Abstract
This work presents the results for a coupled neutronic-thermalhydraulic-thermomechanic pin-level depletion calculation of a PWR fuel assembly using Serpent2-SUBCHANFLOW-TRANSURANUS. This tool is based on a semi-implicit depletion scheme with pin-by-pin feedback, mesh-based field exchange and an object-oriented software design. The impact of including fuel-performance capabilities is analyzed, with focus on high-burnup effects. The treatment of the Doppler feedback to the neutronics is examined as well, in particular the use of radial fuel-temperature profiles or radially averaged values.
Highlights
This work presents the results for a coupled neutronic-thermalhydraulic-thermomechanic pin-level depletion calculation of a PWR fuel assembly using Serpent2-SUBCHANFLOWTRANSURANUS
As part of a global trend to develop high-fidelity applications for reactor physics simulations, the EU Horizon 2020 McSAFE project [1] was set to develop multiphysics tools based on the Monte Carlo particle transport method, with the objective of tackling large-scale pin-by-pin depletion and transient problems
The motivation to add fuel-performance analysis capabilities to the standard neutronic-thermalhydraulic approach is the improvement of the modelling of relevant fuel phenomena, such as fission gas release and fuel-cladding gap behavior, and of fuel temperatures for Doppler feedback to the neutronic calculation
Summary
As part of a global trend to develop high-fidelity applications for reactor physics simulations, the EU Horizon 2020 McSAFE project [1] was set to develop multiphysics tools based on the Monte Carlo particle transport method, with the objective of tackling large-scale pin-by-pin depletion and transient problems In this framework, a coupling scheme for Serpent2 [2], a continuous-energy Monte Carlo code, SUBCHANFLOW (SCF) [3], a subchannel thermalhydraulics code, and TRANSURANUS (TU). The effect of the Doppler feedback to Serpent using averaged and radially dependent fuel temperatures is studied These results, presented, serve to assess two main issues identified in previous studies, namely the behavior of the fuel solution for high-burnup states and the potential improvement of the fuel temperature feedback to the neutronic calculation using an improved thermomechanic model and more detailed temperature distributions [5]
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