Coupled Monte Carlo Transport and Conjugate Heat Transfer for Wire-Wrapped Bundles Within the MOOSE Framework

Abstract

Cardinal is an open-source application that couples OpenMC Monte Carlo transport and NekRS computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE), closing neutronics and thermal-fluid gaps in conducting high-resolution multiscale and multiphysics analyses of nuclear systems. We first provide a brief introduction to Cardinal’s software design, data mapping, and coupling strategy to highlight our approach to overcoming common challenges in high-fidelity multiphysics simulations. We then present two Cardinal simulations for hexagonal pin bundles. The first is a validation of Cardinal’s conjugate heat transfer coupling of NekRS’s Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes model with MOOSE’s heat conduction physics for a bare seven-pin Freon-12 bundle flow experiment. Predictions for pin surface temperatures under three different heating modes agree reasonably well with experimental data and similar CFD modeling from the literature. The second simulation is a multiphysics coupling of OpenMC, NekRS, and BISON for a reduced-scale, seven-pin wire-wrapped version of an Advanced Burner Reactor bundle. Wire wraps are approximated using a momentum source model, and coupled predictions are provided for velocity, temperature, and power distribution.

Keywords:

• Cardinal
• MOOSE
• NekRS
• OpenMC
• computational fluid dynamics
• Monte Carlo

Acknowledgments

This material is based on work supported by LDRD funding from ANL provided by the director, Office of Science, of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

We gratefully acknowledge the computing resources provided on Bebop, a high-performance computing cluster operated by the Laboratory Computing Resource Center at ANL.

An award of computer time was provided by the INCITE program. This research also used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported under contract no. DE-AC05-00OR22725.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^a See https://github.com/neams-th-coe/cardinal.