EPJ Web of Conferences (Jan 2021)

SERPENT/SUBCHANFLOW COUPLED CALCULATIONS FOR A VVER CORE AT HOT FULL POWER

  • Ferraro Diego,
  • García Manuel,
  • Imke Uwe,
  • Valtavirta Ville,
  • Tuominen Riku,
  • Bilodid Yuri,
  • Leppänen Jaakko,
  • Sanchez-Espinoza Víctor

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202124704006
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 247
p. 04006

Abstract

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An increasing interest on the development of highly accurate methodologies in reactor physics is nowadays observed, mainly stimulated by the availability of vast computational resources. As a result, an on-going development of a wide range of coupled calculation tools is observed within diverse projects worldwide. 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. These tools are aimed to be suitable for high-fidelity calculations both for PWR and VVER reactors, with the final goal of performing pin-by-pin coupled calculations at full core scope including burnup. Several intermediate steps are to be analyzed in-depth before jumping into this final goal in order to provide insights and to identify resources requirements. As part of this process, this work presents the results for a pin-by-pin coupling calculation using the Serpent 2 code (developed by VTT, Finland) and the subchannel code SUBCHANFLOW (SCF, developed by KIT, Germany) for a full-core VVER model. For such purpose, a recently refurbished master-slave coupling scheme is used within a High Performance Computing architecture. A full-core benchmark for a VVER-1000 that provides experimental data is considered, where the first burnup step (i.e. fresh core at hot-full rated power state) is calculated. For such purpose a detailed (i.e. pin-by-pin) coupled Serpent-SCF model is developed, including a simplified equilibrium xenon distribution (i.e. by fuel assembly). Comparisons with main global reported results are presented and briefly discussed, together with a raw estimation of resources requirements and a brief demonstration of the inherent capabilities of the proposed approach. The results presented here provide valuable insights and pave the way to tackle the final goals of the on-going high-fidelity project.

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