Comparative analysis of coupling schemes of Monte Carlo burnup calculation in RMC. (March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Wanlin; Yu, Ganglin; Wang, Kan
• Is Part Of: Annals of nuclear energy. Volume 137(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-03
• Subjects: Monte Carlo -- Bunrup calculation -- Coupling scheme -- VREA -- RMC; Nuclear energy -- Periodicals; Nuclear engineering -- Periodicals; 621.4805
• DOI: 10.1016/j.anucene.2019.107024
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-4549

Abstract

Highlights: Four coupling schemes of Monte Carlo burnup calculation are implemented and compared in RMC considering the accuracy, efficiency and memory requirement. It is proved that two types of predictor-corrector coupling schemes have identical effect on accuracy and efficiency. Memory reqiurement of the four coupling schemes is analyzed, it is demonstrated that the high order predictor-corrector with sub-step method can be implemented in large-scale burnup problem. Abstract: As wrapping tools for coupling Monte Carlo (MC) neutron transport code with depletion solver, four different coupling schemes are implemented in Reactor Monte Carlo Code (RMC) developed at Tsinghua University, and verified in two assembly testing cases derived from VERA international benchmark. In this paper, accuracy and time consumption are comparatively analyzed, as well as memory requirement which is significant in large-scale burnup calculation. Results illustrate that beginning of step approximation, as the basic and simplest coupling method, performed with relatively poor accuracy. With nearly the same efficiency, two predictor-corrector methods provide identical accuracy better than the beginning of step approximation, but require different computer memories. High order predictor-corrector combined with sub-step method (HSPC) has the best performance and requires the most memory. By means of hybrid parallelism, domain decomposition and parallel depletion solver in RMC, HSPC is able to be applied in large-scale burnup problem.