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At least 1,297 records · Page 72
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Coupling coarse-mesh CFD with fine-mesh CFD for modeling molten-salt reactors in the Virtual Test Bed (VTB)

The Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program aims at developing a simulation tool kit to accelerate the development and deployment of nuclear power technologies. NEAMS multiphysics tools have been designed to provide numerical simulation support for the design and licensing of GEN IV reactors. Pronghorn is NEAMS's coarse-mesh computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool, which is designed to run 3D core transients in GEN IV reactors at a reduced computational cost. To increase their accuracy, coarse-mesh CFD simulations require calibrated closure coefficients. One way of computing these coefficients is via the Nek5000, NEAMS's high-fidelity CFD tool. This article discusses our current research lines in informing Pronghorn closure coefficients via Nek5000 to enable multiphysics simulations of the core cavity of the molten-salt fast reactor. We present an application in which Pronghorn mixing length turbulent viscosity has been calibrated from Nek5000 simulations. The resulting Pronghorn thermal-hydraulics model is then coupled to Griffin, the NEAMS neutron transport solver, to solve for the steady-state configuration of the molten-salt fast reactor. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Coupling coarse mesh CFD with fine mesh CFD for modeling for Molten Salt Reactors in the Virtual Test Bed VTB

The Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program aims at developing a simulation tool kit to accelerate the development and deployment of nuclear power technologies. NEAMS multiphysics tools have been designed to provide numerical simulation support for the design and licensing of GEN IV reactors. Pronghorn is NEAMS’s coarse-mesh computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool, which is designed to run 3D core transients in GEN IV reactors at a reduced computational cost. To increase their accuracy, coarse-mesh CFD simulations require calibrated closure coefficients. One way of computing these coefficients is via the Nek5000, NEAMS’s high-fidelity CFD tool. This article discusses our current research lines in informing Pronghorn closure coefficients via Nek5000 to enable multiphysics simulations of the core cavity of the molten-salt fast reactor. We present an application in which Pronghorn mixing length turbulent viscosity has been calibrated from Nek5000 simulations. The resulting Pronghorn thermal-hydraulics model is then coupled to Griffin, the NEAMS neutron transport solver, to solve for the steady-state configuration of the molten-salt fast reactor.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

CAN AGN FEEDBACK BREAK THE SELF-SIMILARITY OF GALAXIES, GROUPS, AND CLUSTERS?

It is commonly thought that active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback can break the self-similar scaling relations of galaxies, groups, and clusters. Using high-resolution three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, we isolate the impact of AGN feedback on the L {sub x}-T {sub x} relation, testing the two archetypal and common regimes, self-regulated mechanical feedback and a quasar thermal blast. We find that AGN feedback has severe difficulty in breaking the relation in a consistent way. The similarity breaking is directly linked to the gas evacuation within R {sub 500}, while the central cooling times are inversely proportional to the core density. Breaking self-similarity thus implies breaking the cool core, morphing all systems to non-cool-core objects, which is in clear contradiction with the observed data populated by several cool-core systems. Self-regulated feedback, which quenches cooling flows and preserves cool cores, prevents dramatic evacuation and similarity breaking at any scale; the relation scatter is also limited. The impulsive thermal blast can break the core-included L {sub x}-T {sub x} at T {sub 500} ≲ 1 keV, but substantially empties and overheats the halo, generating a perennial non-cool-core group, as experienced by cosmological simulations. Even with partial evacuation, massive systems remain overheated. We show that the action of purely AGN feedback is to lower the luminosity and heat the gas, perpendicular to the fit.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2017

Constitutive Modeling of the Facesheet to Core Interface in Honeycomb Sandwich Panels Subject to Mode I Delamination

A new cohesive zone traction-separation law, which includes the effects of fiber bridging, has been developed, implemented with a finite element (FE) model, and applied to simulate the delamination between the facesheet and core of a composite honeycomb sandwich panel. The proposed traction-separation law includes a standard initial cohesive component, which accounts for the initial interfacial stiffness and energy release rate, along with a new component to account for the fiber bridging contribution to the delamination process. Single cantilever beam tests on aluminum honeycomb sandwich panels with carbon fiber reinforced polymer facesheets were used to characterize and evaluate the new formulation and its finite element implementation. These tests, designed to evaluate the mode I toughness of the facesheet to core interface, exhibited significant fiber bridging and large crack process zones, giving rise to a concave downward concave upward pre-peak shape in the load-displacement curve. Unlike standard cohesive formulations, the proposed formulation captures this observed shape, and its results have been shown to be in excellent quantitative agreement with experimental load-displacement and apparent critical energy release rate results, representative of a payload fairing structure, as well as local strain fields measured with digital image correlation.

composites↗
DOE OSTI2016

Derivation of the Point-Kinetics Parameters for the Coupled Reactors

The design of coupled reactors, which provide two distinct spectral zones (fast and thermal), has recently drawn attention because it can provide configurations that could not be met in current thermal neutron test reactors and thus allows versatile irradiation tasks. A coupled reactor core is characterized by the neutron multiplicity of each zone as well as by the coupling between the two zones. It is desired to evaluate the integral point kinetics parameters that characterize the neutron physics of the coupled system. This summary provides a derivation of the equations for evaluating these point kinetics parameters. Following the strong and the weak form of the multigroup diffusion equation, the weak forms for the partial forward and adjoint solutions, each for a particular active region of the reactor core, are derived. These partial solutions are then used to collapse the weak form into the coupled-reactor point kinetics equations with the approximation of equilibrium. It is noted that these parameters are not meant for transient analysis because of the equilibrium approximation. They are rather used for characterizing the coupled system. The derived reactivity equations are then compared with those in Ref. 1. The equations are implemented in Rattlesnake, the INL MOOSE-based radiation transport application for multi-physics simulations. Numerical results are presented for a simple two-group problem. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2013

COLD FRONTS AND GAS SLOSHING IN GALAXY CLUSTERS WITH ANISOTROPIC THERMAL CONDUCTION

Cold fronts in cluster cool cores should be erased on short timescales by thermal conduction, unless protected by magnetic fields that are 'draped' parallel to the front surfaces, suppressing conduction perpendicular to the sloshing fronts. We present a series of MHD simulations of cold front formation in the core of a galaxy cluster with anisotropic thermal conduction, exploring a parameter space of conduction strengths parallel and perpendicular to the field lines. Including conduction has a strong effect on the temperature distribution of the core and the appearance of the cold fronts. Though magnetic field lines are draping parallel to the front surfaces, preventing conduction directly across them, the temperature jumps across the fronts are nevertheless reduced. The geometry of the field is such that the cold gas below the front surfaces can be connected to hotter regions outside via field lines along directions perpendicular to the plane of the sloshing motions and along sections of the front that are not perfectly draped. This results in the heating of this gas below the front on a timescale of a Gyr, but the sharpness of the density and temperature jumps may nevertheless be preserved. By modifying the gas density distribution below the front, conduction may indirectly aid in suppressing Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. If conduction along the field lines is unsuppressed, we find that the characteristic sharp jumps seen in Chandra observations of cold front clusters do not form. Therefore, the presence of cold fronts in hot clusters is in contradiction with our simulations with full Spitzer conduction. This suggests that the presence of cold fronts in hot clusters could be used to place upper limits on conduction in the bulk of the intracluster medium. Finally, the combination of sloshing and anisotropic thermal conduction can result in a larger flux of heat to the core than either process in isolation. While still not sufficient to prevent a cooling catastrophe in the very central (r {approx} 5 kpc) regions of the cool core (where something else is required, such as active galactic nucleus feedback), it reduces significantly the mass of gas that experiences a cooling catastrophe outside those small radii.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Data transfers for full core heterogeneous reactor high- fidelity multiphysics studies

Multiphysics simulations for nuclear reactor analysis are usually performed by resorting to operator splitting and fixed point iterations between single-physics solvers. This enables the separate solution of each physics, such as neutronics, fuel performance, and thermal hydraulics, on meshes tailored to the requirements of the respective numerical discretizations of the equations. As the equations are coupled, several fields must be transferred between single-physics solves. Projecting fields between meshes while preserving order of accuracy, conservation properties, and mapping non-overlapping geometries is a complex endeavor. This conference paper will present the transfers as implemented in MOOSE, which can handle arbitrary meshes, arbitrary mappings, conservation of integral quantities, and are made to scale with distributed simulations on both ends of the transfers. Their adequacy for advanced nuclear reactor multiphysics coupling is shown through examples and numerical studies.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Secondary-Source Core Reload Modeling with VERA

The CASL reactor simulation package VERA has been adapted to provide high-fidelity simulation capabilities for modeling source range detector response during subcritical reactor configurations. New features include the activation and shuffling of secondary-source assemblies, use of burned fuel neutron emission data from the ORIGEN depletion solver to the MPACT deterministic neutron transport solver, allowance of user-defined sources in MPACT based on material composition, ability to solve the subcritical source-driven system with neutron multiplication using the MPACT diffusion solver, and transfer of the calculated fission source from MPACT to the continuous-energy Monte Carlo solver Shift for final detector response evaluation using the CADIS methodology for variance reduction. These new capabilities were benchmarked against Watts Bar Unit 1 plant operating data for the first few fuel loading steps and were found to demonstrate excellent agreement with the measured data.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Atmospheric Moisture Budget and Spatial Resolution Dependence of Precipitation Extremes in Aquaplanet Simulations

This study investigates the resolution dependency of precipitation extremes in an aqua-planet framework. Strong resolution dependency of precipitation extremes is seen over both tropics and extra-tropics, and the magnitude of this dependency also varies with dynamical cores. Moisture budget analyses based on aqua-planet simulations with the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) and High Order Method Modeling Environment (HOMME) dynamical cores but the same physics parameterizations suggest that during precipitation extremes moisture supply for surface precipitation is mainly derived from advective moisture convergence. The resolution dependency of precipitation extremes mainly originates from advective moisture transport in the vertical direction. At most vertical levels over the tropics and in the lower atmosphere over the subtropics, the vertical eddy transport of mean moisture field dominates the contribution to precipitation extremes and its resolution dependency. Over the subtropics, the source of moisture, its associated energy, and the resolution dependency during extremes are dominated by eddy transport of eddies moisture at the mid- and upper-troposphere. With both MPAS and HOMME dynamical cores, the resolution dependency of the vertical advective moisture convergence is mainly explained by dynamical changes (related to vertical velocity or omega), although the vertical gradients of moisture act like averaging kernels to determine the sensitivity of the overall resolution dependency to the changes in omega at different vertical levels. The natural reduction of variability with coarser resolution, represented by areal data averaging (aggregation) effect, largely explains the resolution dependency in omega. The thermodynamic changes, which likely result from non-linear feedback in response to the large dynamical changes, are small compared to the overall changes in dynamics (omega). However, after excluding the data aggregation effect in omega, thermodynamic changes become relatively significant in offsetting the effect of dynamics leading to reduce differences between the simulated and aggregated results. Compared to MPAS, the simulated stronger vertical motion with HOMME also results in larger resolution dependency. Compared to the simulation at fine resolution, the vertical motion during extremes is insufficiently resolved/parameterized at the coarser resolution even after accounting for the natural reduction in variability with coarser resolution, and this is more distinct in the simulation with HOMME. To reduce uncertainties in simulated precipitation extremes, future development in cloud parameterizations must address their sensitivity to spatial resolution as well as dynamical cores.

aqua-planet↗
DOE OSTI2013

Recent developments in DYNSUB: New models, code optimization and parallelization

DYNSUB is a high-fidelity coupled code system consisting of the reactor simulator DYN3D and the sub-channel code SUBCHANFLOW. It describes nuclear reactor core behavior with pin-by-pin resolution for both steady-state and transient scenarios. In the course of the coupled code system's active development, super-homogenization (SPH) and generalized equivalence theory (GET) discontinuity factors may be computed with and employed in DYNSUB to compensate pin level homogenization errors. Because of the largely increased numerical problem size for pin-by-pin simulations, DYNSUB has bene fitted from HPC techniques to improve its numerical performance. DYNSUB's coupling scheme has been structurally revised. Computational bottlenecks have been identified and parallelized for shared memory systems using OpenMP. Comparing the elapsed time for simulating a PWR core with one-eighth symmetry under hot zero power conditions applying the original and the optimized DYNSUB using 8 cores, overall speed up factors greater than 10 have been observed. The corresponding reduction in execution time enables a routine application of DYNSUB to study pin level safety parameters for engineering sized cases in a scientific environment. (authors)

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Cross-separatrix simulations of turbulent transport in the field-reversed configuration

Recent local simulations of the field-reversed configuration (FRC) have reported drift-wave stability in the core and instability in the scrape-off layer (SOL). However, experimental measurements indicate the existence of fluctuations in both FRC core and SOL, with much lower amplitude fluctuations measured in the core. With the updated cross-separatrix capabilities of the simulation code used in this paper, nonlinear turbulence simulations find that linear instabilities grow in the SOL, generating fluctuations which spread from SOL to core. After saturation of the linear instabilities, a balance of the inward spread and local damping in the core is achieved. The steady state toroidal wavenumber spectrum shows lower amplitude core fluctuations and larger SOL fluctuations with amplitude decreasing towards shorter wavelengths, which are consistent with experimental measurements.

Lau, C. K.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Flow Reduction in Pore Networks of Packed Silica Nanoparticles: Insights from Mesoscopic Fluid Models

A modified many-body dissipative particle dynamics (mDPD) model is rigorously calibrated to achieve realistic fluid–fluid/solid interphase properties and applied for mesoscale flow simulations to elucidate the transport mechanisms of heptane liquid and water, respectively, through pore networks formed by packed silica nanoparticles with a uniform diameter of 30 nm. Two million CPU core hours were used to complete the simulation studies. Results show reduction of permeability by 54–64% in heptane flow and by 88–91% in water flow, respectively, compared to the Kozeny–Carman equation. In these nanopores, a large portion of the fluids are in the near-wall regions and thus not mobile due to the confinement effect, resulting in reduced hydraulic conductivity. Moreover, intense oscillations in the calculated flow velocities also indicate the confinement effect that contests the external driven force to flow. Here, the generic form of Darcy’s law is considered valid for flow through homogeneous nanopore networks, while permeability depends collectively on pore size and surface wettability. This fluid-permeability dependency is unique to flow in nanopores. In addition, potential dependence of permeability on pore connectivity is observed when the porosity remains the same in different core specimens.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2012

Improvement of the thermal margins in the Swedish Ringhals-3 PWR by introducing new fuel assemblies with thorium

Thorium is a fertile material and most of the past research has focused on breeding thorium to fissile material. In this paper, the focus is on using thorium to improve the thermal margins by homogeneously distributing thorium in the fuel pellets. A proposed uranium-thorium-based fuel assembly is simulated for the Swedish Ringhals-3 PWR core in a realistic demonstration. All the key safety parameters, such as isothermal temperature coefficient of reactivity, Doppler temperature of reactivity, boron worth, shutdown margins and fraction of delayed neutrons are studied in this paper, and are within safety limits for the new core design using the uranium-thorium-based fuel assemblies. The calculations were performed by the two-dimensional transport code CASMO-4E and the two group steady-state three dimensional nodal code SIMULATE-3 from Studsvik Scandpower. The results showed that the uranium-thorium-based fuel assembly improves the thermal margins, both in the pin peak power and the local power (Fq). The improved thermal margins would allow more flexible core designs with less neutron leakage or could be used in power uprates to offer efficient safety margins. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Improvement of the thermal margins in the Swedish Ringhals-3 PWR by introducing new fuel assemblies with thorium

Thorium is a fertile material and most of the past research has focused on breeding thorium to fissile material. In this paper, the focus is on using thorium to improve the thermal margins by homogeneously distributing thorium in the fuel pellets. A proposed uranium-thorium-based fuel assembly is simulated for the Swedish Ringhals-3 PWR core in a realistic demonstration. All the key safety parameters, such as isothermal temperature coefficient of reactivity, Doppler temperature of reactivity, boron worth, shutdown margins and fraction of delayed neutrons are studied in this paper, and are within safety limits for the new core design using the uranium-thorium-based fuel assemblies. The calculations were performed by the two-dimensional transport code CASMO-4E and the two group steady-state three dimensional nodal code SIMULATE-3 from Studsvik Scandpower. The results showed that the uranium-thorium-based fuel assembly improves the thermal margins, both in the pin peak power and the local power (Fq). The improved thermal margins would allow more flexible core designs with less neutron leakage or could be used in power uprates to offer efficient safety margins. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Transient Simulation of the Multi-SERTTA Experiment with MAMMOTH

This work details the MAMMOTH reactor physics simulations of the Static Environment Rodlet Transient Test Apparatus (SERTTA) conducted at Idaho National Laboratory in FY-2017. TREAT static-environment experiment vehicles are being developed to enable transient testing of Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) type fuel specimens, including fuel concepts with enhanced accident tolerance (Accident Tolerant Fuels, ATF). The MAMMOTH simulations include point reactor kinetics as well as spatial dynamics for a temperature-limited transient. The strongly coupled multi-physics solutions of the neutron flux and temperature fields are second order accurate both in the spatial and temporal domains. MAMMOTH produces pellet stack powers that are within 1.5% of the Monte Carlo reference solutions. Some discrepancies between the MCNP model used in the design of the flux collars and the Serpent/MAMMOTH models lead to higher power and energy deposition values in Multi-SERTTA unit 1. The TREAT core results compare well with the safety case computed with point reactor kinetics in RELAP5-3D. The reactor period is 44 msec, which corresponds to a reactivity insertion of 2.685% delta k/k$. The peak core power in the spatial dynamics simulation is 431 MW, which the point kinetics model over-predicts by 12%. The pulse width at half the maximum power is 0.177 sec. Subtle transient effects are apparent at the beginning insertion in the experimental samples due to the control rod removal. Additional difference due to transient effects are observed in the sample powers and enthalpy. The time dependence of the power coupling factor (PCF) is calculated for the various fuel stacks of the Multi-SERTTA vehicle. Sample temperatures in excess of 3100 K, the melting point UO$_2$, are computed with the adiabatic heat transfer model. The planned shaped-transient might introduce additional effects that cannot be predicted with PRK models. Future modeling will be focused on the shaped-transient by improving the control rod models in MAMMOTH and adding the BISON thermo-elastic models and thermal-fluids heat transfer.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Fluoride-Cooled High-Temperature Pebble-Bed Reactor Reference Plant Model Updates

This work presents the latest improvements to, and investigations performed with, the Fluoride-Cooled High-Temperature Pebble-Bed Reactor reference plant models for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. These models, developed with the Comprehensive Reactor Analysis Bundle, or BlueCRAB, serve as the foundation for the future development of detailed design evaluation models based on license applications. BlueCRAB is the code suite proposed for non-light-water reactor systems safety analyses, and it incorporates various simulation tools developed by the Nuclear Energy Advance Modeling and Simulation program, including the Griffin code for reactor physics, the Pronghorn and SAM codes for core thermal fluids, the BISON code for solid conduction and fuel performance, and the SAM code for system analysis. The primary objective of this work is to assess the level of readiness of BlueCRAB for modeling fluoride-cooled high-temperature pebble-bed reactors. We first developed numerical models in BlueCRAB that include the key physics for this technology, ensuring an adequate level of fidelity for modeling the core performance during accident scenarios. This was followed by simulation of transient scenarios, two loss-of-forced-cooling events (one protected and one unprotected), and two control rod withdrawal events (one delayed and one prompt supercritical reactivity insertion). The analysis includes comparisons between the 2-D thermal fluid porous media models in Pronghorn and SAM, comparisons between coupled Pronghorn-Griffin and coupled SAM-Griffin models for two loss-of-forced cooling events and one control rod withdrawal event, and comparisons between SAM single-solve and domain-overlapping approaches for multi-scale thermal fluid coupling. In addition, we performed comparisons between 3-D, 2-D, and 0-D neutronic models for the two control rod withdrawal scenarios with Pronghorn-Griffin. The results show that the BlueCRAB models led to physically intuitive solutions for the scenarios examined. The changes in the various scalar and vector fields such as the neutron flux, power, temperatures, densities, pressures, and velocities are all within the expected ranges, and their distributions can be explained from the system response of the transients and the geometric and material variations. Several comparisons suggest that the porous media models in Pronghorn and SAM can lead to similar solutions, even though they are based on different methodologies. The simulations demonstrate that there are differences between the various levels of fidelity, and it is advisable to have flexible tools that can cover the breadth and depth of needs that may arise in future technical evaluations. We believe that BlueCRAB’s capabilities represent a significant asset for confirmatory analyses aimed at resolving important safety questions.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
NASA NTRS1989

Synthesis of H2 in dirty ice mantles by fast ion energy loss: New experimental results increase the relevance of this mechanism

Recent experimental results support the importance of H2 production in molecular clouds by cosmic ray bombardment of the mantles of grains. The formation of molecules different from those originally present in the irradiated layer can be explained by the production of molecular fragments induced by the release of energy if the impinging fast particle. One way of considering the process is in terms of a transiently hot cylinder, initially about 50 A in diameter, that exists around the track of an individual fast ion. Since ice has a relatively low thermal conductivity, energy lost by the ion in the ice layers remains confined around the track for time long enough to be thermalized. The hot cylinder increases in diameter and decreases in temperature on a time scale of 10(exp -11) to 10(exp -10) sec. Molecular fragments that are formed in this high temperature region acquire enough mobility to recombine with different partners, forming new molecules. A Monte Carlo simulation of the interaction between cosmic rays and grain mantles, at various depths in the core of a spherical molecular cloud, was performed. The simulation was continued until 40,000 ions had hit each grain of the type and size chosen. During the performed experiments thin icy films made of H2O and CD4 mixed in the gas phase and deposited on a cold finger at 9 K were irradiated with 1.5 MeV helium beams. Among synthesized molecules were found H2, HD, and D2.

Pirranello, Valero↗