Verification of the 3D Method of characteristics solver in OpenMOC
Author(s)
Shaner, Samuel Christopher; Gunow, Geoffrey Alexander; Forget, Benoit Robert Yves; Smith, Kord S.
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The Method of Characteristics (MOC) has seen wide interest in full-core reactor physics analysis due to its computational efficiency and ability to easily treat complex geometries. Recently, the OpenMOC reactor physics code was extended to include 3D MOC capability. In this study, we present verification for the 3D MOC solver in OpenMOC and sensitivity of 3D MOC to the axial geometry discretization and axial track laydown. Results for the Takeda Model 1 benchmark show excellent agreement with the reference eigenvalues. A sensitivity study was conducted on a UO [subscript 2] quarter-assembly extracted from the C5G7 3D unrodded benchmark geometry in order to show the effect of the axial MOC parameters on the solution eigenvalue for a heterogeneous problem. The sensitivity results demonstrated that the solution accuracy was highly dependent on the axial source region discretization, but insensitive to axial spacing between tracks below ~0.2 cm. Using the equal angle quadrature set, at least 10 and 18 polar angles were required to converge the problem to with 100 and 10 pcm, respectively. These results both verify the 3D MOC solver in OpenMOC and provide in
Date issued
2016-05Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and EngineeringJournal
Physics of Reactors. Conference 2016 (Physor 2016)
Publisher
American Nuclear Society
Citation
Shaner, Samuel, Geoffrey Gunow, Benoit Forget, and Kord Smith. "Verification of the 3D Method of Characteristics Solver in OpenMOC." Physics of Reactors. Conference 2016 (Physor 2016) (1-5 May 2016)
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISBN
978-1-5108-2573-4