SERPENT/SUBCHANFLOW COUPLED BURNUP CALCULATIONS FOR VVER FUEL ASSEMBLIES

The continuous improvement in nuclear industry safety standards and reactor designers’ and operators’ commercial goals represent a push for the development of highly accurate methodologies in reactor physics. This fact, combined with the availability of vast computational resources, allowed the deve...

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Main Authors: Ferraro Diego, García Manuel, Imke Uwe, Valtavirta Ville, Tuominen Riku, Leppänen Jaakko, Sanchez-Espinoza Víctor
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: EDP Sciences 2021-01-01
Series:EPJ Web of Conferences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.epj-conferences.org/articles/epjconf/pdf/2021/01/epjconf_physor2020_04005.pdf
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author Ferraro Diego
García Manuel
Imke Uwe
Valtavirta Ville
Tuominen Riku
Leppänen Jaakko
Sanchez-Espinoza Víctor
author_facet Ferraro Diego
García Manuel
Imke Uwe
Valtavirta Ville
Tuominen Riku
Leppänen Jaakko
Sanchez-Espinoza Víctor
author_sort Ferraro Diego
collection DOAJ
description The continuous improvement in nuclear industry safety standards and reactor designers’ and operators’ commercial goals represent a push for the development of highly accurate methodologies in reactor physics. This fact, combined with the availability of vast computational resources, allowed the development of a wide range of coupled state-of-the-art neutronic-thermal-hydraulic calculation tools worldwide during last decade. Under this framework, the McSAFE European Union project is a coordinated effort aimed to develop multiphysics tools based on Monte Carlo neutron transport and subchannel thermal-hydraulics codes, suitable for high-fidelity calculations for PWR and VVER reactors. This work presents the results for a pin-by-pin coupled burnup calculation using the Serpent 2 code (developed by VTT, Finland) and the subchannel thermal-hydraulics code SUBCHANFLOW (SCF, developed by KIT, Germany) for two different VVER-type fuel assembly types. For such purpose, a recently refurbished master-slave coupling scheme is considered, which provides several new features such as burnup and transient calculations capabilities for square and hexagonal geometries. Main aspects of this coupling are presented for this burnup case, showing some of the capabilities now available. On top of that, the obtained global results are compared with available published data from a similar high-fidelity approach for the same FA design, showing a good agreement. Finally, a brief analysis of the main resources requirement and main bottlenecks identification are also included. The results presented here provide valuable insights and pave the way to tackle the final goals of the McSAFE project, which includes full-core pin-by-pin depletion calculation within a fully coupled MC-TH approach.
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spelling doaj.art-95db958cb1914399b2e15843bba112aa2022-12-21T21:56:08ZengEDP SciencesEPJ Web of Conferences2100-014X2021-01-012470400510.1051/epjconf/202124704005epjconf_physor2020_04005SERPENT/SUBCHANFLOW COUPLED BURNUP CALCULATIONS FOR VVER FUEL ASSEMBLIESFerraro Diego0García Manuel1Imke Uwe2Valtavirta Ville3Tuominen Riku4Leppänen Jaakko5Sanchez-Espinoza Víctor6Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Neutron Physics and Reactor TechnologyKarlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Neutron Physics and Reactor TechnologyKarlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Neutron Physics and Reactor TechnologyVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Neutron Physics and Reactor TechnologyThe continuous improvement in nuclear industry safety standards and reactor designers’ and operators’ commercial goals represent a push for the development of highly accurate methodologies in reactor physics. This fact, combined with the availability of vast computational resources, allowed the development of a wide range of coupled state-of-the-art neutronic-thermal-hydraulic calculation tools worldwide during last decade. Under this framework, the McSAFE European Union project is a coordinated effort aimed to develop multiphysics tools based on Monte Carlo neutron transport and subchannel thermal-hydraulics codes, suitable for high-fidelity calculations for PWR and VVER reactors. This work presents the results for a pin-by-pin coupled burnup calculation using the Serpent 2 code (developed by VTT, Finland) and the subchannel thermal-hydraulics code SUBCHANFLOW (SCF, developed by KIT, Germany) for two different VVER-type fuel assembly types. For such purpose, a recently refurbished master-slave coupling scheme is considered, which provides several new features such as burnup and transient calculations capabilities for square and hexagonal geometries. Main aspects of this coupling are presented for this burnup case, showing some of the capabilities now available. On top of that, the obtained global results are compared with available published data from a similar high-fidelity approach for the same FA design, showing a good agreement. Finally, a brief analysis of the main resources requirement and main bottlenecks identification are also included. The results presented here provide valuable insights and pave the way to tackle the final goals of the McSAFE project, which includes full-core pin-by-pin depletion calculation within a fully coupled MC-TH approach.https://www.epj-conferences.org/articles/epjconf/pdf/2021/01/epjconf_physor2020_04005.pdfvverserpentscfcodes couplingburnuphigh-fidelity
spellingShingle Ferraro Diego
García Manuel
Imke Uwe
Valtavirta Ville
Tuominen Riku
Leppänen Jaakko
Sanchez-Espinoza Víctor
SERPENT/SUBCHANFLOW COUPLED BURNUP CALCULATIONS FOR VVER FUEL ASSEMBLIES
EPJ Web of Conferences
vver
serpent
scf
codes coupling
burnup
high-fidelity
title SERPENT/SUBCHANFLOW COUPLED BURNUP CALCULATIONS FOR VVER FUEL ASSEMBLIES
title_full SERPENT/SUBCHANFLOW COUPLED BURNUP CALCULATIONS FOR VVER FUEL ASSEMBLIES
title_fullStr SERPENT/SUBCHANFLOW COUPLED BURNUP CALCULATIONS FOR VVER FUEL ASSEMBLIES
title_full_unstemmed SERPENT/SUBCHANFLOW COUPLED BURNUP CALCULATIONS FOR VVER FUEL ASSEMBLIES
title_short SERPENT/SUBCHANFLOW COUPLED BURNUP CALCULATIONS FOR VVER FUEL ASSEMBLIES
title_sort serpent subchanflow coupled burnup calculations for vver fuel assemblies
topic vver
serpent
scf
codes coupling
burnup
high-fidelity
url https://www.epj-conferences.org/articles/epjconf/pdf/2021/01/epjconf_physor2020_04005.pdf
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