Coupled neutronics-fuel behavior calculations in steady state using the Serpent 2 Monte Carlo code

Ville Valtavirta*, Jaakko Leppänen, Tuomas Viitanen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper describes the recent developments in the multi-physics capabilities of the Serpent Monte Carlo code concerning coupled multi-physics calculations with fuel behavior feedback. We cover the structure and operation of the fuel behavior interface in Serpent 2 as well as the coupled calculation routines implemented for steady state multi-physics calculations with any internally or externally coupled solver. The intended solution flow and code-to-code communication in internally and externally coupled multi-physics simulations is described alongside with the stochastic approximation based solution relaxation methods implemented in Serpent. The two-level multi-physics coupling scheme in Serpent 2 is demonstrated by obtaining a coupled solution for the neutronics-fuel behavior problem using first the internally coupled FINIX fuel behavior module and then the externally coupled ENIGMA fuel performance code in a 3D assembly geometry. Parameters such as maximum pellet centerline temperatures can be evaluated from the coupled solution. The temperature fields obtained from the coupled solution are also used to estimate the effect of the detailed radial representation of the fuel temperature distribution compared to various radially averaged effective fuel temperature representations. The convergence of the coupled solution is investigated alongside the possibility to speed up the convergence by using the Uniform Fission Sites method.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)50-64
JournalAnnals of Nuclear Energy
Volume100
Issue numberPart 2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

This work has been funded by the NUMPS project of the Academy of Finland as well as the KÄÄRME, PALAMA and MONSOON projects under the Finnish National Research Programme on Nuclear Power Plant Safety, SAFIR-2014 and SAFIR-2018. Some of the calculations presented above were performed using computer resources within the Aalto University School of Science “Science-IT” project.

Keywords

  • copuled calculation
  • effective fuel temperature
  • fuel behavior
  • monte carlo
  • multi-physics
  • tempereature feedback

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Coupled neutronics-fuel behavior calculations in steady state using the Serpent 2 Monte Carlo code'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this