Coupling of system thermal-hydraulics and Monte-Carlo method for a consistent thermal-hydraulics-reactor physics feedback

The present thesis describes the coupling of a three-dimensional continuous-energy Monte Carlo reactor physics code, Serpent, with thermal-hydraulics safety analysis code RELAP5-3D. Thermal-hydraulics and reactor physics coupling is commonly used in deterministic methods, for example RELAP5/PARCS and TRACE/PARCS. It has been well-validated for a number of steady and transient problems. The coupling of Monte-Carlo and reactor thermal-hydraulics will significantly improve the MC predictive capability and its applicability to a wide range of reactor problems of practical interest, as right now it is limited to fixed-feedback conditions. In this thesis, the coupled Serpent/RELAP5-3D code capability is demonstrated by the improved axial power distribution of single assemblies, achieved by a consistent thermal-hydraulics feedback. The code coupling is demonstrated for the UO2 and MOX single assemblies based on the OECD-NEA/NRC PWR MOX-UO2 Core Transient Benchmark [1]. Comparisons of calculation results using the coupled code with those from the individual codes in stand-alone mode, also with deterministic methods, specifically heterogeneous multi-group transport code DeCART, show that the coupling produces more precise results.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nuclear, Plasma, Radiolgc Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Wu, Xu

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kozlowski, Tomasz

• Monte Carlo
• Thermal-hydraulics
• Neutronics
• Code coupling

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2013 Xu Wu

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/45550

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/45550