SHARP/PRONGHORN Interoperability: Mesh Generation

Abstract

SUMMARYProgress toward collaboration between the SHARP and MOOSE computational frameworks has been demonstrated through sharing of mesh generation and ensuring mesh compatibility of both tools with MeshKit. MeshKit was used to build a three-dimensional, full-core very high temperature reactor (VHTR) geometry with 120-degree symmetry, which was used to solve a neutron diffusion critical eigenvalue problem in PRONGHORN. PRONGHORN is an application of MOOSE that is capable of solving coupled neutron diffusion, heat conduction, and homogenized flow problems. The results were compared to a solution found on a 120-degree, reflected, three-dimensional VHTR mesh geometry generated by PRONGHORN. The ability to exchange compatible mesh geometries between the two codes is instrumental for future collaboration and interoperability. The results were found to be in good agreement between the two meshes, thus demonstrating the compatibility of the SHARP and MOOSE frameworks. This outcome makes future collaboration possible.

Bond graph representation of nuclear reactor point kinetics and nearly incompressible thermal hydraulics

“…is the d #x /dt vector together with the system-closing equation's residual, and k eff is the (reactor) eigenvalue. Such nonlinear eigenvalue solvers are generally less efficient than true (power iteration-based) eigenvalue solvers, but are relatively simple to implement, and are widely used for steady state searches in fully coupled multiphysics codes for reactor analysis, such as PRONGHORN (Bingham et al, 2012). In the representation in section 3, the bias reactivity plays the role of the eigenvalue; because it is an invariant parameter, the element of #-F(.…”