in the flow field. These data include intermittency, two components of mean velocity, and mean values for three double, four triple, and five quadruple products of two velocity fluctuations. No information was obtained about the third (spanwise) velocity component. Smoothing and interpolating routines were used to determine intermittency, two components of mean velocity, and mean values of three double, four triple, and five quadruple products of two velocity fluctuations on a fine rectangular mesh aligned with the airfoil chord. The data are presented in contour plots, in three-dimensional plots, and in tabular form. The format used to store the experimental data in digital form is described and a computer program which illustrates how this data can be accessed is presented.

Wadcock, A. J.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Hypersonic Flow Computations on Unstructured Meshes

A method for computing inviscid hypersonic flow over complex configurations using unstructured meshes is presented. The unstructured grid solver uses an edge{based finite{volume formulation. Fluxes are computed using a flux vector splitting scheme that is capable of representing constant enthalpy solutions. Second{order accuracy in smooth flow regions is obtained by linearly reconstructing the solution, and stability near discontinuities is maintained by locally forcing the scheme to reduce to first-order accuracy. The implementation of the algorithm to parallel computers is described. Computations using the proposed method are presented for a sphere-cone configuration at Mach numbers of 5.25 and 10.6, and a complex hypersonic re-entry vehicle at Mach numbers of 4.5 and 9.8. Results are compared to experimental data and computations made with established structured grid methods. The use of the solver as a screening tool for rapid aerodynamic assessment of proposed vehicles is described.

Bibb, K. L.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Comparison of High-Order and Low-Order Methods for Large-Eddy Simulation of a Compressible Shear Layer

The objective of this work is to compare a high-order solver with a low-order solver for performing Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) of a compressible mixing layer. The high-order method is the Wave-Resolving LES (WRLES) solver employing a Dispersion Relation Preserving (DRP) scheme. The low-order solver is the Wind-US code, which employs the second-order Roe Physical scheme. Both solvers are used to perform LES of the turbulent mixing between two supersonic streams at a convective Mach number of 0.46. The high-order and low-order methods are evaluated at two different levels of grid resolution. For a fine grid resolution, the low-order method produces a very similar solution to the highorder method. At this fine resolution the effects of numerical scheme, subgrid scale modeling, and filtering were found to be negligible. Both methods predict turbulent stresses that are in reasonable agreement with experimental data. However, when the grid resolution is coarsened, the difference between the two solvers becomes apparent. The low-order method deviates from experimental results when the resolution is no longer adequate. The high-order DRP solution shows minimal grid dependence. The effects of subgrid scale modeling and spatial filtering were found to be negligible at both resolutions. For the high-order solver on the fine mesh, a parametric study of the spanwise width was conducted to determine its effect on solution accuracy. An insufficient spanwise width was found to impose an artificial spanwise mode and limit the resolved spanwise modes. We estimate that the spanwise depth needs to be 2.5 times larger than the largest coherent structures to capture the largest spanwise mode and accurately predict turbulent mixing.

large eddy simulations↗

NASA NTRS2015

Comparison of High-Order and Low-Order Methods for Large-Eddy Simulation of a Compressible Shear Layer

The objective of this work is to compare a high-order solver with a low-order solver for performing large-eddy simulations (LES) of a compressible mixing layer. The high-order method is the Wave-Resolving LES (WRLES) solver employing a Dispersion Relation Preserving (DRP) scheme. The low-order solver is the Wind-US code, which employs the second-order Roe Physical scheme. Both solvers are used to perform LES of the turbulent mixing between two supersonic streams at a convective Mach number of 0.46. The high-order and low-order methods are evaluated at two different levels of grid resolution. For a fine grid resolution, the low-order method produces a very similar solution to the high-order method. At this fine resolution the effects of numerical scheme, subgrid scale modeling, and filtering were found to be negligible. Both methods predict turbulent stresses that are in reasonable agreement with experimental data. However, when the grid resolution is coarsened, the difference between the two solvers becomes apparent. The low-order method deviates from experimental results when the resolution is no longer adequate. The high-order DRP solution shows minimal grid dependence. The effects of subgrid scale modeling and spatial filtering were found to be negligible at both resolutions. For the high-order solver on the fine mesh, a parametric study of the spanwise width was conducted to determine its effect on solution accuracy. An insufficient spanwise width was found to impose an artificial spanwise mode and limit the resolved spanwise modes. We estimate that the spanwise depth needs to be 2.5 times larger than the largest coherent structures to capture the largest spanwise mode and accurately predict turbulent mixing.

large eddy simulations↗

DOE OSTI2015

Reassessment of uncertainties for the PU-MET-INTER-002 benchmark - 14432

Uncertainty for the PU-MET-INTER-002 benchmark of ZPR-6/10 was unusually large for a ZPR assembly and was dominated by the uncertainties in matrix tube pitch and composition uncertainties for plutonium, graphite and stainless steel plates. The original uncertainty analysis for PU-MET-INTER-002 was limited by computer resources, software and the nuclear data available in 2002, all of which have been improved since. An as-built Monte Carlo model of ZPR-6/10 was used to quantify components of the transformation from the detailed model to a simplified RZ benchmark in 2002. Compositional uncertainties were estimated based upon TWODANT calculations of the RZ benchmark model (20 group, S{sub 8} - P{sub 1}). MC{sup 2}-2 was used with END/B-V.2 data to generate homogenized cross section data for TWODANT. The MC{sup 2}-2 calculations did not account for lattice cell spatial heterogeneity which was driven by the manual process required to generate ∼80 modifications to the deterministic model and by the software limitations of MC{sup 2}-2. Improvements to DIF3D-VARIANT, development of the MC{sup 2}-3 and BuildZPRModel codes, and better computer resources make accurate 3D transport calculations of reactivity changes practical today. BuildZPRModel imports the as-built geometry and creates a 'drawer' homogenized DIF3D model where each radial DIF3D mesh is the exact size of a single ZPR matrix tube and drawer. A MC{sup 2}-3 input is constructed for each drawer to produce homogenized cross section data where the spatial cell heterogeneity is captured by solving a 1D MOC transport calculation on the ultrafine energy group level. Collapsing 3D drawers into 1D MC{sup 2}-3 drawer models follows conventional procedures and is done by BuildZPRModel. MCNP6 was used to re-compute relevant geometry components of the uncertainty using ENDF/B-VII.0 data with the as-built model. Changes in the geometry components compared with earlier results are insignificant. DIF3D calculations of the compositional uncertainties were performed using 33, 70, 116, 230, 425, and 703 group energy structures and selectively combined with P{sub 3}-P{sub 7} transport approximations and P{sub 1} and P{sub 3} scattering kernels. 3D diffusion theory calculations were also performed for comparison. Many composition uncertainty components were essentially unchanged with the updated methodology. However, the dominant experimental uncertainty for PU-MET-INTER-002 is the composition of stainless steel. The new calculations reduce the stainless steel uncertainty from ∼115 pcm to ∼70 pcm which significantly reduces the total uncertainty for PU-MET-INTER-002. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗