WorldWideScience

Sample records for core computational benchmark

  1. Vver-1000 Mox core computational benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2006-01-01

    The NEA Nuclear Science Committee has established an Expert Group that deals with the status and trends of reactor physics, fuel performance and fuel cycle issues related to disposing of weapons-grade plutonium in mixed-oxide fuel. The objectives of the group are to provide NEA member countries with up-to-date information on, and to develop consensus regarding, core and fuel cycle issues associated with burning weapons-grade plutonium in thermal water reactors (PWR, BWR, VVER-1000, CANDU) and fast reactors (BN-600). These issues concern core physics, fuel performance and reliability, and the capability and flexibility of thermal water reactors and fast reactors to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium in standard fuel cycles. The activities of the NEA Expert Group on Reactor-based Plutonium Disposition are carried out in close co-operation (jointly, in most cases) with the NEA Working Party on Scientific Issues in Reactor Systems (WPRS). A prominent part of these activities include benchmark studies. At the time of preparation of this report, the following benchmarks were completed or in progress: VENUS-2 MOX Core Benchmarks: carried out jointly with the WPRS (formerly the WPPR) (completed); VVER-1000 LEU and MOX Benchmark (completed); KRITZ-2 Benchmarks: carried out jointly with the WPRS (formerly the WPPR) (completed); Hollow and Solid MOX Fuel Behaviour Benchmark (completed); PRIMO MOX Fuel Performance Benchmark (ongoing); VENUS-2 MOX-fuelled Reactor Dosimetry Calculation (ongoing); VVER-1000 In-core Self-powered Neutron Detector Calculational Benchmark (started); MOX Fuel Rod Behaviour in Fast Power Pulse Conditions (started); Benchmark on the VENUS Plutonium Recycling Experiments Configuration 7 (started). This report describes the detailed results of the benchmark investigating the physics of a whole VVER-1000 reactor core using two-thirds low-enriched uranium (LEU) and one-third MOX fuel. It contributes to the computer code certification process and to the

  2. A benchmarking tool to evaluate computer tomography perfusion infarct core predictions against a DWI standard.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cereda, Carlo W; Christensen, Søren; Campbell, Bruce Cv; Mishra, Nishant K; Mlynash, Michael; Levi, Christopher; Straka, Matus; Wintermark, Max; Bammer, Roland; Albers, Gregory W; Parsons, Mark W; Lansberg, Maarten G

    2016-10-01

    Differences in research methodology have hampered the optimization of Computer Tomography Perfusion (CTP) for identification of the ischemic core. We aim to optimize CTP core identification using a novel benchmarking tool. The benchmarking tool consists of an imaging library and a statistical analysis algorithm to evaluate the performance of CTP. The tool was used to optimize and evaluate an in-house developed CTP-software algorithm. Imaging data of 103 acute stroke patients were included in the benchmarking tool. Median time from stroke onset to CT was 185 min (IQR 180-238), and the median time between completion of CT and start of MRI was 36 min (IQR 25-79). Volumetric accuracy of the CTP-ROIs was optimal at an rCBF threshold of benchmarking tool can play an important role in optimizing CTP software as it provides investigators with a novel method to directly compare the performance of alternative CTP software packages. © The Author(s) 2015.

  3. Selection and benchmarking of computer codes for research reactor core conversions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yilmaz, E.; Jones, B.G.

    1983-01-01

    A group of computer codes have been selected and obtained from the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Data Bank in France for the core conversion study of highly enriched research reactors. ANISN, WIMSD-4, MC 2 , COBRA-3M, FEVER, THERMOS, GAM-2, CINDER and EXTERMINATOR were selected for the study. For the final work THERMOS, GAM-2, CINDER and EXTERMINATOR have been selected and used. A one dimensional thermal hydraulics code also has been used to calculate temperature distributions in the core. THERMOS and CINDER have been modified to serve the purpose. Minor modifications have been made to GAM-2 and EXTERMINATOR to improve their utilization. All of the codes have been debugged on both CDC and IBM computers at the University of Illinois. IAEA 10 MW Benchmark problem has been solved. Results of this work has been compared with the IAEA contributor's results. Agreement is very good for highly enriched fuel (HEU). Deviations from IAEA contributor's mean value for low enriched fuel (LEU) exist but they are small enough in general

  4. Multi-Core Processor Memory Contention Benchmark Analysis Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simon, Tyler; McGalliard, James

    2009-01-01

    Multi-core processors dominate current mainframe, server, and high performance computing (HPC) systems. This paper provides synthetic kernel and natural benchmark results from an HPC system at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center that illustrate the performance impacts of multi-core (dual- and quad-core) vs. single core processor systems. Analysis of processor design, application source code, and synthetic and natural test results all indicate that multi-core processors can suffer from significant memory subsystem contention compared to similar single-core processors.

  5. Selection and benchmarking of computer codes for research reactor core conversions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yilmaz, Emin [School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States); Jones, Barclay G [Nuclear Engineering Program, University of IL at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL (United States)

    1983-09-01

    A group of computer codes have been selected and obtained from the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Data Bank in France for the core conversion study of highly enriched research reactors. ANISN, WIMSD-4, MC{sup 2}, COBRA-3M, FEVER, THERMOS, GAM-2, CINDER and EXTERMINATOR were selected for the study. For the final work THERMOS, GAM-2, CINDER and EXTERMINATOR have been selected and used. A one dimensional thermal hydraulics code also has been used to calculate temperature distributions in the core. THERMOS and CINDER have been modified to serve the purpose. Minor modifications have been made to GAM-2 and EXTERMINATOR to improve their utilization. All of the codes have been debugged on both CDC and IBM computers at the University of IL. IAEA 10 MW Benchmark problem has been solved. Results of this work has been compared with the IAEA contributor's results. Agreement is very good for highly enriched fuel (HEU). Deviations from IAEA contributor's mean value for low enriched fuel (LEU) exist but they are small enough in general. Deviation of k{sub eff} is about 0.5% for both enrichments at the beginning of life (BOL) and at the end of life (EOL). Flux ratios deviate only about 1.5% from IAEA contributor's mean value. (author)

  6. Selection and benchmarking of computer codes for research reactor core conversions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yilmaz, Emin; Jones, Barclay G.

    1983-01-01

    A group of computer codes have been selected and obtained from the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Data Bank in France for the core conversion study of highly enriched research reactors. ANISN, WIMSD-4, MC 2 , COBRA-3M, FEVER, THERMOS, GAM-2, CINDER and EXTERMINATOR were selected for the study. For the final work THERMOS, GAM-2, CINDER and EXTERMINATOR have been selected and used. A one dimensional thermal hydraulics code also has been used to calculate temperature distributions in the core. THERMOS and CINDER have been modified to serve the purpose. Minor modifications have been made to GAM-2 and EXTERMINATOR to improve their utilization. All of the codes have been debugged on both CDC and IBM computers at the University of IL. IAEA 10 MW Benchmark problem has been solved. Results of this work has been compared with the IAEA contributor's results. Agreement is very good for highly enriched fuel (HEU). Deviations from IAEA contributor's mean value for low enriched fuel (LEU) exist but they are small enough in general. Deviation of k eff is about 0.5% for both enrichments at the beginning of life (BOL) and at the end of life (EOL). Flux ratios deviate only about 1.5% from IAEA contributor's mean value. (author)

  7. Analysis of a multigroup stylized CANDU half-core benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pounders, Justin M.; Rahnema, Farzad; Serghiuta, Dumitru

    2011-01-01

    Highlights: → This paper provides a benchmark that is a stylized model problem in more than two energy groups that is realistic with respect to the underlying physics. → An 8-group cross section library is provided to augment a previously published 2-group 3D stylized half-core CANDU benchmark problem. → Reference eigenvalues and selected pin and bundle fission rates are included. → 2-, 4- and 47-group Monte Carlo solutions are compared to analyze homogenization-free transport approximations that result from energy condensation. - Abstract: An 8-group cross section library is provided to augment a previously published 2-group 3D stylized half-core Canadian deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactor benchmark problem. Reference eigenvalues and selected pin and bundle fission rates are also included. This benchmark is intended to provide computational reactor physicists and methods developers with a stylized model problem in more than two energy groups that is realistic with respect to the underlying physics. In addition to transport theory code verification, the 8-group energy structure provides reactor physicist with an ideal problem for examining cross section homogenization and collapsing effects in a full-core environment. To this end, additional 2-, 4- and 47-group full-core Monte Carlo benchmark solutions are compared to analyze homogenization-free transport approximations incurred as a result of energy group condensation.

  8. Prismatic Core Coupled Transient Benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ortensi, J.; Pope, M.A.; Strydom, G.; Sen, R.S.; DeHart, M.D.; Gougar, H.D.; Ellis, C.; Baxter, A.; Seker, V.; Downar, T.J.; Vierow, K.; Ivanov, K.

    2011-01-01

    The Prismatic Modular Reactor (PMR) is one of the High Temperature Reactor (HTR) design concepts that have existed for some time. Several prismatic units have operated in the world (DRAGON, Fort St. Vrain, Peach Bottom) and one unit is still in operation (HTTR). The deterministic neutronics and thermal-fluids transient analysis tools and methods currently available for the design and analysis of PMRs have lagged behind the state of the art compared to LWR reactor technologies. This has motivated the development of more accurate and efficient tools for the design and safety evaluations of the PMR. In addition to the work invested in new methods, it is essential to develop appropriate benchmarks to verify and validate the new methods in computer codes. The purpose of this benchmark is to establish a well-defined problem, based on a common given set of data, to compare methods and tools in core simulation and thermal hydraulics analysis with a specific focus on transient events. The benchmark-working group is currently seeking OECD/NEA sponsorship. This benchmark is being pursued and is heavily based on the success of the PBMR-400 exercise.

  9. HEP specific benchmarks of virtual machines on multi-core CPU architectures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alef, M; Gable, I

    2010-01-01

    Virtualization technologies such as Xen can be used in order to satisfy the disparate and often incompatible system requirements of different user groups in shared-use computing facilities. This capability is particularly important for HEP applications, which often have restrictive requirements. The use of virtualization adds flexibility, however, it is essential that the virtualization technology place little overhead on the HEP application. We present an evaluation of the practicality of running HEP applications in multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) on a single multi-core Linux system. We use the benchmark suite used by the HEPiX CPU Benchmarking Working Group to give a quantitative evaluation relevant to the HEP community. Benchmarks are packaged inside VMs and then the VMs are booted onto a single multi-core system. Benchmarks are then simultaneously executed on each VM to simulate highly loaded VMs running HEP applications. These techniques are applied to a variety of multi-core CPU architectures and VM configurations.

  10. BONFIRE: benchmarking computers and computer networks

    OpenAIRE

    Bouckaert, Stefan; Vanhie-Van Gerwen, Jono; Moerman, Ingrid; Phillips, Stephen; Wilander, Jerker

    2011-01-01

    The benchmarking concept is not new in the field of computing or computer networking. With “benchmarking tools”, one usually refers to a program or set of programs, used to evaluate the performance of a solution under certain reference conditions, relative to the performance of another solution. Since the 1970s, benchmarking techniques have been used to measure the performance of computers and computer networks. Benchmarking of applications and virtual machines in an Infrastructure-as-a-Servi...

  11. Monte Carlo benchmark calculations for 400MWTH PBMR core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, H. C.; Kim, J. K.; Kim, S. Y.; Noh, J. M.

    2007-01-01

    A large interest in high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR) has been initiated in connection with hydrogen production in recent years. In this study, as a part of work for establishing Monte Carlo computation system for HTGR core analysis, some benchmark calculations for pebble-type HTGR were carried out using MCNP5 code. The core of the 400MW t h Pebble-bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) was selected as a benchmark model. Recently, the IAEA CRP5 neutronics and thermal-hydraulics benchmark problem was proposed for the testing of existing methods for HTGRs to analyze the neutronics and thermal-hydraulic behavior for the design and safety evaluations of the PBMR. This study deals with the neutronic benchmark problems, for fresh fuel and cold conditions (Case F-1), and first core loading with given number densities (Case F-2), proposed for PBMR. After the detailed MCNP modeling of the whole facility, benchmark calculations were performed. Spherical fuel region of a fuel pebble is divided into cubic lattice element in order to model a fuel pebble which contains, on average, 15000 CFPs (Coated Fuel Particles). Each element contains one CFP at its center. In this study, the side length of each cubic lattice element to have the same amount of fuel was calculated to be 0.1635 cm. The remaining volume of each lattice element was filled with graphite. All of different 5 concentric shells of CFP were modeled. The PBMR annular core consists of approximately 452000 pebbles in the benchmark problems. In Case F-1 where the core was filled with only fresh fuel pebble, a BCC(body-centered-cubic) lattice model was employed in order to achieve the random packing core with the packing fraction of 0.61. The BCC lattice was also employed with the size of the moderator pebble increased in a manner that reproduces the specified F/M ratio of 1:2 while preserving the packing fraction of 0.61 in Case F-2. The calculations were pursued with ENDF/B-VI cross-section library and used sab2002 S(α,

  12. An analysis of the CSNI/GREST core concrete interaction chemical thermodynamic benchmark exercise using the MPEC2 computer code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muramatsu, Ken; Kondo, Yasuhiko; Uchida, Masaaki; Soda, Kunihisa

    1989-01-01

    Fission product (EP) release during a core concrete interaction (CCI) is an important factor of the uncertainty associated with a source term estimation for an LWR severe accident. An analysis was made on the CCI Chemical Thermodynamic Benchmark Exercise organized by OECD/NEA/CSNI Group of Experts on Source Terms (GREST) for investigating the uncertainty in thermodynamic modeling for CCI. The benchmark exercise was to calculate the equilibrium FP vapor pressure for given system of temperature, pressure, and debris composition. The benchmark consisted of two parts, A and B. Part A was a simplified problem intended to test the numerical techniques. In part B, the participants were requested to use their own best estimate thermodynamic data base to examine the variability of the results due to the difference in thermodynamic data base. JAERI participated in this benchmark exercise with use of the MPEC2 code. Chemical thermodynamic data base needed for analysis of Part B was taken from the VENESA code. This report describes the computer code used, inputs to the code, and results from the calculation by JAERI. The present calculation indicates that the FP vapor pressure depends strongly on temperature and Oxygen potential in core debris and the pattern of dependency may be different for different FP elements. (author)

  13. Benchmarking NWP Kernels on Multi- and Many-core Processors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michalakes, J.; Vachharajani, M.

    2008-12-01

    Increased computing power for weather, climate, and atmospheric science has provided direct benefits for defense, agriculture, the economy, the environment, and public welfare and convenience. Today, very large clusters with many thousands of processors are allowing scientists to move forward with simulations of unprecedented size. But time-critical applications such as real-time forecasting or climate prediction need strong scaling: faster nodes and processors, not more of them. Moreover, the need for good cost- performance has never been greater, both in terms of performance per watt and per dollar. For these reasons, the new generations of multi- and many-core processors being mass produced for commercial IT and "graphical computing" (video games) are being scrutinized for their ability to exploit the abundant fine- grain parallelism in atmospheric models. We present results of our work to date identifying key computational kernels within the dynamics and physics of a large community NWP model, the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model. We benchmark and optimize these kernels on several different multi- and many-core processors. The goals are to (1) characterize and model performance of the kernels in terms of computational intensity, data parallelism, memory bandwidth pressure, memory footprint, etc. (2) enumerate and classify effective strategies for coding and optimizing for these new processors, (3) assess difficulties and opportunities for tool or higher-level language support, and (4) establish a continuing set of kernel benchmarks that can be used to measure and compare effectiveness of current and future designs of multi- and many-core processors for weather and climate applications.

  14. RB reactor benchmark cores

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pesic, M.

    1998-01-01

    A selected set of the RB reactor benchmark cores is presented in this paper. The first results of validation of the well-known Monte Carlo MCNP TM code and adjoining neutron cross section libraries are given. They confirm the idea for the proposal of the new U-D 2 O criticality benchmark system and support the intention to include this system in the next edition of the recent OECD/NEA Project: International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Experiment, in near future. (author)

  15. Benchmarking high performance computing architectures with CMS’ skeleton framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sexton-Kennedy, E.; Gartung, P.; Jones, C. D.

    2017-10-01

    In 2012 CMS evaluated which underlying concurrency technology would be the best to use for its multi-threaded framework. The available technologies were evaluated on the high throughput computing systems dominating the resources in use at that time. A skeleton framework benchmarking suite that emulates the tasks performed within a CMSSW application was used to select Intel’s Thread Building Block library, based on the measured overheads in both memory and CPU on the different technologies benchmarked. In 2016 CMS will get access to high performance computing resources that use new many core architectures; machines such as Cori Phase 1&2, Theta, Mira. Because of this we have revived the 2012 benchmark to test it’s performance and conclusions on these new architectures. This talk will discuss the results of this exercise.

  16. In-core fuel management benchmarks for PHWRs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1996-06-01

    Under its in-core fuel management activities, the IAEA set up two co-ordinated research programmes (CRPs) on complete in-core fuel management code packages. At a consultant meeting in November 1988 the outline of the CRP on in-core fuel management benchmars for PHWRs was prepared, three benchmarks were specified and the corresponding parameters were defined. At the first research co-ordination meeting in December 1990, seven more benchmarks were specified. The objective of this TECDOC is to provide reference cases for the verification of code packages used for reactor physics and fuel management of PHWRs. 91 refs, figs, tabs

  17. A 3D stylized half-core CANDU benchmark problem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pounders, Justin M.; Rahnema, Farzad; Serghiuta, Dumitru; Tholammakkil, John

    2011-01-01

    A 3D stylized half-core Canadian deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactor benchmark problem is presented. The benchmark problem is comprised of a heterogeneous lattice of 37-element natural uranium fuel bundles, heavy water moderated, heavy water cooled, with adjuster rods included as reactivity control devices. Furthermore, a 2-group macroscopic cross section library has been developed for the problem to increase the utility of this benchmark for full-core deterministic transport methods development. Monte Carlo results are presented for the benchmark problem in cooled, checkerboard void, and full coolant void configurations.

  18. Computational Chemistry Comparison and Benchmark Database

    Science.gov (United States)

    SRD 101 NIST Computational Chemistry Comparison and Benchmark Database (Web, free access)   The NIST Computational Chemistry Comparison and Benchmark Database is a collection of experimental and ab initio thermochemical properties for a selected set of molecules. The goals are to provide a benchmark set of molecules for the evaluation of ab initio computational methods and allow the comparison between different ab initio computational methods for the prediction of thermochemical properties.

  19. Core Benchmarks Descriptions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pavlovichev, A.M.

    2001-01-01

    Actual regulations while designing of new fuel cycles for nuclear power installations comprise a calculational justification to be performed by certified computer codes. It guarantees that obtained calculational results will be within the limits of declared uncertainties that are indicated in a certificate issued by Gosatomnadzor of Russian Federation (GAN) and concerning a corresponding computer code. A formal justification of declared uncertainties is the comparison of calculational results obtained by a commercial code with the results of experiments or of calculational tests that are calculated with an uncertainty defined by certified precision codes of MCU type or of other one. The actual level of international cooperation provides an enlarging of the bank of experimental and calculational benchmarks acceptable for a certification of commercial codes that are being used for a design of fuel loadings with MOX fuel. In particular, the work is practically finished on the forming of calculational benchmarks list for a certification of code TVS-M as applied to MOX fuel assembly calculations. The results on these activities are presented

  20. Preliminary analysis of the proposed BN-600 benchmark core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    John, T.M.

    2000-01-01

    The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research is actively involved in the design of Fast Power Reactors in India. The core physics calculations are performed by the computer codes that are developed in-house or by the codes obtained from other laboratories and suitably modified to meet the computational requirements. The basic philosophy of the core physics calculations is to use the diffusion theory codes with the 25 group nuclear cross sections. The parameters that are very sensitive is the core leakage, like the power distribution at the core blanket interface etc. are calculated using transport theory codes under the DSN approximations. All these codes use the finite difference approximation as the method to treat the spatial variation of the neutron flux. Criticality problems having geometries that are irregular to be represented by the conventional codes are solved using Monte Carlo methods. These codes and methods have been validated by the analysis of various critical assemblies and calculational benchmarks. Reactor core design procedure at IGCAR consists of: two and three dimensional diffusion theory calculations (codes ALCIALMI and 3DB); auxiliary calculations, (neutron balance, power distributions, etc. are done by codes that are developed in-house); transport theory corrections from two dimensional transport calculations (DOT); irregular geometry treated by Monte Carlo method (KENO); cross section data library used CV2M (25 group)

  1. Integral Full Core Multi-Physics PWR Benchmark with Measured Data

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Forget, Benoit; Smith, Kord; Kumar, Shikhar; Rathbun, Miriam; Liang, Jingang

    2018-04-11

    In recent years, the importance of modeling and simulation has been highlighted extensively in the DOE research portfolio with concrete examples in nuclear engineering with the CASL and NEAMS programs. These research efforts and similar efforts worldwide aim at the development of high-fidelity multi-physics analysis tools for the simulation of current and next-generation nuclear power reactors. Like all analysis tools, verification and validation is essential to guarantee proper functioning of the software and methods employed. The current approach relies mainly on the validation of single physic phenomena (e.g. critical experiment, flow loops, etc.) and there is a lack of relevant multiphysics benchmark measurements that are necessary to validate high-fidelity methods being developed today. This work introduces a new multi-cycle full-core Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) depletion benchmark based on two operational cycles of a commercial nuclear power plant that provides a detailed description of fuel assemblies, burnable absorbers, in-core fission detectors, core loading and re-loading patterns. This benchmark enables analysts to develop extremely detailed reactor core models that can be used for testing and validation of coupled neutron transport, thermal-hydraulics, and fuel isotopic depletion. The benchmark also provides measured reactor data for Hot Zero Power (HZP) physics tests, boron letdown curves, and three-dimensional in-core flux maps from 58 instrumented assemblies. The benchmark description is now available online and has been used by many groups. However, much work remains to be done on the quantification of uncertainties and modeling sensitivities. This work aims to address these deficiencies and make this benchmark a true non-proprietary international benchmark for the validation of high-fidelity tools. This report details the BEAVRS uncertainty quantification for the first two cycle of operations and serves as the final report of the project.

  2. Calculational benchmark comparisons for a low sodium void worth actinide burner core design

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, R.N.; Kawashima, M.; Arie, K.; Suzuki, M.

    1992-01-01

    Recently, a number of low void worth core designs with non-conventional core geometries have been proposed. Since these designs lack a good experimental and computational database, benchmark calculations are useful for the identification of possible biases in performance characteristics predictions. In this paper, a simplified benchmark model of a metal fueled, low void worth actinide burner design is detailed; and two independent neutronic performance evaluations are compared. Calculated performance characteristics are evaluated for three spatially uniform compositions (fresh uranium/plutonium, batch-averaged uranium/transuranic, and batch-averaged uranium/transuranic with fission products) and a regional depleted distribution obtained from a benchmark depletion calculation. For each core composition, the flooded and voided multiplication factor, power peaking factor, sodium void worth (and its components), flooded Doppler coefficient and control rod worth predictions are compared. In addition, the burnup swing, average discharge burnup, peak linear power, and fresh fuel enrichment are calculated for the depletion case. In general, remarkably good agreement is observed between the evaluations. The most significant difference is predicted performance characteristics is a 0.3--0.5% Δk/(kk) bias in the sodium void worth. Significant differences in the transmutation rate of higher actinides are also observed; however, these differences do not cause discrepancies in the performing predictions

  3. Proposal of a benchmark for core burnup calculations for a VVER-1000 reactor core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loetsch, T.; Khalimonchuk, V.; Kuchin, A.

    2009-01-01

    In the framework of a project supported by the German BMU the code DYN3D should be further validated and verified. During the work a lack of a benchmark on core burnup calculations for VVER-1000 reactors was noticed. Such a benchmark is useful for validating and verifying the whole package of codes and data libraries for reactor physics calculations including fuel assembly modelling, fuel assembly data preparation, few group data parametrisation and reactor core modelling. The benchmark proposed specifies the core loading patterns of burnup cycles for a VVER-1000 reactor core as well as a set of operational data such as load follow, boron concentration in the coolant, cycle length, measured reactivity coefficients and power density distributions. The reactor core characteristics chosen for comparison and the first results obtained during the work with the reactor physics code DYN3D are presented. This work presents the continuation of efforts of the projects mentioned to estimate the accuracy of calculated characteristics of VVER-1000 reactor cores. In addition, the codes used for reactor physics calculations of safety related reactor core characteristics should be validated and verified for the cases in which they are to be used. This is significant for safety related evaluations and assessments carried out in the framework of licensing and supervision procedures in the field of reactor physics. (authors)

  4. Shielding Benchmark Computational Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hunter, H.T.; Slater, C.O.; Holland, L.B.; Tracz, G.; Marshall, W.J.; Parsons, J.L.

    2000-01-01

    Over the past several decades, nuclear science has relied on experimental research to verify and validate information about shielding nuclear radiation for a variety of applications. These benchmarks are compared with results from computer code models and are useful for the development of more accurate cross-section libraries, computer code development of radiation transport modeling, and building accurate tests for miniature shielding mockups of new nuclear facilities. When documenting measurements, one must describe many parts of the experimental results to allow a complete computational analysis. Both old and new benchmark experiments, by any definition, must provide a sound basis for modeling more complex geometries required for quality assurance and cost savings in nuclear project development. Benchmarks may involve one or many materials and thicknesses, types of sources, and measurement techniques. In this paper the benchmark experiments of varying complexity are chosen to study the transport properties of some popular materials and thicknesses. These were analyzed using three-dimensional (3-D) models and continuous energy libraries of MCNP4B2, a Monte Carlo code developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico. A shielding benchmark library provided the experimental data and allowed a wide range of choices for source, geometry, and measurement data. The experimental data had often been used in previous analyses by reputable groups such as the Cross Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency Nuclear Science Committee (OECD/NEANSC)

  5. Benchmarking gate-based quantum computers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michielsen, Kristel; Nocon, Madita; Willsch, Dennis; Jin, Fengping; Lippert, Thomas; De Raedt, Hans

    2017-11-01

    With the advent of public access to small gate-based quantum processors, it becomes necessary to develop a benchmarking methodology such that independent researchers can validate the operation of these processors. We explore the usefulness of a number of simple quantum circuits as benchmarks for gate-based quantum computing devices and show that circuits performing identity operations are very simple, scalable and sensitive to gate errors and are therefore very well suited for this task. We illustrate the procedure by presenting benchmark results for the IBM Quantum Experience, a cloud-based platform for gate-based quantum computing.

  6. Evaluation of the computer code system RADHEAT-V4 by analysing benchmark problems on radiation shielding

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sakamoto, Yukio; Naito, Yoshitaka

    1990-11-01

    A computer code system RADHEAT-V4 has been developed for safety evaluation on radiation shielding of nuclear fuel facilities. To evaluate the performance of the code system, 18 benchmark problem were selected and analysed. Evaluated radiations are neutron and gamma-ray. Benchmark problems consist of penetration, streaming and skyshine. The computed results show more accurate than those by the Sn codes ANISN and DOT3.5 or the Monte Carlo code MORSE. Big core memory and many times I/O are, however, required for RADHEAT-V4. (author)

  7. Out-of-Core Computations of High-Resolution Level Sets by Means of Code Transformation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Brian Bunch; Nielsen, Michael Bang; Museth, Ken

    2012-01-01

    We propose a storage efficient, fast and parallelizable out-of-core framework for streaming computations of high resolution level sets. The fundamental techniques are skewing and tiling transformations of streamed level set computations which allow for the combination of interface propagation, re...... computations are now CPU bound and consequently the overall performance is unaffected by disk latency and bandwidth limitations. We demonstrate this with several benchmark tests that show sustained out-of-core throughputs close to that of in-core level set simulations....

  8. Results of LWR core transient benchmarks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Finnemann, H.; Bauer, H.; Galati, A.; Martinelli, R.

    1993-10-01

    LWR core transient (LWRCT) benchmarks, based on well defined problems with a complete set of input data, are used to assess the discrepancies between three-dimensional space-time kinetics codes in transient calculations. The PWR problem chosen is the ejection of a control assembly from an initially critical core at hot zero power or at full power, each for three different geometrical configurations. The set of problems offers a variety of reactivity excursions which efficiently test the coupled neutronic/thermal - hydraulic models of the codes. The 63 sets of submitted solutions are analyzed by comparison with a nodal reference solution defined by using a finer spatial and temporal resolution than in standard calculations. The BWR problems considered are reactivity excursions caused by cold water injection and pressurization events. In the present paper, only the cold water injection event is discussed and evaluated in some detail. Lacking a reference solution the evaluation of the 8 sets of BWR contributions relies on a synthetic comparative discussion. The results of this first phase of LWRCT benchmark calculations are quite satisfactory, though there remain some unresolved issues. It is therefore concluded that even more challenging problems can be successfully tackled in a suggested second test phase. (authors). 46 figs., 21 tabs., 3 refs

  9. ZZ-PBMR-400, OECD/NEA PBMR Coupled Neutronics/Thermal Hydraulics Transient Benchmark - The PBMR-400 Core Design

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reitsma, Frederik

    2007-01-01

    Description of benchmark: This international benchmark, concerns Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) coupled neutronics/thermal hydraulics transients based on the PBMR-400 MW design. The deterministic neutronics, thermal-hydraulics and transient analysis tools and methods available to design and analyse PBMRs lag, in many cases, behind the state of the art compared to other reactor technologies. This has motivated the testing of existing methods for HTGRs but also the development of more accurate and efficient tools to analyse the neutronics and thermal-hydraulic behaviour for the design and safety evaluations of the PBMR. In addition to the development of new methods, this includes defining appropriate benchmarks to verify and validate the new methods in computer codes. The scope of the benchmark is to establish well-defined problems, based on a common given set of cross sections, to compare methods and tools in core simulation and thermal hydraulics analysis with a specific focus on transient events through a set of multi-dimensional computational test problems. The benchmark exercise has the following objectives: - Establish a standard benchmark for coupled codes (neutronics/thermal-hydraulics) for PBMR design; - Code-to-code comparison using a common cross section library ; - Obtain a detailed understanding of the events and the processes; - Benefit from different approaches, understanding limitations and approximations. Major Design and Operating Characteristics of the PBMR (PBMR Characteristic and Value): Installed thermal capacity: 400 MW(t); Installed electric capacity: 165 MW(e); Load following capability: 100-40-100%; Availability: ≥ 95%; Core configuration: Vertical with fixed centre graphite reflector; Fuel: TRISO ceramic coated U-235 in graphite spheres; Primary coolant: Helium; Primary coolant pressure: 9 MPa; Moderator: Graphite; Core outlet temperature: 900 C.; Core inlet temperature: 500 C.; Cycle type: Direct; Number of circuits: 1; Cycle

  10. Solution of the 'MIDICORE' WWER-1000 core periphery power distribution benchmark by KARATE and MCNP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Temesvari, E.; Hegyi, G.; Hordosy, G.; Maraczy, C.

    2011-01-01

    The 'MIDICORE' WWER-1000 core periphery power distribution benchmark was proposed by Mr. Mikolas on the twentieth Symposium of AER in Finland in 2010. This MIDICORE benchmark is a two-dimensional calculation benchmark based on the WWER-1000 reactor core cold state geometry with taking into account the geometry of explicit radial reflector. The main task of the benchmark is to test the pin by pin power distribution in selected fuel assemblies at the periphery of the WWER-1000 core. In this paper we present our results (k eff , integral fission power) calculated by MCNP and the KARATE code system in KFKI-AEKI and the comparison to the preliminary reference Monte Carlo calculation results made by NRI, Rez. (Authors)

  11. Benchmark for evaluation and validation of reactor simulations (BEAVRS)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Horelik, N.; Herman, B.; Forget, B.; Smith, K. [Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)

    2013-07-01

    Advances in parallel computing have made possible the development of high-fidelity tools for the design and analysis of nuclear reactor cores, and such tools require extensive verification and validation. This paper introduces BEAVRS, a new multi-cycle full-core Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) depletion benchmark based on two operational cycles of a commercial nuclear power plant that provides a detailed description of fuel assemblies, burnable absorbers, in-core fission detectors, core loading patterns, and numerous in-vessel components. This benchmark enables analysts to develop extremely detailed reactor core models that can be used for testing and validation of coupled neutron transport, thermal-hydraulics, and fuel isotopic depletion. The benchmark also provides measured reactor data for Hot Zero Power (HZP) physics tests, boron letdown curves, and three-dimensional in-core flux maps from fifty-eight instrumented assemblies. Initial comparisons between calculations performed with MIT's OpenMC Monte Carlo neutron transport code and measured cycle 1 HZP test data are presented, and these results display an average deviation of approximately 100 pcm for the various critical configurations and control rod worth measurements. Computed HZP radial fission detector flux maps also agree reasonably well with the available measured data. All results indicate that this benchmark will be extremely useful in validation of coupled-physics codes and uncertainty quantification of in-core physics computational predictions. The detailed BEAVRS specification and its associated data package is hosted online at the MIT Computational Reactor Physics Group web site (http://crpg.mit.edu/), where future revisions and refinements to the benchmark specification will be made publicly available. (authors)

  12. Benchmarking computer platforms for lattice QCD applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hasenbusch, M.; Jansen, K.; Pleiter, D.; Stueben, H.; Wegner, P.; Wettig, T.; Wittig, H.

    2004-01-01

    We define a benchmark suite for lattice QCD and report on benchmark results from several computer platforms. The platforms considered are apeNEXT, CRAY T3E; Hitachi SR8000, IBM p690, PC-Clusters, and QCDOC

  13. Benchmarking computer platforms for lattice QCD applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hasenbusch, M.; Jansen, K.; Pleiter, D.; Wegner, P.; Wettig, T.

    2003-09-01

    We define a benchmark suite for lattice QCD and report on benchmark results from several computer platforms. The platforms considered are apeNEXT, CRAY T3E, Hitachi SR8000, IBM p690, PC-Clusters, and QCDOC. (orig.)

  14. Confidential benchmarking based on multiparty computation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Damgård, Ivan Bjerre; Damgård, Kasper Lyneborg; Nielsen, Kurt

    We report on the design and implementation of a system that uses multiparty computation to enable banks to benchmark their customers' confidential performance data against a large representative set of confidential performance data from a consultancy house. The system ensures that both the banks......' and the consultancy house's data stays confidential, the banks as clients learn nothing but the computed benchmarking score. In the concrete business application, the developed prototype help Danish banks to find the most efficient customers among a large and challenging group of agricultural customers with too much...... debt. We propose a model based on linear programming for doing the benchmarking and implement it using the SPDZ protocol by Damgård et al., which we modify using a new idea that allows clients to supply data and get output without having to participate in the preprocessing phase and without keeping...

  15. Benchmark for Neutronic Analysis of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor Cores with Various Fuel Types and Core Sizes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stauff, N.E.; Kim, T.K.; Taiwo, T.A.; Buiron, L.; Rimpault, G.; Brun, E.; Lee, Y.K.; Pataki, I.; Kereszturi, A.; Tota, A.; Parisi, C.; Fridman, E.; Guilliard, N.; Kugo, T.; Sugino, K.; Uematsu, M.M.; Ponomarev, A.; Messaoudi, N.; Lin Tan, R.; Kozlowski, T.; Bernnat, W.; Blanchet, D.; Brun, E.; Buiron, L.; Fridman, E.; Guilliard, N.; Kereszturi, A.; Kim, T.K.; Kozlowski, T.; Kugo, T.; Lee, Y.K.; Lin Tan, R.; Messaoudi, N.; Parisi, C.; Pataki, I.; Ponomarev, A.; Rimpault, G.; Stauff, N.E.; Sugino, K.; Taiwo, T.A.; Tota, A.; Uematsu, M.M.; Monti, S.; Yamaji, A.; Nakahara, Y.; Gulliford, J.

    2016-01-01

    One of the foremost Generation IV International Forum (GIF) objectives is to design nuclear reactor cores that can passively avoid damage of the reactor when control rods fail to scram in response to postulated accident initiators (e.g. inadvertent reactivity insertion or loss of coolant flow). The analysis of such unprotected transients depends primarily on the physical properties of the fuel and the reactivity feedback coefficients of the core. Within the activities of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS), the Sodium Fast Reactor core Feed-back and Transient response (SFR-FT) Task Force was proposed to evaluate core performance characteristics of several Generation IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) concepts. A set of four numerical benchmark cases was initially developed with different core sizes and fuel types in order to perform neutronic characterisation, evaluation of the feedback coefficients and transient calculations. Two 'large' SFR core designs were proposed by CEA: those generate 3 600 MW(th) and employ oxide and carbide fuel technologies. Two 'medium' SFR core designs proposed by ANL complete the set. These medium SFR cores generate 1 000 MW(th) and employ oxide and metallic fuel technologies. The present report summarises the results obtained by the WPRS for the neutronic characterisation benchmark exercise proposed. The benchmark definition is detailed in Chapter 2. Eleven institutions contributed to this benchmark: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives (CEA of Cadarache), Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives (CEA of Saclay), Centre for Energy Research (CER-EK), Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf (HZDR), Institute of Nuclear Technology and Energy Systems (IKE), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT

  16. Power-Energy Simulation for Multi-Core Processors in Bench-marking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mona A. Abou-Of

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available At Microarchitectural level, multi-core processor, as a complex System on Chip, has sophisticated on-chip components including cores, shared caches, interconnects and system controllers such as memory and ethernet controllers. At technological level, architects should consider the device types forecast in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS. Energy simulation enables architects to study two important metrics simultaneously. Timing is a key element of the CPU performance that imposes constraints on the CPU target clock frequency. Power and the resulting heat impose more severe design constraints, such as core clustering, while semiconductor industry is providing more transistors in the die area in pace with Moore’s law. Energy simulators provide a solution for such serious challenge. Energy is modelled either by combining performance benchmarking tool with a power simulator or by an integrated framework of both performance simulator and power profiling system. This article presents and asses trade-offs between different architectures using four cores battery-powered mobile systems by running a custom-made and a standard benchmark tools. The experimental results assure the Energy/ Frequency convexity rule over a range of frequency settings on different number of enabled cores. The reported results show that increasing the number of cores has a great effect on increasing the power consumption. However, a minimum energy dissipation will occur at a lower frequency which reduces the power consumption. Despite that, increasing the number of cores will also increase the effective cores value which will reflect a better processor performance.

  17. Benchmarking Severe Accident Computer Codes for Heavy Water Reactor Applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2013-12-01

    Requests for severe accident investigations and assurance of mitigation measures have increased for operating nuclear power plants and the design of advanced nuclear power plants. Severe accident analysis investigations necessitate the analysis of the very complex physical phenomena that occur sequentially during various stages of accident progression. Computer codes are essential tools for understanding how the reactor and its containment might respond under severe accident conditions. The IAEA organizes coordinated research projects (CRPs) to facilitate technology development through international collaboration among Member States. The CRP on Benchmarking Severe Accident Computer Codes for HWR Applications was planned on the advice and with the support of the IAEA Nuclear Energy Department's Technical Working Group on Advanced Technologies for HWRs (the TWG-HWR). This publication summarizes the results from the CRP participants. The CRP promoted international collaboration among Member States to improve the phenomenological understanding of severe core damage accidents and the capability to analyse them. The CRP scope included the identification and selection of a severe accident sequence, selection of appropriate geometrical and boundary conditions, conduct of benchmark analyses, comparison of the results of all code outputs, evaluation of the capabilities of computer codes to predict important severe accident phenomena, and the proposal of necessary code improvements and/or new experiments to reduce uncertainties. Seven institutes from five countries with HWRs participated in this CRP

  18. VENUS-2 MOX Core Benchmark: Results of ORNL Calculations Using HELIOS-1.4

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ellis, RJ

    2001-02-02

    The Task Force on Reactor-Based Plutonium Disposition, now an Expert Group, was set up through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency to facilitate technical assessments of burning weapons-grade plutonium mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel in U.S. pressurized-water reactors and Russian VVER nuclear reactors. More than ten countries participated to advance the work of the Task Force in a major initiative, which was a blind benchmark study to compare code benchmark calculations against experimental data for the VENUS-2 MOX core at SCK-CEN in Mol, Belgium. At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the HELIOS-1.4 code was used to perform a comprehensive study of pin-cell and core calculations for the VENUS-2 benchmark.

  19. Boiling water reactor turbine trip (TT) benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2001-06-01

    In the field of coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics computation there is a need to enhance scientific knowledge in order to develop advanced modelling techniques for new nuclear technologies and concepts, as well as for current nuclear applications Recently developed 'best-estimate' computer code systems for modelling 3-D coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics transients in nuclear cores and for the coupling of core phenomena and system dynamics (PWR, BWR, VVER) need to be compared against each other and validated against results from experiments. International benchmark studies have been set up for the purpose. The present volume describes the specification of such a benchmark. The transient addressed is a turbine trip (TT) in a BWR involving pressurization events in which the coupling between core phenomena and system dynamics plays an important role. In addition, the data made available from experiments carried out at the plant make the present benchmark very valuable. The data used are from events at the Peach Bottom 2 reactor (a GE-designed BWR/4). (authors)

  20. Defining core elements and outstanding practice in Nutritional Science through collaborative benchmarking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samman, Samir; McCarthur, Jennifer O; Peat, Mary

    2006-01-01

    Benchmarking has been adopted by educational institutions as a potentially sensitive tool for improving learning and teaching. To date there has been limited application of benchmarking methodology in the Discipline of Nutritional Science. The aim of this survey was to define core elements and outstanding practice in Nutritional Science through collaborative benchmarking. Questionnaires that aimed to establish proposed core elements for Nutritional Science, and inquired about definitions of " good" and " outstanding" practice were posted to named representatives at eight Australian universities. Seven respondents identified core elements that included knowledge of nutrient metabolism and requirement, food production and processing, modern biomedical techniques that could be applied to understanding nutrition, and social and environmental issues as related to Nutritional Science. Four of the eight institutions who agreed to participate in the present survey identified the integration of teaching with research as an indicator of outstanding practice. Nutritional Science is a rapidly evolving discipline. Further and more comprehensive surveys are required to consolidate and update the definition of the discipline, and to identify the optimal way of teaching it. Global ideas and specific regional requirements also need to be considered.

  1. BSMBench: a flexible and scalable supercomputer benchmark from computational particle physics

    CERN Document Server

    Bennett, Ed; Del Debbio, Luigi; Jordan, Kirk; Patella, Agostino; Pica, Claudio; Rago, Antonio

    2016-01-01

    Benchmarking plays a central role in the evaluation of High Performance Computing architectures. Several benchmarks have been designed that allow users to stress various components of supercomputers. In order for the figures they provide to be useful, benchmarks need to be representative of the most common real-world scenarios. In this work, we introduce BSMBench, a benchmarking suite derived from Monte Carlo code used in computational particle physics. The advantage of this suite (which can be freely downloaded from http://www.bsmbench.org/) over others is the capacity to vary the relative importance of computation and communication. This enables the tests to simulate various practical situations. To showcase BSMBench, we perform a wide range of tests on various architectures, from desktop computers to state-of-the-art supercomputers, and discuss the corresponding results. Possible future directions of development of the benchmark are also outlined.

  2. Boiling water reactor turbine trip (TT) benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-01-01

    In the field of coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics computation there is a need to enhance scientific knowledge in order to develop advanced modelling techniques for new nuclear technologies and concepts as well as for current applications. Recently developed 'best-estimate' computer code systems for modelling 3-D coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics transients in nuclear cores and for coupling core phenomena and system dynamics (PWR, BWR, VVER) need to be compared against each other and validated against results from experiments. International benchmark studies have been set up for this purpose. The present report is the second in a series of four and summarises the results of the first benchmark exercise, which identifies the key parameters and important issues concerning the thermalhydraulic system modelling of the transient, with specified core average axial power distribution and fission power time transient history. The transient addressed is a turbine trip in a boiling water reactor, involving pressurization events in which the coupling between core phenomena and system dynamics plays an important role. In addition, the data made available from experiments carried out at the Peach Bottom 2 reactor (a GE-designed BWR/4) make the present benchmark particularly valuable. (author)

  3. Verification of MVP-II and SRAC2006 code to the core physics vera benchmark problem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jati Susilo

    2014-01-01

    In this research, verification calculation for VERA core physics benchmark on the Zero Power Physical Test (ZPPT) of the nuclear reactor Watts Bar 1. The reactor is a 1000 MWe class of PWR designed by. Westinghouse, arranged from 193 unit of 17 x 17 fuel assembly consisting 3 type enrichment of UO2 that are 2.1wt%, 2.619wt% and 3.1wt%. Core power factor distribution and k-eff calculation has been done for the first cycle operation of the core at beginning of cycle (BOC) and hot zero power (HZP). In this calculation, MVP-II and CITATION module of SRAC2006 computer code has been used with ENDF/B-VII.0. cross section data library. Calculation result showed that differences value of k-eff for the core at controlled and uncontrolled condition between reference with MVP-II (-0,07% and -0,014%) and SRAC2006 (0,92% and 0,99%) are very small or below 1%. Differences value of radial power peaking factor at controlled and uncontrolled of the core between reference value with MVP-II are 0,38% and 1,53%, even though with SRAC2006 are 1,13% and -2,45%. It can be said that the calculation result by both computer code showing suitability with reference value. In order to determinate of criticality of the core, the calculation result using MVP-II code is more conservative compare with SRAC2006 code. (author)

  4. MC21 Monte Carlo analysis of the Hoogenboom-Martin full-core PWR benchmark problem - 301

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kelly, D.J.; Sutton, Th.M.; Trumbull, T.H.; Dobreff, P.S.

    2010-01-01

    At the 2009 American Nuclear Society Mathematics and Computation conference, Hoogenboom and Martin proposed a full-core PWR model to monitor the improvement of Monte Carlo codes to compute detailed power density distributions. This paper describes the application of the MC21 Monte Carlo code to the analysis of this benchmark model. With the MC21 code, we obtained detailed power distributions over the entire core. The model consisted of 214 assemblies, each made up of a 17x17 array of pins. Each pin was subdivided into 100 axial nodes, thus resulting in over seven million tally regions. Various cases were run to assess the statistical convergence of the model. This included runs of 10 billion and 40 billion neutron histories, as well as ten independent runs of 4 billion neutron histories each. The 40 billion neutron-history calculation resulted in 43% of all regions having a 95% confidence level of 2% or less implying a relative standard deviation of 1%. Furthermore, 99.7% of regions having a relative power density of 1.0 or greater have a similar confidence level. We present timing results that assess the MC21 performance relative to the number of tallies requested. Source convergence was monitored by analyzing plots of the Shannon entropy and eigenvalue versus active cycle. We also obtained an estimate of the dominance ratio. Additionally, we performed an analysis of the error in an attempt to ascertain the validity of the confidence intervals predicted by MC21. Finally, we look forward to the prospect of full core 3-D Monte Carlo depletion by scoping out the required problem size. This study provides an initial data point for the Hoogenboom-Martin benchmark model using a state-of-the-art Monte Carlo code. (authors)

  5. Gas cooled fast reactor benchmarks for JNC and Cea neutronic tools assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rimpault, G.; Sugino, K.; Hayashi, H.

    2005-01-01

    In order to verify the adequacy of JNC and Cea computational tools for the definition of GCFR (gas cooled fast reactor) core characteristics, GCFR neutronic benchmarks have been performed. The benchmarks have been carried out on two different cores: 1) a conventional Gas-Cooled fast Reactor (EGCR) core with pin-type fuel, and 2) an innovative He-cooled Coated-Particle Fuel (CPF) core. Core characteristics being studied include: -) Criticality (Effective multiplication factor or K-effective), -) Instantaneous breeding gain (BG), -) Core Doppler effect, and -) Coolant depressurization reactivity. K-effective and coolant depressurization reactivity at EOEC (End Of Equilibrium Cycle) state were calculated since these values are the most critical characteristics in the core design. In order to check the influence due to the difference of depletion calculation systems, a simple depletion calculation benchmark was performed. Values such as: -) burnup reactivity loss, -) mass balance of heavy metals and fission products (FP) were calculated. Results of the core design characteristics calculated by both JNC and Cea sides agree quite satisfactorily in terms of core conceptual design study. Potential features for improving the GCFR computational tools have been discovered during the course of this benchmark such as the way to calculate accurately the breeding gain. Different ways to improve the accuracy of the calculations have also been identified. In particular, investigation on nuclear data for steel is important for EGCR and for lumped fission products in both cores. The outcome of this benchmark is already satisfactory and will help to design more precisely GCFR cores. (authors)

  6. Radiation Detection Computational Benchmark Scenarios

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shaver, Mark W.; Casella, Andrew M.; Wittman, Richard S.; McDonald, Ben S.

    2013-09-24

    Modeling forms an important component of radiation detection development, allowing for testing of new detector designs, evaluation of existing equipment against a wide variety of potential threat sources, and assessing operation performance of radiation detection systems. This can, however, result in large and complex scenarios which are time consuming to model. A variety of approaches to radiation transport modeling exist with complementary strengths and weaknesses for different problems. This variety of approaches, and the development of promising new tools (such as ORNL’s ADVANTG) which combine benefits of multiple approaches, illustrates the need for a means of evaluating or comparing different techniques for radiation detection problems. This report presents a set of 9 benchmark problems for comparing different types of radiation transport calculations, identifying appropriate tools for classes of problems, and testing and guiding the development of new methods. The benchmarks were drawn primarily from existing or previous calculations with a preference for scenarios which include experimental data, or otherwise have results with a high level of confidence, are non-sensitive, and represent problem sets of interest to NA-22. From a technical perspective, the benchmarks were chosen to span a range of difficulty and to include gamma transport, neutron transport, or both and represent different important physical processes and a range of sensitivity to angular or energy fidelity. Following benchmark identification, existing information about geometry, measurements, and previous calculations were assembled. Monte Carlo results (MCNP decks) were reviewed or created and re-run in order to attain accurate computational times and to verify agreement with experimental data, when present. Benchmark information was then conveyed to ORNL in order to guide testing and development of hybrid calculations. The results of those ADVANTG calculations were then sent to PNNL for

  7. Second benchmark problem for WIPP structural computations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krieg, R.D.; Morgan, H.S.; Hunter, T.O.

    1980-12-01

    This report describes the second benchmark problem for comparison of the structural codes used in the WIPP project. The first benchmark problem consisted of heated and unheated drifts at a depth of 790 m, whereas this problem considers a shallower level (650 m) more typical of the repository horizon. But more important, the first problem considered a homogeneous salt configuration, whereas this problem considers a configuration with 27 distinct geologic layers, including 10 clay layers - 4 of which are to be modeled as possible slip planes. The inclusion of layering introduces complications in structural and thermal calculations that were not present in the first benchmark problem. These additional complications will be handled differently by the various codes used to compute drift closure rates. This second benchmark problem will assess these codes by evaluating the treatment of these complications

  8. Criticality safety benchmark experiment on 10% enriched uranyl nitrate solution using a 28-cm-thickness slab core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamamoto, Toshihiro; Miyoshi, Yoshinori; Kikuchi, Tsukasa; Watanabe, Shouichi

    2002-01-01

    The second series of critical experiments with 10% enriched uranyl nitrate solution using 28-cm-thick slab core have been performed with the Static Experiment Critical Facility of the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. Systematic critical data were obtained by changing the uranium concentration of the fuel solution from 464 to 300 gU/l under various reflector conditions. In this paper, the thirteen critical configurations for water-reflected cores and unreflected cores are identified and evaluated. The effects of uncertainties in the experimental data on k eff are quantified by sensitivity studies. Benchmark model specifications that are necessary to construct a calculational model are given. The uncertainties of k eff 's included in the benchmark model specifications are approximately 0.1%Δk eff . The thirteen critical configurations are judged to be acceptable benchmark data. Using the benchmark model specifications, sample calculation results are provided with several sets of standard codes and cross section data. (author)

  9. Utilizing benchmark data from the ANL-ZPR diagnostic cores program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schaefer, R. W.; McKnight, R. D.

    2000-01-01

    The support of the criticality safety community is allowing the production of benchmark descriptions of several assemblies from the ZPR Diagnostic Cores Program. The assemblies have high sensitivities to nuclear data for a few isotopes. This can highlight limitations in nuclear data for selected nuclides or in standard methods used to treat these data. The present work extends the use of the simplified model of the U9 benchmark assembly beyond the validation of k eff . Further simplifications have been made to produce a data testing benchmark in the style of the standard CSEWG benchmark specifications. Calculations for this data testing benchmark are compared to results obtained with more detailed models and methods to determine their biases. These biases or corrections factors can then be applied in the use of the less refined methods and models. Data testing results using Versions IV, V, and VI of the ENDF/B nuclear data are presented for k eff , f 28 /f 25 , c 28 /f 25 , and β eff . These limited results demonstrate the importance of studying other integral parameters in addition to k eff in trying to improve nuclear data and methods and the importance of accounting for methods and/or modeling biases when using data testing results to infer the quality of the nuclear data files

  10. CEA-IPSN Participation in the MSLB Benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Royer, E.; Raimond, E.; Caruge, D.

    2001-01-01

    The OECD/NEA Main Steam Line Break (MSLB) Benchmark allows the comparison of state-of-the-art and best-estimate models used to compute reactivity accidents. The three exercises of the MSLB benchmark are defined with the aim of analyzing the space and time effects in the core and their modeling with computational tools. Point kinetics (exercise 1) simulation results in a return to power (RTP) after scram, whereas 3-D kinetics (exercises 2 and 3) does not display any RTP. The objective is to understand the reasons for the conservative solution of point kinetics and to assess the benefits of best-estimate models. First, the core vessel mixing model is analyzed; second, sensitivity studies on point kinetics are compared to 3-D kinetics; third, the core thermal hydraulics model and coupling with neutronics is presented; finally, RTP and a suitable model for MSLB are discussed

  11. Present Status and Extensions of the Monte Carlo Performance Benchmark

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoogenboom, J. Eduard; Petrovic, Bojan; Martin, William R.

    2014-06-01

    The NEA Monte Carlo Performance benchmark started in 2011 aiming to monitor over the years the abilities to perform a full-size Monte Carlo reactor core calculation with a detailed power production for each fuel pin with axial distribution. This paper gives an overview of the contributed results thus far. It shows that reaching a statistical accuracy of 1 % for most of the small fuel zones requires about 100 billion neutron histories. The efficiency of parallel execution of Monte Carlo codes on a large number of processor cores shows clear limitations for computer clusters with common type computer nodes. However, using true supercomputers the speedup of parallel calculations is increasing up to large numbers of processor cores. More experience is needed from calculations on true supercomputers using large numbers of processors in order to predict if the requested calculations can be done in a short time. As the specifications of the reactor geometry for this benchmark test are well suited for further investigations of full-core Monte Carlo calculations and a need is felt for testing other issues than its computational performance, proposals are presented for extending the benchmark to a suite of benchmark problems for evaluating fission source convergence for a system with a high dominance ratio, for coupling with thermal-hydraulics calculations to evaluate the use of different temperatures and coolant densities and to study the correctness and effectiveness of burnup calculations. Moreover, other contemporary proposals for a full-core calculation with realistic geometry and material composition will be discussed.

  12. Present status and extensions of the Monte Carlo performance benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoogenboom, J.E.; Petrovic, B.; Martin, W.R.

    2013-01-01

    The NEA Monte Carlo Performance benchmark started in 2011 aiming to monitor over the years the abilities to perform a full-size Monte Carlo reactor core calculation with a detailed power production for each fuel pin with axial distribution. This paper gives an overview of the contributed results thus far. It shows that reaching a statistical accuracy of 1 % for most of the small fuel zones requires about 100 billion neutron histories. The efficiency of parallel execution of Monte Carlo codes on a large number of processor cores shows clear limitations for computer clusters with common type computer nodes. However, using true supercomputers the speedup of parallel calculations is increasing up to large numbers of processor cores. More experience is needed from calculations on true supercomputers using large numbers of processors in order to predict if the requested calculations can be done in a short time. As the specifications of the reactor geometry for this benchmark test are well suited for further investigations of full-core Monte Carlo calculations and a need is felt for testing other issues than its computational performance, proposals are presented for extending the benchmark to a suite of benchmark problems for evaluating fission source convergence for a system with a high dominance ratio, for coupling with thermal-hydraulics calculations to evaluate the use of different temperatures and coolant densities and to study the correctness and effectiveness of burnup calculations. Moreover, other contemporary proposals for a full-core calculation with realistic geometry and material composition will be discussed. (authors)

  13. Stationary PWR-calculations by means of LWRSIM at the NEACRP 3D-LWRCT benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van de Wetering, T.F.H.

    1993-01-01

    Within the framework of participation in an international benchmark, calculations were executed by means of an adjusted version of the computer code Light Water Reactor SIMulation (LWRSIM) for three-dimensional reactor core calculations of pressurized water reactors. The 3-D LWR Core Transient Benchmark was set up aimed at the comparison of 3-D computer codes for transient calculations in LWRs. Participation in the benchmark provided more insight in the accuracy of the code when applied for other pressurized water reactors than applied for the nuclear power plant Borssele in the Netherlands, for which the code has been developed and used originally

  14. The level 1 and 2 specification for parallel benchmark and a benchmark test of scalar-parallel computer SP2 based on the specifications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Orii, Shigeo

    1998-06-01

    A benchmark specification for performance evaluation of parallel computers for numerical analysis is proposed. Level 1 benchmark, which is a conventional type benchmark using processing time, measures performance of computers running a code. Level 2 benchmark proposed in this report is to give the reason of the performance. As an example, scalar-parallel computer SP2 is evaluated with this benchmark specification in case of a molecular dynamics code. As a result, the main causes to suppress the parallel performance are maximum band width and start-up time of communication between nodes. Especially the start-up time is proportional not only to the number of processors but also to the number of particles. (author)

  15. VENUS-2 MOX Core Benchmark: Results of ORNL Calculations Using HELIOS-1.4 - Revised Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ellis, RJ

    2001-06-01

    The Task Force on Reactor-Based Plutonium Disposition (TFRPD) was formed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA) to study reactor physics, fuel performance, and fuel cycle issues related to the disposition of weapons-grade (WG) plutonium as mixed-oxide (MOX) reactor fuel. To advance the goals of the TFRPD, 10 countries and 12 institutions participated in a major TFRPD activity: a blind benchmark study to compare code calculations to experimental data for the VENUS-2 MOX core at SCK-CEN in Mol, Belgium. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the HELIOS-1.4 code system was used to perform the comprehensive study of pin-cell and MOX core calculations for the VENUS-2 MOX core benchmark study.

  16. CFD-calculations to a core catcher benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Willschuetz, H.G.

    1999-04-01

    There are numerous experiments for the exploration of the corium spreading behaviour, but comparable data have not been available up to now in the field of the long term behaviour of a corium expanded in a core catcher. The difficulty consists in the experimental simulation of the decay heat that can be neglected for the short-run course of events like relocation and spreading, which must, however, be considered during investigation of the long time behaviour. Therefore the German GRS, defined together with Battelle Ingenieurtechnik a benchmark problem in order to determine particular problems and differences of CFD codes simulating an expanded corium and from this, requirements for a reasonable measurement of experiments, that will be performed later. First the finite-volume-codes Comet 1.023, CFX 4.2 and CFX-TASCflow were used. To be able to make comparisons to a finite-element-code, now calculations are performed at the Institute of Safety Research at the Forschungszentrum Rossendorf with the code ANSYS/FLOTRAN. For the benchmark calculations of stage 1 a pure and liquid melt with internal heat sources was assumed uniformly distributed over the area of the planned core catcher of a EPR plant. Using the Standard-k-ε-turbulence model and assuming an initial state of a motionless superheated melt several large convection rolls will establish within the melt pool. The temperatures at the surface do not sink to a solidification level due to the enhanced convection heat transfer. The temperature gradients at the surface are relatively flat while there are steep gradients at the ground where the no slip condition is applied. But even at the ground no solidification temperatures are observed. Although the problem in the ANSYS-calculations is handled two-dimensional and not three-dimensional like in the finite-volume-codes, there are no fundamental deviations to the results of the other codes. (orig.)

  17. The OECD/NEA Data Bank, its computer program services and benchmarking activities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sartori, E.; Galan, J.M.

    1998-01-01

    The OECD/NEA Data Bank collects, tests and distributes computer programs and numerical data in the field of nuclear energy applications. This activity is coordinated with several similar centres in the United States (ESTSC, NNDC, RSIC) and outside the OECD area through an arrangement with the IAEA. This information is shared worldwide for the benefit of scientists and engineers working on the safe and economic use of nuclear energy. The OECD/NEA Nuclear Science Committee the supervising body of the Data Bank has conducted a series of international computer code benchmark exercises with the aim of verifying the correctness of codes, of building confidence in models used for predicting macroscopic behaviour of nuclear systems and to drive towards refinement of models where necessary. Exercises involving nuclear cross section predictions, in-core reactor physics issues, such as pin cells for different type of reactors, plutonium recycling, reconstruction of pin power within assemblies, core transients, reactor shielding and dosimetry, away from reactor issues such as criticality safety for transport and storage of spent fuel, shielding of radioactive material packages and other problems connected with the back end of the fuel cycle, are listed and the relevant references provided. (author)

  18. BN-600 hybrid core benchmark analyses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Y.I.; Stanculescu, A.; Finck, P.; Hill, R.N.; Grimm, K.N.

    2003-01-01

    Benchmark analyses for the hybrid BN-600 reactor that contains three uranium enrichment zones and one plutonium zone in the core, have been performed within the frame of an IAEA sponsored Coordinated Research Project. The results for several relevant reactivity parameters obtained by the participants with their own state-of-the-art basic data and codes, were compared in terms of calculational uncertainty, and their effects on the ULOF transient behavior of the hybrid BN-600 core were evaluated. The comparison of the diffusion and transport results obtained for the homogeneous representation generally shows good agreement for most parameters between the RZ and HEX-Z models. The burnup effect and the heterogeneity effect on most reactivity parameters also show good agreement for the HEX-Z diffusion and transport theory results. A large difference noticed for the sodium and steel density coefficients is mainly due to differences in the spatial coefficient predictions for non fuelled regions. The burnup reactivity loss was evaluated to be 0.025 (4.3 $) within ∼ 5.0% standard deviation. The heterogeneity effect on most reactivity coefficients was estimated to be small. The heterogeneity treatment reduced the control rod worth by 2.3%. The heterogeneity effect on the k-eff and control rod worth appeared to differ strongly depending on the heterogeneity treatment method. A substantial spread noticed for several reactivity coefficients did not give a significant impact on the transient behavior prediction. This result is attributable to compensating effects between several reactivity effects and the specific design of the partially MOX fuelled hybrid core. (author)

  19. Analysis on First Criticality Benchmark Calculation of HTR-10 Core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zuhair; Ferhat-Aziz; As-Natio-Lasman

    2000-01-01

    HTR-10 is a graphite-moderated and helium-gas cooled pebble bed reactor with an average helium outlet temperature of 700 o C and thermal power of 10 MW. The first criticality benchmark problem of HTR-10 in this paper includes the loading number calculation of nuclear fuel in the form of UO 2 ball with U-235 enrichment of 17% for the first criticality under the helium atmosphere and core temperature of 20 o C, and the effective multiplication factor (k eff ) calculation of full core (5 m 3 ) under the helium atmosphere and various core temperatures. The group constants of fuel mixture, moderator and reflector materials were generated with WlMS/D4 using spherical model and 4 neutron energy group. The critical core height of 150.1 cm obtained from CITATION in 2-D R-Z reactor geometry exists in the calculation range of INET China, JAERI Japan and BATAN Indonesia, and OKBM Russia. The k eff calculation result of full core at various temperatures shows that the HTR-10 has negative temperature coefficient of reactivity. (author)

  20. Joint European contribution to phase 5 of the BN600 hybrid reactor benchmark core analysis (European ERANOS formulaire for fast reactor core analysis)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rimpault, G.

    2004-01-01

    Hybrid UOX/MOX fueled core of the BN-600 reactor was endorsed as an international benchmark. BFS-2 critical facility was designed for full size simulation of core and shielding of large fast reactors (up tp 3000 MWe). Wide experimental programme including measurements of criticality, fission rates, rod worths, and SVRE was established. Four BFS-62 critical assemblies have been designed to study changes in BN-600 reactor physics-when moving to a hybrid MOX core. BFS-62-3A assembly is a full scale model of the BN-600 reactor hybrid core. it consists of three regions of UO 2 fuel, axial and radial fertile blankets, MOX fuel added in a ring between MC and OC zones, 120 deg sector of stainless steel reflector included within radial blanket. Joint European contribution to the Phase 5 benchmark analysis was performed by Serco Assurance Winfrith (UK) and CEA Cadarache (France). Analysis was carried out using Version 1.2 of the ERANOS code; and data system for advanced and fast reactor core applications. Nuclear data is based on the JEF2.2 nuclear data evaluation (including sodium). Results for Phase 5 of the BN-600 benchmark have been determined for criticality and SVRE in both diffusion and transport theory. Full details of the results are presented in a paper posted on the IAEA Business Collaborator website nad a brief summary is provided in this paper

  1. In-cylinder diesel spray combustion simulations using parallel computation: A performance benchmarking study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pang, Kar Mun; Ng, Hoon Kiat; Gan, Suyin

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► A performance benchmarking exercise is conducted for diesel combustion simulations. ► The reduced chemical mechanism shows its advantages over base and skeletal models. ► High efficiency and great reduction of CPU runtime are achieved through 4-node solver. ► Increasing ISAT memory from 0.1 to 2 GB reduces the CPU runtime by almost 35%. ► Combustion and soot processes are predicted well with minimal computational cost. - Abstract: In the present study, in-cylinder diesel combustion simulation was performed with parallel processing on an Intel Xeon Quad-Core platform to allow both fluid dynamics and chemical kinetics of the surrogate diesel fuel model to be solved simultaneously on multiple processors. Here, Cartesian Z-Coordinate was selected as the most appropriate partitioning algorithm since it computationally bisects the domain such that the dynamic load associated with fuel particle tracking was evenly distributed during parallel computations. Other variables examined included number of compute nodes, chemistry sizes and in situ adaptive tabulation (ISAT) parameters. Based on the performance benchmarking test conducted, parallel configuration of 4-compute node was found to reduce the computational runtime most efficiently whereby a parallel efficiency of up to 75.4% was achieved. The simulation results also indicated that accuracy level was insensitive to the number of partitions or the partitioning algorithms. The effect of reducing the number of species on computational runtime was observed to be more significant than reducing the number of reactions. Besides, the study showed that an increase in the ISAT maximum storage of up to 2 GB reduced the computational runtime by 50%. Also, the ISAT error tolerance of 10 −3 was chosen to strike a balance between results accuracy and computational runtime. The optimised parameters in parallel processing and ISAT, as well as the use of the in-house reduced chemistry model allowed accurate

  2. A benchmark for coupled thermohydraulics system/three-dimensional neutron kinetics core models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kliem, S.

    1999-01-01

    During the last years 3D neutron kinetics core models have been coupled to advanced thermohydraulics system codes. These coupled codes can be used for the analysis of the whole reactor system. Although the stand-alone versions of the 3D neutron kinetics core models and of the thermohydraulics system codes generally have a good verification and validation basis, there is a need for additional validation work. This especially concerns the interaction between the reactor core and the other components of a nuclear power plant (NPP). In the framework of the international 'Atomic Energy Research' (AER) association on VVER Reactor Physics and Reactor Safety, a benchmark for these code systems was defined. (orig.)

  3. Storage-Intensive Supercomputing Benchmark Study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cohen, J; Dossa, D; Gokhale, M; Hysom, D; May, J; Pearce, R; Yoo, A

    2007-10-30

    Critical data science applications requiring frequent access to storage perform poorly on today's computing architectures. This project addresses efficient computation of data-intensive problems in national security and basic science by exploring, advancing, and applying a new form of computing called storage-intensive supercomputing (SISC). Our goal is to enable applications that simply cannot run on current systems, and, for a broad range of data-intensive problems, to deliver an order of magnitude improvement in price/performance over today's data-intensive architectures. This technical report documents much of the work done under LDRD 07-ERD-063 Storage Intensive Supercomputing during the period 05/07-09/07. The following chapters describe: (1) a new file I/O monitoring tool iotrace developed to capture the dynamic I/O profiles of Linux processes; (2) an out-of-core graph benchmark for level-set expansion of scale-free graphs; (3) an entity extraction benchmark consisting of a pipeline of eight components; and (4) an image resampling benchmark drawn from the SWarp program in the LSST data processing pipeline. The performance of the graph and entity extraction benchmarks was measured in three different scenarios: data sets residing on the NFS file server and accessed over the network; data sets stored on local disk; and data sets stored on the Fusion I/O parallel NAND Flash array. The image resampling benchmark compared performance of software-only to GPU-accelerated. In addition to the work reported here, an additional text processing application was developed that used an FPGA to accelerate n-gram profiling for language classification. The n-gram application will be presented at SC07 at the High Performance Reconfigurable Computing Technologies and Applications Workshop. The graph and entity extraction benchmarks were run on a Supermicro server housing the NAND Flash 40GB parallel disk array, the Fusion-io. The Fusion system specs are as follows

  4. Benchmark calculations on nuclear characteristics of JRR-4 HEU core by SRAC code system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arigane, Kenji

    1987-04-01

    The reduced enrichment program for the JRR-4 has been progressing based on JAERI's RERTR (Reduced Enrichment Research and Test Reactor) program. The SRAC (JAERI Thermal Reactor Standard Code System for Reactor Design and Analysis) is used for the neutronic design of the JRR-4 LEU Core. This report describes the benchmark calculations on the neutronic characteristics of the JRR-4 HEU Core in order to validate the calculation method. The benchmark calculations were performed on the various kind of neutronic characteristics such as excess reactivity, criticality, control rod worth, thermal neutron flux distribution, void coefficient, temperature coefficient, mass coefficient, kinetic parameters and poisoning effect by Xe-135 build up. As the result, it was confirmed that these calculated values are in satisfactory agreement with the measured values. Therefore, the calculational method by the SRAC was validated. (author)

  5. Dynamic benchmarking of simulation codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henry, R.E.; Paik, C.Y.; Hauser, G.M.

    1996-01-01

    Computer simulation of nuclear power plant response can be a full-scope control room simulator, an engineering simulator to represent the general behavior of the plant under normal and abnormal conditions, or the modeling of the plant response to conditions that would eventually lead to core damage. In any of these, the underlying foundation for their use in analysing situations, training of vendor/utility personnel, etc. is how well they represent what has been known from industrial experience, large integral experiments and separate effects tests. Typically, simulation codes are benchmarked with some of these; the level of agreement necessary being dependent upon the ultimate use of the simulation tool. However, these analytical models are computer codes, and as a result, the capabilities are continually enhanced, errors are corrected, new situations are imposed on the code that are outside of the original design basis, etc. Consequently, there is a continual need to assure that the benchmarks with important transients are preserved as the computer code evolves. Retention of this benchmarking capability is essential to develop trust in the computer code. Given the evolving world of computer codes, how is this retention of benchmarking capabilities accomplished? For the MAAP4 codes this capability is accomplished through a 'dynamic benchmarking' feature embedded in the source code. In particular, a set of dynamic benchmarks are included in the source code and these are exercised every time the archive codes are upgraded and distributed to the MAAP users. Three different types of dynamic benchmarks are used: plant transients; large integral experiments; and separate effects tests. Each of these is performed in a different manner. The first is accomplished by developing a parameter file for the plant modeled and an input deck to describe the sequence; i.e. the entire MAAP4 code is exercised. The pertinent plant data is included in the source code and the computer

  6. Benchmarking of FA2D/PARCS Code Package

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grgic, D.; Jecmenica, R.; Pevec, D.

    2006-01-01

    FA2D/PARCS code package is used at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER), University of Zagreb, for static and dynamic reactor core analyses. It consists of two codes: FA2D and PARCS. FA2D is a multigroup two dimensional transport theory code for burn-up calculations based on collision probability method, developed at FER. It generates homogenised cross sections both of single pins and entire fuel assemblies. PARCS is an advanced nodal code developed at Purdue University for US NRC and it is based on neutron diffusion theory for three dimensional whole core static and dynamic calculations. It is modified at FER to enable internal 3D depletion calculation and usage of neutron cross section data in a format produced by FA2D and interface codes. The FA2D/PARCS code system has been validated on NPP Krsko operational data (Cycles 1 and 21). As we intend to use this code package for development of IRIS reactor loading patterns the first logical step was to validate the FA2D/PARCS code package on a set of IRIS benchmarks, starting from simple unit fuel cell, via fuel assembly, to full core benchmark. The IRIS 17x17 fuel with erbium burnable absorber was used in last full core benchmark. The results of modelling the IRIS full core benchmark using FA2D/PARCS code package have been compared with reference data showing the adequacy of FA2D/PARCS code package model for IRIS reactor core design.(author)

  7. VVER-1000 coolant transient benchmark. Phase 1 (V1000CT-1). Vol. 3: summary results of exercise 2 on coupled 3-D kinetics/core thermal-hydraulics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2007-01-01

    In the field of coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics computation there is a need to enhance scientific knowledge in order to develop advanced modelling techniques for new nuclear technologies and concepts, as well as current applications. (authors) Recently developed best-estimate computer code systems for modelling 3-D coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics transients in nuclear cores and for the coupling of core phenomena and system dynamics need to be compared against each other and validated against results from experiments. International benchmark studies have been set up for this purpose. The present volume is a follow-up to the first two volumes. While the first described the specification of the benchmark, the second presented the results of the first exercise that identified the key parameters and important issues concerning the thermal-hydraulic system modelling of the simulated transient caused by the switching on of a main coolant pump when the other three were in operation. Volume 3 summarises the results for Exercise 2 of the benchmark that identifies the key parameters and important issues concerning the 3-D neutron kinetics modelling of the simulated transient. These studies are based on an experiment that was conducted by Bulgarian and Russian engineers during the plant-commissioning phase at the VVER-1000 Kozloduy Unit 6. The final volume will soon be published, completing Phase 1 of this study. (authors)

  8. Benchmarking Brain-Computer Interfaces Outside the Laboratory: The Cybathlon 2016

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Domen Novak

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a new approach to benchmarking brain-computer interfaces (BCIs outside the lab. A computer game was created that mimics a real-world application of assistive BCIs, with the main outcome metric being the time needed to complete the game. This approach was used at the Cybathlon 2016, a competition for people with disabilities who use assistive technology to achieve tasks. The paper summarizes the technical challenges of BCIs, describes the design of the benchmarking game, then describes the rules for acceptable hardware, software and inclusion of human pilots in the BCI competition at the Cybathlon. The 11 participating teams, their approaches, and their results at the Cybathlon are presented. Though the benchmarking procedure has some limitations (for instance, we were unable to identify any factors that clearly contribute to BCI performance, it can be successfully used to analyze BCI performance in realistic, less structured conditions. In the future, the parameters of the benchmarking game could be modified to better mimic different applications (e.g., the need to use some commands more frequently than others. Furthermore, the Cybathlon has the potential to showcase such devices to the general public.

  9. Benchmark calculations for VENUS-2 MOX -fueled reactor dosimetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Jong Kung; Kim, Hong Chul; Shin, Chang Ho; Han, Chi Young; Na, Byung Chan

    2004-01-01

    As a part of a Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Project, it was pursued the benchmark for dosimetry calculation of the VENUS-2 MOX-fueled reactor. In this benchmark, the goal is to test the current state-of-the-art computational methods of calculating neutron flux to reactor components against the measured data of the VENUS-2 MOX-fuelled critical experiments. The measured data to be used for this benchmark are the equivalent fission fluxes which are the reaction rates divided by the U 235 fission spectrum averaged cross-section of the corresponding dosimeter. The present benchmark is, therefore, defined to calculate reaction rates and corresponding equivalent fission fluxes measured on the core-mid plane at specific positions outside the core of the VENUS-2 MOX-fuelled reactor. This is a follow-up exercise to the previously completed UO 2 -fuelled VENUS-1 two-dimensional and VENUS-3 three-dimensional exercises. The use of MOX fuel in LWRs presents different neutron characteristics and this is the main interest of the current benchmark compared to the previous ones

  10. Benchmarking infrastructure for mutation text mining.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, Artjom; Riazanov, Alexandre; Hindle, Matthew M; Baker, Christopher Jo

    2014-02-25

    Experimental research on the automatic extraction of information about mutations from texts is greatly hindered by the lack of consensus evaluation infrastructure for the testing and benchmarking of mutation text mining systems. We propose a community-oriented annotation and benchmarking infrastructure to support development, testing, benchmarking, and comparison of mutation text mining systems. The design is based on semantic standards, where RDF is used to represent annotations, an OWL ontology provides an extensible schema for the data and SPARQL is used to compute various performance metrics, so that in many cases no programming is needed to analyze results from a text mining system. While large benchmark corpora for biological entity and relation extraction are focused mostly on genes, proteins, diseases, and species, our benchmarking infrastructure fills the gap for mutation information. The core infrastructure comprises (1) an ontology for modelling annotations, (2) SPARQL queries for computing performance metrics, and (3) a sizeable collection of manually curated documents, that can support mutation grounding and mutation impact extraction experiments. We have developed the principal infrastructure for the benchmarking of mutation text mining tasks. The use of RDF and OWL as the representation for corpora ensures extensibility. The infrastructure is suitable for out-of-the-box use in several important scenarios and is ready, in its current state, for initial community adoption.

  11. Benchmarking infrastructure for mutation text mining

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Background Experimental research on the automatic extraction of information about mutations from texts is greatly hindered by the lack of consensus evaluation infrastructure for the testing and benchmarking of mutation text mining systems. Results We propose a community-oriented annotation and benchmarking infrastructure to support development, testing, benchmarking, and comparison of mutation text mining systems. The design is based on semantic standards, where RDF is used to represent annotations, an OWL ontology provides an extensible schema for the data and SPARQL is used to compute various performance metrics, so that in many cases no programming is needed to analyze results from a text mining system. While large benchmark corpora for biological entity and relation extraction are focused mostly on genes, proteins, diseases, and species, our benchmarking infrastructure fills the gap for mutation information. The core infrastructure comprises (1) an ontology for modelling annotations, (2) SPARQL queries for computing performance metrics, and (3) a sizeable collection of manually curated documents, that can support mutation grounding and mutation impact extraction experiments. Conclusion We have developed the principal infrastructure for the benchmarking of mutation text mining tasks. The use of RDF and OWL as the representation for corpora ensures extensibility. The infrastructure is suitable for out-of-the-box use in several important scenarios and is ready, in its current state, for initial community adoption. PMID:24568600

  12. Benchmark calculation for water reflected STACY cores containing low enriched uranyl nitrate solution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miyoshi, Yoshinori; Yamamoto, Toshihiro; Nakamura, Takemi

    2001-01-01

    In order to validate the availability of criticality calculation codes and related nuclear data library, a series of fundamental benchmark experiments on low enriched uranyl nitrate solution have been performed with a Static Experiment Criticality Facility, STACY in JAERI. The basic core composed of a single tank with water reflector was used for accumulating the systematic data with well-known experimental uncertainties. This paper presents the outline of the core configurations of STACY, the standard calculation model, and calculation results with a Monte Carlo code and JENDL 3.2 nuclear data library. (author)

  13. Comparison of the results of the fifth dynamic AER benchmark-a benchmark for coupled thermohydraulic system/three-dimensional hexagonal kinetic core models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kliem, S.

    1998-01-01

    The fifth dynamic benchmark was defined at seventh AER-Symposium, held in Hoernitz, Germany in 1997. It is the first benchmark for coupled thermohydraulic system/three-dimensional hexagonal neutron kinetic core models. In this benchmark the interaction between the components of a WWER-440 NPP with the reactor core has been investigated. The initiating event is a symmetrical break of the main steam header at the end of the first fuel cycle and hot shutdown conditions with one control rod group stucking. This break causes an overcooling of the primary circuit. During this overcooling the scram reactivity is compensated and the scrammed reactor becomes re critical. The calculation was continued until the highly-borated water from the high pressure injection system terminated the power excursion. Each participant used own best-estimate nuclear cross section data. Only the initial subcriticality at the beginning of the transient was given. Solutions were received from Kurchatov Institute Russia with the code BIPR8/ATHLET, VTT Energy Finland with HEXTRAN/SMABRE, NRI Rez Czech Republic with DYN3/ATHLET, KFKI Budapest Hungary with KIKO3D/ATHLET and from FZR Germany with the code DYN3D/ATHLET.In this paper the results are compared. Beside the comparison of global results, the behaviour of several thermohydraulic and neutron kinetic parameters is presented to discuss the revealed differences between the solutions.(Authors)

  14. Solution of the 6th dynamic AER benchmark using the coupled core DYN3D/ATHLET

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seidel, A.; Kliem, S.

    2001-01-01

    The 6 th dynamic benchmark is a logical continuation of the work to validate systematically coupled neutron kinetics/thermohydraulics code systems for the estimation of the transient behaviour of WWER type nuclear power plant which was started in the 5 th dynamic benchmark. This benchmark concerns a double ended break of the main steam line (asymmetrical MSLB) in a WWER plant. The core is at the end of first cycle in full power conditions. The asymmetric leak causes a different depressurization of all steam generators. New features in comparison to the 5 th dynamic benchmark were included: asymmetric operation of the feed water system, consideration of incomplete coolant mixing in the reactor vessel, and the definition of a fixed isothermal recriticality temperature for normalising the nuclear data (Authors)

  15. A highly simplified 3D BWR benchmark problem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Douglass, Steven; Rahnema, Farzad

    2010-01-01

    The resurgent interest in reactor development associated with the nuclear renaissance has paralleled significant advancements in computer technology, and allowed for unprecedented computational power to be applied to the numerical solution of neutron transport problems. The current generation of core-level solvers relies on a variety of approximate methods (e.g. nodal diffusion theory, spatial homogenization) to efficiently solve reactor problems with limited computer power; however, in recent years, the increased availability of high-performance computer systems has created an interest in the development of new methods and codes (deterministic and Monte Carlo) to directly solve whole-core reactor problems with full heterogeneity (lattice and core level). This paper presents the development of a highly simplified heterogeneous 3D benchmark problem with physics characteristic of boiling water reactors. The aim of this work is to provide a problem for developers to use to validate new whole-core methods and codes which take advantage of the advanced computational capabilities that are now available. Additionally, eigenvalues and an overview of the pin fission density distribution are provided for the benefit of the reader. (author)

  16. HPGMG 1.0: A Benchmark for Ranking High Performance Computing Systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Adams, Mark; Brown, Jed; Shalf, John; Straalen, Brian Van; Strohmaier, Erich; Williams, Sam

    2014-05-05

    This document provides an overview of the benchmark ? HPGMG ? for ranking large scale general purpose computers for use on the Top500 list [8]. We provide a rationale for the need for a replacement for the current metric HPL, some background of the Top500 list and the challenges of developing such a metric; we discuss our design philosophy and methodology, and an overview of the specification of the benchmark. The primary documentation with maintained details on the specification can be found at hpgmg.org and the Wiki and benchmark code itself can be found in the repository https://bitbucket.org/hpgmg/hpgmg.

  17. IAEA sodium void reactivity benchmark calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, R.N.; Finck, P.J.

    1992-01-01

    In this paper, the IAEA-1 992 ''Benchmark Calculation of Sodium Void Reactivity Effect in Fast Reactor Core'' problem is evaluated. The proposed design is a large axially heterogeneous oxide-fueled fast reactor as described in Section 2; the core utilizes a sodium plenum above the core to enhance leakage effects. The calculation methods used in this benchmark evaluation are described in Section 3. In Section 4, the calculated core performance results for the benchmark reactor model are presented; and in Section 5, the influence of steel and interstitial sodium heterogeneity effects is estimated

  18. Benchmarking of SIMULATE-3 on engineering workstations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Karlson, C.F.; Reed, M.L.; Webb, J.R.; Elzea, J.D.

    1990-01-01

    The nuclear fuel management department of Arizona Public Service Company (APS) has evaluated various computer platforms for a departmental engineering and business work-station local area network (LAN). Historically, centralized mainframe computer systems have been utilized for engineering calculations. Increasing usage and the resulting longer response times on the company mainframe system and the relative cost differential between a mainframe upgrade and workstation technology justified the examination of current workstations. A primary concern was the time necessary to turn around routine reactor physics reload and analysis calculations. Computers ranging from a Definicon 68020 processing board in an AT compatible personal computer up to an IBM 3090 mainframe were benchmarked. The SIMULATE-3 advanced nodal code was selected for benchmarking based on its extensive use in nuclear fuel management. SIMULATE-3 is used at APS for reload scoping, design verification, core follow, and providing predictions of reactor behavior under nominal conditions and planned reactor maneuvering, such as axial shape control during start-up and shutdown

  19. Computational benchmark problems: a review of recent work within the American Nuclear Society Mathematics and Computation Division

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dodds, H.L. Jr.

    1977-01-01

    An overview of the recent accomplishments of the Computational Benchmark Problems Committee of the American Nuclear Society Mathematics and Computation Division is presented. Solutions of computational benchmark problems in the following eight areas are presented and discussed: (a) high-temperature gas-cooled reactor neutronics, (b) pressurized water reactor (PWR) thermal hydraulics, (c) PWR neutronics, (d) neutron transport in a cylindrical ''black'' rod, (e) neutron transport in a boiling water reactor (BWR) rod bundle, (f) BWR transient neutronics with thermal feedback, (g) neutron depletion in a heavy water reactor, and (h) heavy water reactor transient neutronics. It is concluded that these problems and solutions are of considerable value to the nuclear industry because they have been and will continue to be useful in the development, evaluation, and verification of computer codes and numerical-solution methods

  20. Core status computing system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshida, Hiroyuki.

    1982-01-01

    Purpose: To calculate power distribution, flow rate and the like in the reactor core with high accuracy in a BWR type reactor. Constitution: Total flow rate signals, traverse incore probe (TIP) signals as the neutron detector signals, thermal power signals and pressure signals are inputted into a process computer, where the power distribution and the flow rate distribution in the reactor core are calculated. A function generator connected to the process computer calculates the absolute flow rate passing through optional fuel assemblies using, as variables, flow rate signals from the introduction part for fuel assembly flow rate signals, data signals from the introduction part for the geometrical configuration data at the flow rate measuring site of fuel assemblies, total flow rate signals for the reactor core and the signals from the process computer. Numerical values thus obtained are given to the process computer as correction signals to perform correction for the experimental data. (Moriyama, K.)

  1. Coupled fast-thermal core 'HERBE', as the benchmark experiment at the RB reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pesic, M.

    2003-10-01

    Validation of the well-known Monte Carlo code MCNP TM against measured criticality data for the coupled fast-thermal HERBE. System at the RB research reactor is shown in this paper. Experimental data are obtained for regular HERBE core and for the cases of controlled flooding of the neutron converter zone by heavy water. Earlier calculations of these criticality parameters, done by combination of transport and diffusion codes using 2D geometry model are also compared to new calculations carried out by the MCNP code in 3D geometry, applying new detailed 3D model of the HEU fuel slug, developed recently. Satisfactory agreements in comparison of the HERBE criticality calculation results with experimental data, in spite complex heterogeneous composition of the HERBE core, are obtained and confirmed that HERBE core could be used as a criticality benchmark for coupled fast-thermal core. (author)

  2. Full sphere hydrodynamic and dynamo benchmarks

    KAUST Repository

    Marti, P.

    2014-01-26

    Convection in planetary cores can generate fluid flow and magnetic fields, and a number of sophisticated codes exist to simulate the dynamic behaviour of such systems. We report on the first community activity to compare numerical results of computer codes designed to calculate fluid flow within a whole sphere. The flows are incompressible and rapidly rotating and the forcing of the flow is either due to thermal convection or due to moving boundaries. All problems defined have solutions that alloweasy comparison, since they are either steady, slowly drifting or perfectly periodic. The first two benchmarks are defined based on uniform internal heating within the sphere under the Boussinesq approximation with boundary conditions that are uniform in temperature and stress-free for the flow. Benchmark 1 is purely hydrodynamic, and has a drifting solution. Benchmark 2 is a magnetohydrodynamic benchmark that can generate oscillatory, purely periodic, flows and magnetic fields. In contrast, Benchmark 3 is a hydrodynamic rotating bubble benchmark using no slip boundary conditions that has a stationary solution. Results from a variety of types of code are reported, including codes that are fully spectral (based on spherical harmonic expansions in angular coordinates and polynomial expansions in radius), mixed spectral and finite difference, finite volume, finite element and also a mixed Fourier-finite element code. There is good agreement between codes. It is found that in Benchmarks 1 and 2, the approximation of a whole sphere problem by a domain that is a spherical shell (a sphere possessing an inner core) does not represent an adequate approximation to the system, since the results differ from whole sphere results. © The Authors 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society.

  3. PANTHER solution to the NEA-NSC 3-D PWR core transient benchmark. Uncontrolled withdrawal of control rods at zero power

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kuijper, J.C.

    1994-10-01

    This report contains the results of PANTHER calculations for the ``NEA-NSC 3-D PWR Core Transient Benchmark: Uncontrolled Withdrawal of Control Rods at Zero Power``. PANTHER was able to model the benchmark problems without modifications to the code. All the calculations were performed in 3-D. (orig.).

  4. Final PANTHER solution to the NEA-NSC3-DPWR core transient benchmark. Uncontrolled withdrawal of control rods at zero power

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kuijper, J.C.

    1996-10-01

    This report contains the final results of PANTHER calculations for the 'NEA-NSC 3-D PWR Core Transient Benchmark: Uncontrolled Withdrawal of Control Rods at Zero Power'. PANTHER was able to model the benchmark problems without modifications to the code. All the calculations were performed in 3-D. (orig.)

  5. PANTHER solution to the NEA-NSC 3-D PWR core transient benchmark. Uncontrolled withdrawal of control rods at zero power

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kuijper, J.C.

    1994-10-01

    This report contains the results of PANTHER calculations for the ''NEA-NSC 3-D PWR Core Transient Benchmark: Uncontrolled Withdrawal of Control Rods at Zero Power''. PANTHER was able to model the benchmark problems without modifications to the code. All the calculations were performed in 3-D. (orig.)

  6. Final PANTHER solution to the NEA-NSC3-DPWR core transient benchmark. Uncontrolled withdrawal of control rods at zero power

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kuijper, J.C.

    1996-10-01

    This report contains the final results of PANTHER calculations for the `NEA-NSC 3-D PWR Core Transient Benchmark: Uncontrolled Withdrawal of Control Rods at Zero Power`. PANTHER was able to model the benchmark problems without modifications to the code. All the calculations were performed in 3-D. (orig.).

  7. Verification of HELIOS-MASTER system through benchmark of Halden boiling water reactor (HBWR)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Ha Yong; Song, Jae Seung; Cho, Jin Young; Kim, Kang Seok; Lee, Chung Chan; Zee, Sung Quun

    2004-01-01

    To verify the HELIOS-MASTER computer code system for a nuclear design, we have been performed benchmark calculations for various reactor cores. The Halden reactor is a boiling, heavy water moderated reactor. At a full power of 18-20MWt, the moderator temperature is 240 .deg. C and the pressure is 33 bar. This study describes the verification of the HELIOS-MASTER computer code system for a nuclear design and the analysis of a hexagonal and D 2 O moderated core through a benchmark of the Halden reactor core. HELIOS, developed by Scandpower A/S, is a two-dimensional transport program for the generation of group cross-sections, and MASTER, developed by KAERI, is a three-dimensional nuclear design and analysis code based on the two-group diffusion theory. It solves the neutronics model with the TPEN (Triangle based Polynomial Expansion Nodal) method for a hexagonal geometry

  8. Computer code validation study of PWR core design system, CASMO-3/MASTER-α

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, K. H.; Kim, M. H.; Woo, S. W.

    1999-01-01

    In this paper, the feasibility of CASMO-3/MASTER-α nuclear design system was investigated for commercial PWR core. Validation calculation was performed as follows. Firstly, the accuracy of cross section generation from table set using linear feedback model was estimated. Secondly, the results of CASMO-3/MASTER-α was compared with CASMO-3/NESTLE 5.02 for a few benchmark problems. Microscopic cross sections computed from table set were almost the same with those from CASMO-3. There were small differences between calculated results of two code systems. Thirdly, the repetition of CASMO-3/MASTER-α calculation for Younggwang Unit-3, Cycle-1 core was done and their results were compared with nuclear design report(NDR) and uncertainty analysis results of KAERI. It was found that uncertainty analysis results were reliable enough because results were agreed each other. It was concluded that the use of nuclear design system CASMO-3/MASTER-α was validated for commercial PWR core

  9. A computationally simple model for determining the time dependent spectral neutron flux in a nuclear reactor core

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schneider, E.A. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); Deinert, M.R. [Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Cornell University, 219 Kimball Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States)]. E-mail: mrd6@cornell.edu; Cady, K.B. [Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Cornell University, 219 Kimball Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States)

    2006-10-15

    The balance of isotopes in a nuclear reactor core is key to understanding the overall performance of a given fuel cycle. This balance is in turn most strongly affected by the time and energy-dependent neutron flux. While many large and involved computer packages exist for determining this spectrum, a simplified approach amenable to rapid computation is missing from the literature. We present such a model, which accepts as inputs the fuel element/moderator geometry and composition, reactor geometry, fuel residence time and target burnup and we compare it to OECD/NEA benchmarks for homogeneous MOX and UOX LWR cores. Collision probability approximations to the neutron transport equation are used to decouple the spatial and energy variables. The lethargy dependent neutron flux, governed by coupled integral equations for the fuel and moderator/coolant regions is treated by multigroup thermalization methods, and the transport of neutrons through space is modeled by fuel to moderator transport and escape probabilities. Reactivity control is achieved through use of a burnable poison or adjustable control medium. The model calculates the buildup of 24 actinides, as well as fission products, along with the lethargy dependent neutron flux and the results of several simulations are compared with benchmarked standards.

  10. Benchmark study of some thermal and structural computer codes for nuclear shipping casks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ikushima, Takeshi; Kanae, Yoshioki; Shimada, Hirohisa; Shimoda, Atsumu; Halliquist, J.O.

    1984-01-01

    There are many computer codes which could be applied to the design and analysis of nuclear material shipping casks. One of problems which the designer of shipping cask faces is the decision regarding the choice of the computer codes to be used. For this situation, the thermal and structural benchmark tests for nuclear shipping casks are carried out to clarify adequacy of the calculation results. The calculation results are compared with the experimental ones. This report describes the results and discussion of the benchmark test. (author)

  11. Analysis of the European results on the HTTR's core physics benchmarks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raepsaet, X.; Damian, F.; Ohlig, U.A.; Brockmann, H.J.; Haas, J.B.M. de; Wallerboss, E.M.

    2002-01-01

    Within the frame of the European contract HTR-N1 calculations are performed on the benchmark problems of the HTTR's start-up core physics experiments initially proposed by the IAEA in a Co-ordinated Research Programme. Three European partners, the FZJ in Germany, NRG and IRI in the Netherlands, and CEA in France, have joined this work package with the aim to validate their calculational methods. Pre-test and post-test calculational results, obtained by the partners, are compared with each other and with the experiment. Parts of the discrepancies between experiment and pre-test predictions are analysed and tackled by different treatments. In the case of the Monte Carlo code TRIPOLI4, used by CEA, the discrepancy between measurement and calculation at the first criticality is reduced to Δk/k∼0.85%, when considering the revised data of the HTTR benchmark. In the case of the diffusion codes, this discrepancy is reduced to: Δk/k∼0.8% (FZJ) and 2.7 or 1.8% (CEA). (author)

  12. Benchmarking Computational Fluid Dynamics for Application to PWR Fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, L.D. III; Conner, M.E.; Liu, B.; Dzodzo, B.; Paramonov, D.V.; Beasley, D.E.; Langford, H.M.; Holloway, M.V.

    2002-01-01

    The present study demonstrates a process used to develop confidence in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as a tool to investigate flow and temperature distributions in a PWR fuel bundle. The velocity and temperature fields produced by a mixing spacer grid of a PWR fuel assembly are quite complex. Before using CFD to evaluate these flow fields, a rigorous benchmarking effort should be performed to ensure that reasonable results are obtained. Westinghouse has developed a method to quantitatively benchmark CFD tools against data at conditions representative of the PWR. Several measurements in a 5 x 5 rod bundle were performed. Lateral flow-field testing employed visualization techniques and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Heat transfer testing involved measurements of the single-phase heat transfer coefficient downstream of the spacer grid. These test results were used to compare with CFD predictions. Among the parameters optimized in the CFD models based on this comparison with data include computational mesh, turbulence model, and boundary conditions. As an outcome of this effort, a methodology was developed for CFD modeling that provides confidence in the numerical results. (authors)

  13. WWER in-core fuel management benchmark definition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Apostolov, T.; Alekova, G.; Prodanova, R.; Petrova, T.; Ivanov, K.

    1994-01-01

    Two benchmark problems for WWER-440, including design parameters, operating conditions and measured quantities are discussed in this paper. Some benchmark results for infinitive multiplication factor -K eff , natural boron concentration - C β and relative power distribution - K q obtained by use of the code package are represented. (authors). 5 refs., 3 tabs

  14. VALIDATION OF FULL CORE GEOMETRY MODEL OF THE NODAL3 CODE IN THE PWR TRANSIENT BENCHMARK PROBLEMS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tagor Malem Sembiring

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT VALIDATION OF FULL CORE GEOMETRY MODEL OF THE NODAL3 CODE IN THE PWR TRANSIENT BENCHMARK PROBLEMS. The coupled neutronic and thermal-hydraulic (T/H code, NODAL3 code, has been validated in some PWR static benchmark and the NEACRP PWR transient benchmark cases. However, the NODAL3 code have not yet validated in the transient benchmark cases of a control rod assembly (CR ejection at peripheral core using a full core geometry model, the C1 and C2 cases.  By this research work, the accuracy of the NODAL3 code for one CR ejection or the unsymmetrical group of CRs ejection case can be validated. The calculations by the NODAL3 code have been carried out by the adiabatic method (AM and the improved quasistatic method (IQS. All calculated transient parameters by the NODAL3 code were compared with the reference results by the PANTHER code. The maximum relative difference of 16% occurs in the calculated time of power maximum parameter by using the IQS method, while the relative difference of the AM method is 4% for C2 case.  All calculation results by the NODAL3 code shows there is no systematic difference, it means the neutronic and T/H modules are adopted in the code are considered correct. Therefore, all calculation results by using the NODAL3 code are very good agreement with the reference results. Keywords: nodal method, coupled neutronic and thermal-hydraulic code, PWR, transient case, control rod ejection.   ABSTRAK VALIDASI MODEL GEOMETRI TERAS PENUH PAKET PROGRAM NODAL3 DALAM PROBLEM BENCHMARK GAYUT WAKTU PWR. Paket program kopel neutronik dan termohidraulika (T/H, NODAL3, telah divalidasi dengan beberapa kasus benchmark statis PWR dan kasus benchmark gayut waktu PWR NEACRP.  Akan tetapi, paket program NODAL3 belum divalidasi dalam kasus benchmark gayut waktu akibat penarikan sebuah perangkat batang kendali (CR di tepi teras menggunakan model geometri teras penuh, yaitu kasus C1 dan C2. Dengan penelitian ini, akurasi paket program

  15. Stylized whole-core benchmark of the Integral Inherently Safe Light Water Reactor (I2S-LWR) concept

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hon, Ryan; Kooreman, Gabriel; Rahnema, Farzad; Petrovic, Bojan

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • A stylized benchmark specification of the I2S-LWR core. • A library of cross sections were generated in both 8 and 47 groups. • Monte Carlo solutions generated for the 8 group library using MCNP5. • Cross sections and pin fission densities provided in journal’s repository. - Abstract: The Integral, Inherently Safe Light Water Reactor (I 2 S-LWR) is a pressurized water reactor (PWR) concept under development by a multi-institutional team led by Georgia Tech. The core is similar in size to small 2-loop PWRs while having the power level of current large reactors (∼1000 MWe) but using uranium silicide fuel and advanced stainless steel cladding. A stylized benchmark specification of the I 2 S-LWR core has been developed in order to test whole-core neutronics codes and methods. For simplification the core was split into 57 distinct material regions for cross section generation. Cross sections were generated using the lattice physics code HELIOS version 1.10 in both 8 and 47 groups. Monte Carlo solutions, including eigenvalue and pin fission densities, were generated for the 8 group library using MCNP5. Due to space limitations in this paper, the full cross section library and normalized pin fission density results are provided in the journal’s electronic repository.

  16. Benchmarking and qualification of the nufreq-npw code for best estimate prediction of multi-channel core stability margins

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taleyarkhan, R.; McFarlane, A.F.; Lahey, R.T. Jr.; Podowski, M.Z.

    1988-01-01

    The work described in this paper is focused on the development, verification and benchmarking of the NUFREQ-NPW code at Westinghouse, USA for best estimate prediction of multi-channel core stability margins in US BWRs. Various models incorporated into NUFREQ-NPW are systematically compared against the Westinghouse channel stability analysis code MAZDA, which the Mathematical Model was developed in an entirely different manner. The NUFREQ-NPW code is extensively benchmarked against experimental stability data with and without nuclear reactivity feedback. Detailed comparisons are next performed against nuclear-coupled core stability data. A physically based algorithm is developed to correct for the effect of flow development on subcooled boiling. Use of this algorithm (to be described in the full paper) captures the peak magnitude as well as the resonance frequency with good accuracy

  17. Verification and validation benchmarks.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Oberkampf, William Louis; Trucano, Timothy Guy

    2007-02-01

    Verification and validation (V&V) are the primary means to assess the accuracy and reliability of computational simulations. V&V methods and procedures have fundamentally improved the credibility of simulations in several high-consequence fields, such as nuclear reactor safety, underground nuclear waste storage, and nuclear weapon safety. Although the terminology is not uniform across engineering disciplines, code verification deals with assessing the reliability of the software coding, and solution verification deals with assessing the numerical accuracy of the solution to a computational model. Validation addresses the physics modeling accuracy of a computational simulation by comparing the computational results with experimental data. Code verification benchmarks and validation benchmarks have been constructed for a number of years in every field of computational simulation. However, no comprehensive guidelines have been proposed for the construction and use of V&V benchmarks. For example, the field of nuclear reactor safety has not focused on code verification benchmarks, but it has placed great emphasis on developing validation benchmarks. Many of these validation benchmarks are closely related to the operations of actual reactors at near-safety-critical conditions, as opposed to being more fundamental-physics benchmarks. This paper presents recommendations for the effective design and use of code verification benchmarks based on manufactured solutions, classical analytical solutions, and highly accurate numerical solutions. In addition, this paper presents recommendations for the design and use of validation benchmarks, highlighting the careful design of building-block experiments, the estimation of experimental measurement uncertainty for both inputs and outputs to the code, validation metrics, and the role of model calibration in validation. It is argued that the understanding of predictive capability of a computational model is built on the level of

  18. CONSUL code package application for LMFR core calculations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chibinyaev, A.V.; Teplov, P.S.; Frolova, M.V. [RNC ' Kurchatovskiy institute' , Kurchatov sq.1, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2008-07-01

    CONSUL code package designed for the calculation of reactor core characteristics has been developed at the beginning of 90's. The calculation of nuclear reactor core characteristics is carried out on the basis of correlated neutron, isotope and temperature distributions. The code package has been generally used for LWR core characteristics calculations. At present CONSUL code package was adapted to calculate liquid metal fast reactors (LMFR). The comparisons with IAEA computational test 'Evaluation of benchmark calculations on a fast power reactor core with near zero sodium void effect' and BN-1800 testing calculations are presented in the paper. The IAEA benchmark core is based on the innovative core concept with sodium plenum above the core BN-800. BN-1800 core is the next development step which is foreseen for the Russian fast reactor concept. The comparison of the operational parameters has shown good agreement and confirms the possibility of CONSUL code package application for LMFR core calculation. (authors)

  19. NODAL3 Sensitivity Analysis for NEACRP 3D LWR Core Transient Benchmark (PWR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Surian Pinem

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper reports the results of sensitivity analysis of the multidimension, multigroup neutron diffusion NODAL3 code for the NEACRP 3D LWR core transient benchmarks (PWR. The code input parameters covered in the sensitivity analysis are the radial and axial node sizes (the number of radial node per fuel assembly and the number of axial layers, heat conduction node size in the fuel pellet and cladding, and the maximum time step. The output parameters considered in this analysis followed the above-mentioned core transient benchmarks, that is, power peak, time of power peak, power, averaged Doppler temperature, maximum fuel centerline temperature, and coolant outlet temperature at the end of simulation (5 s. The sensitivity analysis results showed that the radial node size and maximum time step give a significant effect on the transient parameters, especially the time of power peak, for the HZP and HFP conditions. The number of ring divisions for fuel pellet and cladding gives negligible effect on the transient solutions. For productive work of the PWR transient analysis, based on the present sensitivity analysis results, we recommend NODAL3 users to use 2×2 radial nodes per assembly, 1×18 axial layers per assembly, the maximum time step of 10 ms, and 9 and 1 ring divisions for fuel pellet and cladding, respectively.

  20. Critical Assessment of Metagenome Interpretation – a benchmark of computational metagenomics software

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sczyrba, Alexander; Hofmann, Peter; Belmann, Peter; Koslicki, David; Janssen, Stefan; Dröge, Johannes; Gregor, Ivan; Majda, Stephan; Fiedler, Jessika; Dahms, Eik; Bremges, Andreas; Fritz, Adrian; Garrido-Oter, Ruben; Jørgensen, Tue Sparholt; Shapiro, Nicole; Blood, Philip D.; Gurevich, Alexey; Bai, Yang; Turaev, Dmitrij; DeMaere, Matthew Z.; Chikhi, Rayan; Nagarajan, Niranjan; Quince, Christopher; Meyer, Fernando; Balvočiūtė, Monika; Hansen, Lars Hestbjerg; Sørensen, Søren J.; Chia, Burton K. H.; Denis, Bertrand; Froula, Jeff L.; Wang, Zhong; Egan, Robert; Kang, Dongwan Don; Cook, Jeffrey J.; Deltel, Charles; Beckstette, Michael; Lemaitre, Claire; Peterlongo, Pierre; Rizk, Guillaume; Lavenier, Dominique; Wu, Yu-Wei; Singer, Steven W.; Jain, Chirag; Strous, Marc; Klingenberg, Heiner; Meinicke, Peter; Barton, Michael; Lingner, Thomas; Lin, Hsin-Hung; Liao, Yu-Chieh; Silva, Genivaldo Gueiros Z.; Cuevas, Daniel A.; Edwards, Robert A.; Saha, Surya; Piro, Vitor C.; Renard, Bernhard Y.; Pop, Mihai; Klenk, Hans-Peter; Göker, Markus; Kyrpides, Nikos C.; Woyke, Tanja; Vorholt, Julia A.; Schulze-Lefert, Paul; Rubin, Edward M.; Darling, Aaron E.; Rattei, Thomas; McHardy, Alice C.

    2018-01-01

    In metagenome analysis, computational methods for assembly, taxonomic profiling and binning are key components facilitating downstream biological data interpretation. However, a lack of consensus about benchmarking datasets and evaluation metrics complicates proper performance assessment. The Critical Assessment of Metagenome Interpretation (CAMI) challenge has engaged the global developer community to benchmark their programs on datasets of unprecedented complexity and realism. Benchmark metagenomes were generated from ~700 newly sequenced microorganisms and ~600 novel viruses and plasmids, including genomes with varying degrees of relatedness to each other and to publicly available ones and representing common experimental setups. Across all datasets, assembly and genome binning programs performed well for species represented by individual genomes, while performance was substantially affected by the presence of related strains. Taxonomic profiling and binning programs were proficient at high taxonomic ranks, with a notable performance decrease below the family level. Parameter settings substantially impacted performances, underscoring the importance of program reproducibility. While highlighting current challenges in computational metagenomics, the CAMI results provide a roadmap for software selection to answer specific research questions. PMID:28967888

  1. Validation of full core geometry model of the NODAL3 code in the PWR transient Benchmark problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    T-M Sembiring; S-Pinem; P-H Liem

    2015-01-01

    The coupled neutronic and thermal-hydraulic (T/H) code, NODAL3 code, has been validated in some PWR static benchmark and the NEACRP PWR transient benchmark cases. However, the NODAL3 code have not yet validated in the transient benchmark cases of a control rod assembly (CR) ejection at peripheral core using a full core geometry model, the C1 and C2 cases. By this research work, the accuracy of the NODAL3 code for one CR ejection or the unsymmetrical group of CRs ejection case can be validated. The calculations by the NODAL3 code have been carried out by the adiabatic method (AM) and the improved quasistatic method (IQS). All calculated transient parameters by the NODAL3 code were compared with the reference results by the PANTHER code. The maximum relative difference of 16 % occurs in the calculated time of power maximum parameter by using the IQS method, while the relative difference of the AM method is 4 % for C2 case. All calculation results by the NODAL3 code shows there is no systematic difference, it means the neutronic and T/H modules are adopted in the code are considered correct. Therefore, all calculation results by using the NODAL3 code are very good agreement with the reference results. (author)

  2. Self-benchmarking Guide for Cleanrooms: Metrics, Benchmarks, Actions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mathew, Paul; Sartor, Dale; Tschudi, William

    2009-07-13

    This guide describes energy efficiency metrics and benchmarks that can be used to track the performance of and identify potential opportunities to reduce energy use in laboratory buildings. This guide is primarily intended for personnel who have responsibility for managing energy use in existing laboratory facilities - including facilities managers, energy managers, and their engineering consultants. Additionally, laboratory planners and designers may also use the metrics and benchmarks described in this guide for goal-setting in new construction or major renovation. This guide provides the following information: (1) A step-by-step outline of the benchmarking process. (2) A set of performance metrics for the whole building as well as individual systems. For each metric, the guide provides a definition, performance benchmarks, and potential actions that can be inferred from evaluating this metric. (3) A list and descriptions of the data required for computing the metrics. This guide is complemented by spreadsheet templates for data collection and for computing the benchmarking metrics. This guide builds on prior research supported by the national Laboratories for the 21st Century (Labs21) program, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Much of the benchmarking data are drawn from the Labs21 benchmarking database and technical guides. Additional benchmark data were obtained from engineering experts including laboratory designers and energy managers.

  3. AER Benchmark Specification Sheet

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aszodi, A.; Toth, S.

    2009-01-01

    In the WWER-440/213 type reactors, the core outlet temperature field is monitored with in-core thermocouples, which are installed above 210 fuel assemblies. These measured temperatures are used in determination of the fuel assembly powers and they have important role in the reactor power limitation. For these reasons, correct interpretation of the thermocouple signals is an important question. In order to interpret the signals in correct way, knowledge of the coolant mixing in the assembly heads is necessary. Computational fluid dynamics codes and experiments can help to understand better these mixing processes and they can provide information which can support the more adequate interpretation of the thermocouple signals. This benchmark deals with the 3D computational fluid dynamics modeling of the coolant mixing in the heads of the profiled fuel assemblies with 12.2 mm rod pitch. Two assemblies of the twenty third cycle of the Paks NPPs Unit 3 are investigated. One of them has symmetrical pin power profile and another possesses inclined profile. (Authors)

  4. MC21/CTF and VERA multiphysics solutions to VERA core physics benchmark progression problems 6 and 7

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel J. Kelly, III

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The continuous energy Monte Carlo neutron transport code, MC21, was coupled to the CTF subchannel thermal-hydraulics code using a combination of Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL tools and in-house Python scripts. An MC21/CTF solution for VERA Core Physics Benchmark Progression Problem 6 demonstrated good agreement with MC21/COBRA-IE and VERA solutions. The MC21/CTF solution for VERA Core Physics Benchmark Progression Problem 7, Watts Bar Unit 1 at beginning of cycle hot full power equilibrium xenon conditions, is the first published coupled Monte Carlo neutronics/subchannel T-H solution for this problem. MC21/CTF predicted a critical boron concentration of 854.5 ppm, yielding a critical eigenvalue of 0.99994 ± 6.8E-6 (95% confidence interval. Excellent agreement with a VERA solution of Problem 7 was also demonstrated for integral and local power and temperature parameters.

  5. Benchmark Evaluation of HTR-PROTEUS Pebble Bed Experimental Program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bess, John D.; Montierth, Leland; Köberl, Oliver

    2014-01-01

    Benchmark models were developed to evaluate 11 critical core configurations of the HTR-PROTEUS pebble bed experimental program. Various additional reactor physics measurements were performed as part of this program; currently only a total of 37 absorber rod worth measurements have been evaluated as acceptable benchmark experiments for Cores 4, 9, and 10. Dominant uncertainties in the experimental keff for all core configurations come from uncertainties in the 235 U enrichment of the fuel, impurities in the moderator pebbles, and the density and impurity content of the radial reflector. Calculations of k eff with MCNP5 and ENDF/B-VII.0 neutron nuclear data are greater than the benchmark values but within 1% and also within the 3σ uncertainty, except for Core 4, which is the only randomly packed pebble configuration. Repeated calculations of k eff with MCNP6.1 and ENDF/B-VII.1 are lower than the benchmark values and within 1% (~3σ) except for Cores 5 and 9, which calculate lower than the benchmark eigenvalues within 4σ. The primary difference between the two nuclear data libraries is the adjustment of the absorption cross section of graphite. Simulations of the absorber rod worth measurements are within 3σ of the benchmark experiment values. The complete benchmark evaluation details are available in the 2014 edition of the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments

  6. Verification and validation benchmarks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oberkampf, William Louis; Trucano, Timothy Guy

    2007-01-01

    Verification and validation (V and V) are the primary means to assess the accuracy and reliability of computational simulations. V and V methods and procedures have fundamentally improved the credibility of simulations in several high-consequence fields, such as nuclear reactor safety, underground nuclear waste storage, and nuclear weapon safety. Although the terminology is not uniform across engineering disciplines, code verification deals with assessing the reliability of the software coding, and solution verification deals with assessing the numerical accuracy of the solution to a computational model. Validation addresses the physics modeling accuracy of a computational simulation by comparing the computational results with experimental data. Code verification benchmarks and validation benchmarks have been constructed for a number of years in every field of computational simulation. However, no comprehensive guidelines have been proposed for the construction and use of V and V benchmarks. For example, the field of nuclear reactor safety has not focused on code verification benchmarks, but it has placed great emphasis on developing validation benchmarks. Many of these validation benchmarks are closely related to the operations of actual reactors at near-safety-critical conditions, as opposed to being more fundamental-physics benchmarks. This paper presents recommendations for the effective design and use of code verification benchmarks based on manufactured solutions, classical analytical solutions, and highly accurate numerical solutions. In addition, this paper presents recommendations for the design and use of validation benchmarks, highlighting the careful design of building-block experiments, the estimation of experimental measurement uncertainty for both inputs and outputs to the code, validation metrics, and the role of model calibration in validation. It is argued that the understanding of predictive capability of a computational model is built on the

  7. Verification and validation benchmarks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oberkampf, William L.; Trucano, Timothy G.

    2008-01-01

    Verification and validation (V and V) are the primary means to assess the accuracy and reliability of computational simulations. V and V methods and procedures have fundamentally improved the credibility of simulations in several high-consequence fields, such as nuclear reactor safety, underground nuclear waste storage, and nuclear weapon safety. Although the terminology is not uniform across engineering disciplines, code verification deals with assessing the reliability of the software coding, and solution verification deals with assessing the numerical accuracy of the solution to a computational model. Validation addresses the physics modeling accuracy of a computational simulation by comparing the computational results with experimental data. Code verification benchmarks and validation benchmarks have been constructed for a number of years in every field of computational simulation. However, no comprehensive guidelines have been proposed for the construction and use of V and V benchmarks. For example, the field of nuclear reactor safety has not focused on code verification benchmarks, but it has placed great emphasis on developing validation benchmarks. Many of these validation benchmarks are closely related to the operations of actual reactors at near-safety-critical conditions, as opposed to being more fundamental-physics benchmarks. This paper presents recommendations for the effective design and use of code verification benchmarks based on manufactured solutions, classical analytical solutions, and highly accurate numerical solutions. In addition, this paper presents recommendations for the design and use of validation benchmarks, highlighting the careful design of building-block experiments, the estimation of experimental measurement uncertainty for both inputs and outputs to the code, validation metrics, and the role of model calibration in validation. It is argued that the understanding of predictive capability of a computational model is built on the

  8. The OECD/NEA/NSC PBMR400 MW coupled neutronics thermal hydraulics transient benchmark - Steady-state results and status

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reitsma, F.; Han, J.; Ivanov, K.; Sartori, E.

    2008-01-01

    The PBMR is a High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) concept developed to be built in South Africa. The analysis tools used for core neutronic design and core safety analysis need to be verified and validated. Since only a few pebble-bed HTR experimental facilities or plant data are available the use of code-to-code comparisons are an essential part of the V and V plans. As part of this plan the PBMR 400 MW design and a representative set of transient cases is defined as an OECD benchmark. The scope of the benchmark is to establish a series of well-defined multi-dimensional computational benchmark problems with a common given set of cross-sections, to compare methods and tools in coupled neutronics and thermal hydraulics analysis with a specific focus on transient events. The OECD benchmark includes steady-state and transients cases. Although the focus of the benchmark is on the modelling of the transient behaviour of the PBMR core, it was also necessary to define some steady-state cases to ensure consistency between the different approaches before results of transient cases could be compared. This paper describes the status of the benchmark project and shows the results for the three steady state exercises defined as a standalone neutronics calculation, a standalone thermal-hydraulic core calculation, and a coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulic simulation. (authors)

  9. Development of a Computer-based Benchmarking and Analytical Tool. Benchmarking and Energy & Water Savings Tool in Dairy Plants (BEST-Dairy)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xu, Tengfang [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Flapper, Joris [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Ke, Jing [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Kramer, Klaas [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Sathaye, Jayant [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

    2012-02-01

    The overall goal of the project is to develop a computer-based benchmarking and energy and water savings tool (BEST-Dairy) for use in the California dairy industry – including four dairy processes – cheese, fluid milk, butter, and milk powder.

  10. The PAC-MAN model: Benchmark case for linear acoustics in computational physics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ziegelwanger, Harald; Reiter, Paul

    2017-10-01

    Benchmark cases in the field of computational physics, on the one hand, have to contain a certain complexity to test numerical edge cases and, on the other hand, require the existence of an analytical solution, because an analytical solution allows the exact quantification of the accuracy of a numerical simulation method. This dilemma causes a need for analytical sound field formulations of complex acoustic problems. A well known example for such a benchmark case for harmonic linear acoustics is the ;Cat's Eye model;, which describes the three-dimensional sound field radiated from a sphere with a missing octant analytically. In this paper, a benchmark case for two-dimensional (2D) harmonic linear acoustic problems, viz., the ;PAC-MAN model;, is proposed. The PAC-MAN model describes the radiated and scattered sound field around an infinitely long cylinder with a cut out sector of variable angular width. While the analytical calculation of the 2D sound field allows different angular cut-out widths and arbitrarily positioned line sources, the computational cost associated with the solution of this problem is similar to a 1D problem because of a modal formulation of the sound field in the PAC-MAN model.

  11. Self-benchmarking Guide for Laboratory Buildings: Metrics, Benchmarks, Actions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mathew, Paul; Greenberg, Steve; Sartor, Dale

    2009-07-13

    This guide describes energy efficiency metrics and benchmarks that can be used to track the performance of and identify potential opportunities to reduce energy use in laboratory buildings. This guide is primarily intended for personnel who have responsibility for managing energy use in existing laboratory facilities - including facilities managers, energy managers, and their engineering consultants. Additionally, laboratory planners and designers may also use the metrics and benchmarks described in this guide for goal-setting in new construction or major renovation. This guide provides the following information: (1) A step-by-step outline of the benchmarking process. (2) A set of performance metrics for the whole building as well as individual systems. For each metric, the guide provides a definition, performance benchmarks, and potential actions that can be inferred from evaluating this metric. (3) A list and descriptions of the data required for computing the metrics. This guide is complemented by spreadsheet templates for data collection and for computing the benchmarking metrics. This guide builds on prior research supported by the national Laboratories for the 21st Century (Labs21) program, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Much of the benchmarking data are drawn from the Labs21 benchmarking database and technical guides. Additional benchmark data were obtained from engineering experts including laboratory designers and energy managers.

  12. A Benchmark Study of a Seismic Analysis Program for a Single Column of a HTGR Core

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kang, Ji Ho [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-05-15

    A seismic analysis program, SAPCOR (Seismic Analysis of Prismatic HTGR Core), was developed in Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. The program is used for the evaluation of deformed shapes and forces on the graphite blocks which using point-mass rigid bodies with Kelvin-Voigt impact models. In the previous studies, the program was verified using theoretical solutions and benchmark problems. To validate the program for more complicated problems, a free vibration analysis of a single column of a HTGR core was selected and the calculation results of the SAPCOR and a commercial FEM code, Abaqus, were compared in this study.

  13. Argonne Code Center: Benchmark problem book.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None, None

    1977-06-01

    This book is an outgrowth of activities of the Computational Benchmark Problems Committee of the Mathematics and Computation Division of the American Nuclear Society. This is the second supplement of the original benchmark book which was first published in February, 1968 and contained computational benchmark problems in four different areas. Supplement No. 1, which was published in December, 1972, contained corrections to the original benchmark book plus additional problems in three new areas. The current supplement. Supplement No. 2, contains problems in eight additional new areas. The objectives of computational benchmark work and the procedures used by the committee in pursuing the objectives are outlined in the original edition of the benchmark book (ANL-7416, February, 1968). The members of the committee who have made contributions to Supplement No. 2 are listed below followed by the contributors to the earlier editions of the benchmark book.

  14. Benchmark Evaluation of Start-Up and Zero-Power Measurements at the High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bess, John D.; Fujimoto, Nozomu

    2014-01-01

    Benchmark models were developed to evaluate six cold-critical and two warm-critical, zero-power measurements of the HTTR. Additional measurements of a fully-loaded subcritical configuration, core excess reactivity, shutdown margins, six isothermal temperature coefficients, and axial reaction-rate distributions were also evaluated as acceptable benchmark experiments. Insufficient information is publicly available to develop finely-detailed models of the HTTR as much of the design information is still proprietary. However, the uncertainties in the benchmark models are judged to be of sufficient magnitude to encompass any biases and bias uncertainties incurred through the simplification process used to develop the benchmark models. Dominant uncertainties in the experimental keff for all core configurations come from uncertainties in the impurity content of the various graphite blocks that comprise the HTTR. Monte Carlo calculations of keff are between approximately 0.9 % and 2.7 % greater than the benchmark values. Reevaluation of the HTTR models as additional information becomes available could improve the quality of this benchmark and possibly reduce the computational biases. High-quality characterization of graphite impurities would significantly improve the quality of the HTTR benchmark assessment. Simulation of the other reactor physics measurements are in good agreement with the benchmark experiment values. The complete benchmark evaluation details are available in the 2014 edition of the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments

  15. Thermal lattice benchmarks for testing basic evaluated data files, developed with MCNP4B

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maucec, M.; Glumac, B.

    1996-01-01

    The development of unit cell and full reactor core models of DIMPLE S01A and TRX-1 and TRX-2 benchmark experiments, using Monte Carlo computer code MCNP4B is presented. Nuclear data from ENDF/B-V and VI version of cross-section library were used in the calculations. In addition, a comparison to results obtained with the similar models and cross-section data from the EJ2-MCNPlib library (which is based upon the JEF-2.2 evaluation) developed in IRC Petten, Netherlands is presented. The results of the criticality calculation with ENDF/B-VI data library, and a comparison to results obtained using JEF-2.2 evaluation, confirm the MCNP4B full core model of a DIMPLE reactor as a good benchmark for testing basic evaluated data files. On the other hand, the criticality calculations results obtained using the TRX full core models show less agreement with experiment. It is obvious that without additional data about the TRX geometry, our TRX models are not suitable as Monte Carlo benchmarks. (author)

  16. The analysis of one-dimensional reactor kinetics benchmark computations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sidell, J.

    1975-11-01

    During March 1973 the European American Committee on Reactor Physics proposed a series of simple one-dimensional reactor kinetics problems, with the intention of comparing the relative efficiencies of the numerical methods employed in various codes, which are currently in use in many national laboratories. This report reviews the contributions submitted to this benchmark exercise and attempts to assess the relative merits and drawbacks of the various theoretical and computer methods. (author)

  17. Start-up of a cold loop in a VVER-440, the 7th AER benchmark calculation with HEXTRAN-SMABRE-PORFLO

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hovi, Ville; Taivassalo, Veikko; Haemaelaeinen, Anitta; Raety, Hanna; Syrjaelahti, Elina

    2017-01-01

    The 7 th dynamic AER benchmark is the first in which three-dimensional thermal hydraulics codes are supposed to be applied. The aim is to get a more precise core inlet temperature profile than the sector temperatures available typically with system codes. The benchmark consists of a start-up of the sixth, isolated loop in a VVER-440 plant. The isolated loop initially contains cold water without boric acid and the start-up leads to a somewhat asymmetrical core power increase due to feedbacks in the core. In this study, the 7 th AER benchmark is calculated with the three-dimensional nodal reactor dynamics code HEXTRAN-SMABRE coupled with the porous computational fluid dynamics code PORFLO. These three codes are developed at VTT. A novel two-way coupled simulation of the 7 th AER benchmark was performed successfully demonstrating the feasibility and advantages of the new reactor analysis framework. The modelling issues for this benchmark are reported and some evaluation against the previously reported comparisons between the system codes is provided.

  18. COSA II Further benchmark exercises to compare geomechanical computer codes for salt

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lowe, M.J.S.; Knowles, N.C.

    1989-01-01

    Project COSA (COmputer COdes COmparison for SAlt) was a benchmarking exercise involving the numerical modelling of the geomechanical behaviour of heated rock salt. Its main objective was to assess the current European capability to predict the geomechanical behaviour of salt, in the context of the disposal of heat-producing radioactive waste in salt formations. Twelve organisations participated in the exercise in which their solutions to a number of benchmark problems were compared. The project was organised in two distinct phases: The first, from 1984-1986, concentrated on the verification of the computer codes. The second, from 1986-1988 progressed to validation, using three in-situ experiments at the Asse research facility in West Germany as a basis for comparison. This document reports the activities of the second phase of the project and presents the results, assessments and conclusions

  19. Benchmarking severe accident computer codes for heavy water reactor applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Choi, J.H. [International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)

    2010-07-01

    Consideration of severe accidents at a nuclear power plant (NPP) is an essential component of the defence in depth approach used in nuclear safety. Severe accident analysis involves very complex physical phenomena that occur sequentially during various stages of accident progression. Computer codes are essential tools for understanding how the reactor and its containment might respond under severe accident conditions. International cooperative research programmes are established by the IAEA in areas that are of common interest to a number of Member States. These co-operative efforts are carried out through coordinated research projects (CRPs), typically 3 to 6 years in duration, and often involving experimental activities. Such CRPs allow a sharing of efforts on an international basis, foster team-building and benefit from the experience and expertise of researchers from all participating institutes. The IAEA is organizing a CRP on benchmarking severe accident computer codes for heavy water reactor (HWR) applications. The CRP scope includes defining the severe accident sequence and conducting benchmark analyses for HWRs, evaluating the capabilities of existing computer codes to predict important severe accident phenomena, and suggesting necessary code improvements and/or new experiments to reduce uncertainties. The CRP has been planned on the advice and with the support of the IAEA Nuclear Energy Department's Technical Working Groups on Advanced Technologies for HWRs. (author)

  20. Benchmark testing and independent verification of the VS2DT computer code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McCord, J.T.

    1994-11-01

    The finite difference flow and transport simulator VS2DT was benchmark tested against several other codes which solve the same equations (Richards equation for flow and the Advection-Dispersion equation for transport). The benchmark problems investigated transient two-dimensional flow in a heterogeneous soil profile with a localized water source at the ground surface. The VS2DT code performed as well as or better than all other codes when considering mass balance characteristics and computational speed. It was also rated highly relative to the other codes with regard to ease-of-use. Following the benchmark study, the code was verified against two analytical solutions, one for two-dimensional flow and one for two-dimensional transport. These independent verifications show reasonable agreement with the analytical solutions, and complement the one-dimensional verification problems published in the code's original documentation

  1. Start-up of a cold loop in a VVER-440, the 7{sup th} AER benchmark calculation with HEXTRAN-SMABRE-PORFLO

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hovi, Ville; Taivassalo, Veikko; Haemaelaeinen, Anitta; Raety, Hanna; Syrjaelahti, Elina [VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, VTT (Finland)

    2017-09-15

    The 7{sup th} dynamic AER benchmark is the first in which three-dimensional thermal hydraulics codes are supposed to be applied. The aim is to get a more precise core inlet temperature profile than the sector temperatures available typically with system codes. The benchmark consists of a start-up of the sixth, isolated loop in a VVER-440 plant. The isolated loop initially contains cold water without boric acid and the start-up leads to a somewhat asymmetrical core power increase due to feedbacks in the core. In this study, the 7{sup th} AER benchmark is calculated with the three-dimensional nodal reactor dynamics code HEXTRAN-SMABRE coupled with the porous computational fluid dynamics code PORFLO. These three codes are developed at VTT. A novel two-way coupled simulation of the 7{sup th} AER benchmark was performed successfully demonstrating the feasibility and advantages of the new reactor analysis framework. The modelling issues for this benchmark are reported and some evaluation against the previously reported comparisons between the system codes is provided.

  2. The Monte Carlo performance benchmark test - AIMS, specifications and first results

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hoogenboom, J. Eduard, E-mail: j.e.hoogenboom@tudelft.nl [Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology (Netherlands); Martin, William R., E-mail: wrm@umich.edu [Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Petrovic, Bojan, E-mail: Bojan.Petrovic@gatech.edu [Nuclear and Radiological Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)

    2011-07-01

    The Monte Carlo performance benchmark for detailed power density calculation in a full-size reactor core is organized under the auspices of the OECD NEA Data Bank. It aims at monitoring over a range of years the increase in performance, measured in terms of standard deviation and computer time, of Monte Carlo calculation of the power density in small volumes. A short description of the reactor geometry and composition is discussed. One of the unique features of the benchmark exercise is the possibility to upload results from participants at a web site of the NEA Data Bank which enables online analysis of results and to graphically display how near we are at the goal of doing a detailed power distribution calculation with acceptable statistical uncertainty in an acceptable computing time. First results are discussed which show that 10 to 100 billion histories must be simulated to reach a standard deviation of a few percent in the estimated power of most of the requested the fuel zones. Even when using a large supercomputer, a considerable speedup is still needed to reach the target of 1 hour computer time. An outlook is given of what to expect from this benchmark exercise over the years. Possible extensions of the benchmark for specific issues relevant in current Monte Carlo calculation for nuclear reactors are also discussed. (author)

  3. The Monte Carlo performance benchmark test - AIMS, specifications and first results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoogenboom, J. Eduard; Martin, William R.; Petrovic, Bojan

    2011-01-01

    The Monte Carlo performance benchmark for detailed power density calculation in a full-size reactor core is organized under the auspices of the OECD NEA Data Bank. It aims at monitoring over a range of years the increase in performance, measured in terms of standard deviation and computer time, of Monte Carlo calculation of the power density in small volumes. A short description of the reactor geometry and composition is discussed. One of the unique features of the benchmark exercise is the possibility to upload results from participants at a web site of the NEA Data Bank which enables online analysis of results and to graphically display how near we are at the goal of doing a detailed power distribution calculation with acceptable statistical uncertainty in an acceptable computing time. First results are discussed which show that 10 to 100 billion histories must be simulated to reach a standard deviation of a few percent in the estimated power of most of the requested the fuel zones. Even when using a large supercomputer, a considerable speedup is still needed to reach the target of 1 hour computer time. An outlook is given of what to expect from this benchmark exercise over the years. Possible extensions of the benchmark for specific issues relevant in current Monte Carlo calculation for nuclear reactors are also discussed. (author)

  4. Bioinformatics and Computational Core Technology Center

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Laboratory Consortium — SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE COMPUTER CORE FACILITYEvaluation, purchase, set up, and maintenance of the computer hardware and network for the 170 users in the research...

  5. Pool critical assembly pressure vessel facility benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Remec, I.; Kam, F.B.K.

    1997-07-01

    This pool critical assembly (PCA) pressure vessel wall facility benchmark (PCA benchmark) is described and analyzed in this report. Analysis of the PCA benchmark can be used for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the qualification of the methodology for pressure vessel neutron fluence calculations, as required by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulatory guide DG-1053. Section 1 of this report describes the PCA benchmark and provides all data necessary for the benchmark analysis. The measured quantities, to be compared with the calculated values, are the equivalent fission fluxes. In Section 2 the analysis of the PCA benchmark is described. Calculations with the computer code DORT, based on the discrete-ordinates method, were performed for three ENDF/B-VI-based multigroup libraries: BUGLE-93, SAILOR-95, and BUGLE-96. An excellent agreement of the calculated (C) and measures (M) equivalent fission fluxes was obtained. The arithmetic average C/M for all the dosimeters (total of 31) was 0.93 ± 0.03 and 0.92 ± 0.03 for the SAILOR-95 and BUGLE-96 libraries, respectively. The average C/M ratio, obtained with the BUGLE-93 library, for the 28 measurements was 0.93 ± 0.03 (the neptunium measurements in the water and air regions were overpredicted and excluded from the average). No systematic decrease in the C/M ratios with increasing distance from the core was observed for any of the libraries used

  6. A simplified 2D HTTR benchmark problem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Z.; Rahnema, F.; Pounders, J. M.; Zhang, D.; Ougouag, A.

    2009-01-01

    To access the accuracy of diffusion or transport methods for reactor calculations, it is desirable to create heterogeneous benchmark problems that are typical of relevant whole core configurations. In this paper we have created a numerical benchmark problem in 2D configuration typical of a high temperature gas cooled prismatic core. This problem was derived from the HTTR start-up experiment. For code-to-code verification, complex details of geometry and material specification of the physical experiments are not necessary. To this end, the benchmark problem presented here is derived by simplifications that remove the unnecessary details while retaining the heterogeneity and major physics properties from the neutronics viewpoint. Also included here is a six-group material (macroscopic) cross section library for the benchmark problem. This library was generated using the lattice depletion code HELIOS. Using this library, benchmark quality Monte Carlo solutions are provided for three different configurations (all-rods-in, partially-controlled and all-rods-out). The reference solutions include the core eigenvalue, block (assembly) averaged fuel pin fission density distributions, and absorption rate in absorbers (burnable poison and control rods). (authors)

  7. A simplified approach to WWER-440 fuel assembly head benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muehlbauer, P.

    2010-01-01

    The WWER-440 fuel assembly head benchmark was simulated with FLUENT 12 code as a first step of validation of the code for nuclear reactor safety analyses. Results of the benchmark together with comparison of results provided by other participants and results of measurement will be presented in another paper by benchmark organisers. This presentation is therefore focused on our approach to this simulation as illustrated on the case 323-34, which represents a peripheral assembly with five neighbours. All steps of the simulation and some lessons learned are described. Geometry of the computational region supplied as STEP file by organizers of the benchmark was first separated into two parts (inlet part with spacer grid, and the rest of assembly head) in order to keep the size of the computational mesh manageable with regard to the hardware available (HP Z800 workstation with Intel Zeon four-core CPU 3.2 GHz, 32 GB of RAM) and then further modified at places where shape of the geometry would probably lead to highly distorted cells. Both parts of the geometry were connected via boundary profile file generated at cross section, where effect of grid spacers is still felt but the effect of out flow boundary condition used in the computations of the inlet part of geometry is negligible. Computation proceeded in several steps: start with basic mesh, standard k-ε model of turbulence with standard wall functions and first order upwind numerical schemes; after convergence (scaled residuals lower than 10-3) and near-wall meshes local adaptation when needed, realizable k-ε of turbulence was used with second order upwind numerical schemes for momentum and energy equations. During iterations, area-average temperature of thermocouples and area-averaged outlet temperature which are the main figures of merit of the benchmark were also monitored. In this 'blind' phase of the benchmark, effect of spacers was neglected. After results of measurements are available, standard validation

  8. AER benchmark specification sheet

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aszodi, A.; Toth, S.

    2009-01-01

    In the VVER-440/213 type reactors, the core outlet temperature field is monitored with in-core thermocouples, which are installed above 210 fuel assemblies. These measured temperatures are used in determination of the fuel assembly powers and they have important role in the reactor power limitation. For these reasons, correct interpretation of the thermocouple signals is an important question. In order to interpret the signals in correct way, knowledge of the coolant mixing in the assembly heads is necessary. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes and experiments can help to understand better these mixing processes and they can provide information which can support the more adequate interpretation of the thermocouple signals. This benchmark deals with the 3D CFD modeling of the coolant mixing in the heads of the profiled fuel assemblies with 12.2 mm rod pitch. Two assemblies of the 23rd cycle of the Paks NPP's Unit 3 are investigated. One of them has symmetrical pin power profile and another possesses inclined profile. (authors)

  9. Benchmarking Further Single Board Computers for Building a Mini Supercomputer for Simulation of Telecommunication Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gábor Lencse

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Parallel Discrete Event Simulation (PDES with the conservative synchronization method can be efficiently used for the performance analysis of telecommunication systems because of their good lookahead properties. For PDES, a cost effective execution platform may be built by using single board computers (SBCs, which offer relatively high computation capacity compared to their price or power consumption and especially to the space they take up. A benchmarking method is proposed and its operation is demonstrated by benchmarking ten different SBCs, namely Banana Pi, Beaglebone Black, Cubieboard2, Odroid-C1+, Odroid-U3+, Odroid-XU3 Lite, Orange Pi Plus, Radxa Rock Lite, Raspberry Pi Model B+, and Raspberry Pi 2 Model B+. Their benchmarking results are compared to find out which one should be used for building a mini supercomputer for parallel discrete-event simulation of telecommunication systems. The SBCs are also used to build a heterogeneous cluster and the performance of the cluster is tested, too.

  10. Simplified two and three dimensional HTTR benchmark problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Zhan; Rahnema, Farzad; Zhang Dingkang; Pounders, Justin M.; Ougouag, Abderrafi M.

    2011-01-01

    To assess the accuracy of diffusion or transport methods for reactor calculations, it is desirable to create heterogeneous benchmark problems that are typical of whole core configurations. In this paper we have created two and three dimensional numerical benchmark problems typical of high temperature gas cooled prismatic cores. Additionally, a single cell and single block benchmark problems are also included. These problems were derived from the HTTR start-up experiment. Since the primary utility of the benchmark problems is in code-to-code verification, minor details regarding geometry and material specification of the original experiment have been simplified while retaining the heterogeneity and the major physics properties of the core from a neutronics viewpoint. A six-group material (macroscopic) cross section library has been generated for the benchmark problems using the lattice depletion code HELIOS. Using this library, Monte Carlo solutions are presented for three configurations (all-rods-in, partially-controlled and all-rods-out) for both the 2D and 3D problems. These solutions include the core eigenvalues, the block (assembly) averaged fission densities, local peaking factors, the absorption densities in the burnable poison and control rods, and pin fission density distribution for selected blocks. Also included are the solutions for the single cell and single block problems.

  11. Parallelized computation for computer simulation of electrocardiograms using personal computers with multi-core CPU and general-purpose GPU.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Wenfeng; Wei, Daming; Xu, Weimin; Zhu, Xin; Yuan, Shizhong

    2010-10-01

    Biological computations like electrocardiological modelling and simulation usually require high-performance computing environments. This paper introduces an implementation of parallel computation for computer simulation of electrocardiograms (ECGs) in a personal computer environment with an Intel CPU of Core (TM) 2 Quad Q6600 and a GPU of Geforce 8800GT, with software support by OpenMP and CUDA. It was tested in three parallelization device setups: (a) a four-core CPU without a general-purpose GPU, (b) a general-purpose GPU plus 1 core of CPU, and (c) a four-core CPU plus a general-purpose GPU. To effectively take advantage of a multi-core CPU and a general-purpose GPU, an algorithm based on load-prediction dynamic scheduling was developed and applied to setting (c). In the simulation with 1600 time steps, the speedup of the parallel computation as compared to the serial computation was 3.9 in setting (a), 16.8 in setting (b), and 20.0 in setting (c). This study demonstrates that a current PC with a multi-core CPU and a general-purpose GPU provides a good environment for parallel computations in biological modelling and simulation studies. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Calculation of Single Cell and Fuel Assembly IRIS Benchmarks Using WIMSD5B and GNOMER Codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pevec, D.; Grgic, D.; Jecmenica, R.

    2002-01-01

    IRIS reactor (an acronym for International Reactor Innovative and Secure) is a modular, integral, light water cooled, small to medium power (100-335 MWe/module) reactor, which addresses the requirements defined by the United States Department of Energy for Generation IV nuclear energy systems, i.e., proliferation resistance, enhanced safety, improved economics, and waste reduction. An international consortium led by Westinghouse/BNFL was created for development of IRIS reactor; it includes universities, institutes, commercial companies, and utilities. Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb joined the consortium in year 2001, with the aim to take part in IRIS neutronics design and safety analyses of IRIS transients. A set of neutronic benchmarks for IRIS reactor was defined with the objective to compare results of all participants with exactly the same assumptions. In this paper a calculation of Benchmark 44 for IRIS reactor is described. Benchmark 44 is defined as a core depletion benchmark problem for specified IRIS reactor operating conditions (e.g., temperatures, moderator density) without feedback. Enriched boron, inhomogeneously distributed in axial direction, is used as an integral fuel burnable absorber (IFBA). The aim of this benchmark was to enable a more direct comparison of results of different code systems. Calculations of Benchmark 44 were performed using the modified CORD-2 code package. The CORD-2 code package consists of WIMSD and GNOMER codes. WIMSD is a well-known lattice spectrum calculation code. GNOMER solves the neutron diffusion equation in three-dimensional Cartesian geometry by the Green's function nodal method. The following parameters were obtained in Benchmark 44 analysis: effective multiplication factor as a function of burnup, nuclear peaking factor as a function of burnup, axial offset as a function of burnup, core-average axial power profile, core radial power profile, axial power profile for selected

  13. The OECD/NEA/NSC PBMR 400 MW coupled neutronics thermal hydraulics transient benchmark: transient results - 290

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Strydom, G.; Reitsma, F.; Ngeleka, P.T.; Ivanov, K.N.

    2010-01-01

    The PBMR is a High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) concept developed to be built in South Africa. The analysis tools used for core neutronic design and core safety analysis need to be verified and validated, and code-to-code comparisons are an essential part of the V and V plans. As part of this plan the PBMR 400 MWth design and a representative set of transient exercises are defined as an OECD benchmark. The scope of the benchmark is to establish a series of well defined multi-dimensional computational benchmark problems with a common given set of cross sections, to compare methods and tools in coupled neutronics and thermal hydraulics analysis with a specific focus on transient events. This paper describes the current status of the benchmark project and shows the results for the six transient exercises, consisting of three Loss of Cooling Accidents, two Control Rod Withdrawal transients, a power load-follow transient, and a Helium over-cooling Accident. The participants' results are compared using a statistical method and possible areas of future code improvement are identified. (authors)

  14. HS06 Benchmark for an ARM Server

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kluth, Stefan

    2014-06-01

    We benchmarked an ARM cortex-A9 based server system with a four-core CPU running at 1.1 GHz. The system used Ubuntu 12.04 as operating system and the HEPSPEC 2006 (HS06) benchmarking suite was compiled natively with gcc-4.4 on the system. The benchmark was run for various settings of the relevant gcc compiler options. We did not find significant influence from the compiler options on the benchmark result. The final HS06 benchmark result is 10.4.

  15. HS06 benchmark for an ARM server

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kluth, Stefan

    2014-01-01

    We benchmarked an ARM cortex-A9 based server system with a four-core CPU running at 1.1 GHz. The system used Ubuntu 12.04 as operating system and the HEPSPEC 2006 (HS06) benchmarking suite was compiled natively with gcc-4.4 on the system. The benchmark was run for various settings of the relevant gcc compiler options. We did not find significant influence from the compiler options on the benchmark result. The final HS06 benchmark result is 10.4.

  16. OECD/NRC BWR Turbine Trip Transient Benchmark as a Basis for Comprehensive Qualification and Studying Best-Estimate Coupled Codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ivanov, Kostadin; Olson, Andy; Sartori, Enrico

    2004-01-01

    An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)-sponsored coupled-code benchmark has been initiated for a boiling water reactor (BWR) turbine trip (TT) transient. Turbine trip transients in a BWR are pressurization events in which the coupling between core space-dependent neutronic phenomena and system dynamics plays an important role. In addition, the available real plant experimental data make this benchmark problem very valuable. Over the course of defining and coordinating the BWR TT benchmark, a systematic approach has been established to validate best-estimate coupled codes. This approach employs a multilevel methodology that not only allows for a consistent and comprehensive validation process but also contributes to the study of different numerical and computational aspects of coupled best-estimate simulations. This paper provides an overview of the OECD/NRC BWR TT benchmark activities with emphasis on the discussion of the numerical and computational aspects of the benchmark

  17. Numerical and computational aspects of the coupled three-dimensional core/ plant simulations: organization for economic cooperation and development/ U.S. nuclear regulatory commission pressurized water reactor main-steam-line-break benchmark-II. 2. TRAB-3D/SMABRE Calculation of the OECD/ NRC PWR MSLB Benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daavittila, A.; Haemaelaeinen, A.; Kyrki-Rajamaki, R.

    2001-01-01

    All three exercises of the OECD/NRC Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Main-Steam-Line-Break (MSLB) Benchmark were calculated at VTT Energy. The SMABRE thermal-hydraulics code was used for the first exercise, the plant simulation with point-kinetics neutronics. The second exercise was calculated with the TRAB-3D three-dimensional reactor dynamics code. The third exercise was calculated with the combination TRAB-3D/SMABRE. Both codes have been developed at VTT Energy. The results of all the exercises agree reasonably well with those of the other participants; thus, instead of reporting the results, this paper concentrates on describing the computational aspects of the calculation with the foregoing codes and on some observations of the sensitivity of the results. In the TRAB-3D neutron kinetics, the two-group diffusion equations are solved in homogenized fuel assembly geometry with an efficient two-level nodal method. The point of the two-level iteration scheme is that only one unknown variable per node, the average neutron flux, is calculated during the inner iteration. The nodal flux shapes and cross sections are recalculated only once in the outer iteration loop. The TRAB-3D core model includes also parallel one-dimensional channel hydraulics with detailed fuel models. Advanced implicit time discretization methods are used in all submodels. SMABRE is a fast-running five-equation model completed by a drift-flux model, with a time discretization based on a non-iterative semi-implicit algorithm. For the third exercise of the benchmark, the TMI-1 models of TRAB-3D and SMABRE were coupled. This was the first time these codes were coupled together. However, similar coupling of the HEXTRAN and SMABRE codes has been shown to be stable and efficient, when used in safety analyses of Finnish and foreign VVER-type reactors. The coupling used between the two codes is called a parallel coupling. SMABRE solves the thermal hydraulics both in the cooling circuit and in the core

  18. Benchmarking ENDF/B-VII.0

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marck, Steven C. van der

    2006-01-01

    The new major release VII.0 of the ENDF/B nuclear data library has been tested extensively using benchmark calculations. These were based upon MCNP-4C3 continuous-energy Monte Carlo neutronics simulations, together with nuclear data processed using the code NJOY. Three types of benchmarks were used, viz., criticality safety benchmarks (fusion) shielding benchmarks, and reference systems for which the effective delayed neutron fraction is reported. For criticality safety, more than 700 benchmarks from the International Handbook of Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments were used. Benchmarks from all categories were used, ranging from low-enriched uranium, compound fuel, thermal spectrum ones (LEU-COMP-THERM), to mixed uranium-plutonium, metallic fuel, fast spectrum ones (MIX-MET-FAST). For fusion shielding many benchmarks were based on IAEA specifications for the Oktavian experiments (for Al, Co, Cr, Cu, LiF, Mn, Mo, Si, Ti, W, Zr), Fusion Neutronics Source in Japan (for Be, C, N, O, Fe, Pb), and Pulsed Sphere experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (for 6 Li, 7 Li, Be, C, N, O, Mg, Al, Ti, Fe, Pb, D 2 O, H 2 O, concrete, polyethylene and teflon). For testing delayed neutron data more than thirty measurements in widely varying systems were used. Among these were measurements in the Tank Critical Assembly (TCA in Japan) and IPEN/MB-01 (Brazil), both with a thermal spectrum, and two cores in Masurca (France) and three cores in the Fast Critical Assembly (FCA, Japan), all with fast spectra. In criticality safety, many benchmarks were chosen from the category with a thermal spectrum, low-enriched uranium, compound fuel (LEU-COMP-THERM), because this is typical of most current-day reactors, and because these benchmarks were previously underpredicted by as much as 0.5% by most nuclear data libraries (such as ENDF/B-VI.8, JEFF-3.0). The calculated results presented here show that this underprediction is no longer there for ENDF/B-VII.0. The average over 257

  19. 3-D neutron transport benchmarks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takeda, T.; Ikeda, H.

    1991-03-01

    A set of 3-D neutron transport benchmark problems proposed by the Osaka University to NEACRP in 1988 has been calculated by many participants and the corresponding results are summarized in this report. The results of K eff , control rod worth and region-averaged fluxes for the four proposed core models, calculated by using various 3-D transport codes are compared and discussed. The calculational methods used were: Monte Carlo, Discrete Ordinates (Sn), Spherical Harmonics (Pn), Nodal Transport and others. The solutions of the four core models are quite useful as benchmarks for checking the validity of 3-D neutron transport codes

  20. MCNP simulation of the TRIGA Mark II benchmark experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jeraj, R.; Glumac, B.; Maucec, M.

    1996-01-01

    The complete 3D MCNP model of the TRIGA Mark II reactor is presented. It enables precise calculations of some quantities of interest in a steady-state mode of operation. Calculational results are compared to the experimental results gathered during reactor reconstruction in 1992. Since the operating conditions were well defined at that time, the experimental results can be used as a benchmark. It may be noted that this benchmark is one of very few high enrichment benchmarks available. In our simulations experimental conditions were thoroughly simulated: fuel elements and control rods were precisely modeled as well as entire core configuration and the vicinity of the core. ENDF/B-VI and ENDF/B-V libraries were used. Partial results of benchmark calculations are presented. Excellent agreement of core criticality, excess reactivity and control rod worths can be observed. (author)

  1. IAEA coordinated research project (CRP) on 'Analytical and experimental benchmark analyses of accelerator driven systems'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abanades, Alberto; Aliberti, Gerardo; Gohar, Yousry; Talamo, Alberto; Bornos, Victor; Kiyavitskaya, Anna; Carta, Mario; Janczyszyn, Jerzy; Maiorino, Jose; Pyeon, Cheolho; Stanculescu, Alexander; Titarenko, Yury; Westmeier, Wolfram

    2008-01-01

    In December 2005, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has started a Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on 'Analytical and Experimental Benchmark Analyses of Accelerator Driven Systems'. The overall objective of the CRP, performed within the framework of the Technical Working Group on Fast Reactors (TWGFR) of IAEA's Nuclear Energy Department, is to increase the capability of interested Member States in developing and applying advanced reactor technologies in the area of long-lived radioactive waste utilization and transmutation. The specific objective of the CRP is to improve the present understanding of the coupling of an external neutron source (e.g. spallation source) with a multiplicative sub-critical core. The participants are performing computational and experimental benchmark analyses using integrated calculation schemes and simulation methods. The CRP aims at integrating some of the planned experimental demonstration projects of the coupling between a sub-critical core and an external neutron source (e.g. YALINA Booster in Belarus, and Kyoto University's Critical Assembly (KUCA)). The objective of these experimental programs is to validate computational methods, obtain high energy nuclear data, characterize the performance of sub-critical assemblies driven by external sources, and to develop and improve techniques for sub-criticality monitoring. The paper summarizes preliminary results obtained to-date for some of the CRP benchmarks. (authors)

  2. Ad hoc committee on reactor physics benchmarks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Diamond, D.J.; Mosteller, R.D.; Gehin, J.C.

    1996-01-01

    In the spring of 1994, an ad hoc committee on reactor physics benchmarks was formed under the leadership of two American Nuclear Society (ANS) organizations. The ANS-19 Standards Subcommittee of the Reactor Physics Division and the Computational Benchmark Problem Committee of the Mathematics and Computation Division had both seen a need for additional benchmarks to help validate computer codes used for light water reactor (LWR) neutronics calculations. Although individual organizations had employed various means to validate the reactor physics methods that they used for fuel management, operations, and safety, additional work in code development and refinement is under way, and to increase accuracy, there is a need for a corresponding increase in validation. Both organizations thought that there was a need to promulgate benchmarks based on measured data to supplement the LWR computational benchmarks that have been published in the past. By having an organized benchmark activity, the participants also gain by being able to discuss their problems and achievements with others traveling the same route

  3. Advanced computational methods for the assessment of reactor core behaviour during reactivity initiated accidents. Final report; Fortschrittliche Rechenmethoden zum Kernverhalten bei Reaktivitaetsstoerfaellen. Abschlussbericht

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pautz, A.; Perin, Y.; Pasichnyk, I.; Velkov, K.; Zwermann, W.; Seubert, A.; Klein, M.; Gallner, L.; Krzycacz-Hausmann, B.

    2012-05-15

    The document at hand serves as the final report for the reactor safety research project RS1183 ''Advanced Computational Methods for the Assessment of Reactor Core Behavior During Reactivity-Initiated Accidents''. The work performed in the framework of this project was dedicated to the development, validation and application of advanced computational methods for the simulation of transients and accidents of nuclear installations. These simulation tools describe in particular the behavior of the reactor core (with respect to neutronics, thermal-hydraulics and thermal mechanics) at a very high level of detail. The overall goal of this project was the deployment of a modern nuclear computational chain which provides, besides advanced 3D tools for coupled neutronics/ thermal-hydraulics full core calculations, also appropriate tools for the generation of multi-group cross sections and Monte Carlo models for the verification of the individual calculational steps. This computational chain shall primarily be deployed for light water reactors (LWR), but should beyond that also be applicable for innovative reactor concepts. Thus, validation on computational benchmarks and critical experiments was of paramount importance. Finally, appropriate methods for uncertainty and sensitivity analysis were to be integrated into the computational framework, in order to assess and quantify the uncertainties due to insufficient knowledge of data, as well as due to methodological aspects.

  4. Accelerating the SCE-UA Global Optimization Method Based on Multi-Core CPU and Many-Core GPU

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guangyuan Kan

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The famous global optimization SCE-UA method, which has been widely used in the field of environmental model parameter calibration, is an effective and robust method. However, the SCE-UA method has a high computational load which prohibits the application of SCE-UA to high dimensional and complex problems. In recent years, the hardware of computer, such as multi-core CPUs and many-core GPUs, improves significantly. These much more powerful new hardware and their software ecosystems provide an opportunity to accelerate the SCE-UA method. In this paper, we proposed two parallel SCE-UA methods and implemented them on Intel multi-core CPU and NVIDIA many-core GPU by OpenMP and CUDA Fortran, respectively. The Griewank benchmark function was adopted in this paper to test and compare the performances of the serial and parallel SCE-UA methods. According to the results of the comparison, some useful advises were given to direct how to properly use the parallel SCE-UA methods.

  5. CMFD and GPU acceleration on method of characteristics for hexagonal cores

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Han, Yu; Jiang, Xiaofeng; Wang, Dezhong

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • A merged hex-mesh CMFD method solved via tri-diagonal matrix inversion. • Alternative hardware acceleration of using inexpensive GPU. • A hex-core benchmark with solution to confirm two acceleration methods. - Abstract: Coarse Mesh Finite Difference (CMFD) has been widely adopted as an effective way to accelerate the source iteration of transport calculation. However in a core with hexagonal assemblies there are non-hexagonal meshes around the edges of assemblies, causing a problem for CMFD if the CMFD equations are still to be solved via tri-diagonal matrix inversion by simply scanning the whole core meshes in different directions. To solve this problem, we propose an unequal mesh CMFD formulation that combines the non-hexagonal cells on the boundary of neighboring assemblies into non-regular hexagonal cells. We also investigated the alternative hardware acceleration of using graphics processing units (GPU) with graphics card in a personal computer. The tool CUDA is employed, which is a parallel computing platform and programming model invented by the company NVIDIA for harnessing the power of GPU. To investigate and implement these two acceleration methods, a 2-D hexagonal core transport code using the method of characteristics (MOC) is developed. A hexagonal mini-core benchmark problem is established to confirm the accuracy of the MOC code and to assess the effectiveness of CMFD and GPU parallel acceleration. For this benchmark problem, the CMFD acceleration increases the speed 16 times while the GPU acceleration speeds it up 25 times. When used simultaneously, they provide a speed gain of 292 times

  6. CMFD and GPU acceleration on method of characteristics for hexagonal cores

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Han, Yu, E-mail: hanyu1203@gmail.com [School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Jiang, Xiaofeng [Shanghai NuStar Nuclear Power Technology Co., Ltd., No. 81 South Qinzhou Road, XuJiaHui District, Shanghai 200000 (China); Wang, Dezhong [School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240 (China)

    2014-12-15

    Highlights: • A merged hex-mesh CMFD method solved via tri-diagonal matrix inversion. • Alternative hardware acceleration of using inexpensive GPU. • A hex-core benchmark with solution to confirm two acceleration methods. - Abstract: Coarse Mesh Finite Difference (CMFD) has been widely adopted as an effective way to accelerate the source iteration of transport calculation. However in a core with hexagonal assemblies there are non-hexagonal meshes around the edges of assemblies, causing a problem for CMFD if the CMFD equations are still to be solved via tri-diagonal matrix inversion by simply scanning the whole core meshes in different directions. To solve this problem, we propose an unequal mesh CMFD formulation that combines the non-hexagonal cells on the boundary of neighboring assemblies into non-regular hexagonal cells. We also investigated the alternative hardware acceleration of using graphics processing units (GPU) with graphics card in a personal computer. The tool CUDA is employed, which is a parallel computing platform and programming model invented by the company NVIDIA for harnessing the power of GPU. To investigate and implement these two acceleration methods, a 2-D hexagonal core transport code using the method of characteristics (MOC) is developed. A hexagonal mini-core benchmark problem is established to confirm the accuracy of the MOC code and to assess the effectiveness of CMFD and GPU parallel acceleration. For this benchmark problem, the CMFD acceleration increases the speed 16 times while the GPU acceleration speeds it up 25 times. When used simultaneously, they provide a speed gain of 292 times.

  7. Elasto-plastic benchmark calculations. Step 1: verification of the numerical accuracy of the computer programs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Corsi, F.

    1985-01-01

    In connection with the design of nuclear reactors components operating at elevated temperature, design criteria need a level of realism in the prediction of inelastic structural behaviour. This concept leads to the necessity of developing non linear computer programmes, and, as a consequence, to the problems of verification and qualification of these tools. Benchmark calculations allow to carry out these two actions, involving at the same time an increased level of confidence in complex phenomena analysis and in inelastic design calculations. With the financial and programmatic support of the Commission of the European Communities (CEE) a programme of elasto-plastic benchmark calculations relevant to the design of structural components for LMFBR has been undertaken by those Member States which are developing a fast reactor project. Four principal progressive aims were initially pointed out that brought to the decision to subdivide the Benchmark effort in a calculations series of four sequential steps: step 1 to 4. The present document tries to summarize Step 1 of the Benchmark exercise, to derive some conclusions on Step 1 by comparison of the results obtained with the various codes and to point out some concluding comments on the first action. It is to point out that even if the work was designed to test the capabilities of the computer codes, another aim was to increase the skill of the users concerned

  8. Computed tomography of drill cores

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taylor, T.

    1985-08-01

    A preliminary computed tomography evaluation of drill cores of granite and sandstone has generated geologically significant data. Density variations as small as 4 percent and fractures as narrow as 0.1 mm were easily detected

  9. 3-D core modelling of RIA transient: the TMI-1 benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ferraresi, P.; Studer, E.; Avvakumov, A.; Malofeev, V.; Diamond, D.; Bromley, B.

    2001-01-01

    The increase of fuel burn up in core management poses actually the problem of the evaluation of the deposited energy during Reactivity Insertion Accidents (RIA). In order to precisely evaluate this energy, 3-D approaches are used more and more frequently in core calculations. This 'best-estimate' approach requires the evaluation of code uncertainties. To contribute to this evaluation, a code benchmark has been launched. A 3-D modelling for the TMI-1 central Ejected Rod Accident with zero and intermediate initial powers was carried out with three different methods of calculation for an inserted reactivity respectively fixed at 1.2 $ and 1.26 $. The studies implemented by the neutronics codes PARCS (BNL) and CRONOS (IPSN/CEA) describe an homogeneous assembly, whereas the BARS (KI) code allows a pin-by-pin representation (CRONOS has both possibilities). All the calculations are consistent, the variation in figures resulting mainly from the method used to build cross sections and reflectors constants. The maximum rise in enthalpy for the intermediate initial power (33 % P N ) calculation is, for this academic calculation, about 30 cal/g. This work will be completed in a next step by an evaluation of the uncertainty induced by the uncertainty on model parameters, and a sensitivity study of the key parameters for a peripheral Rod Ejection Accident. (authors)

  10. 3-D core modelling of RIA transient: the TMI-1 benchmark

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ferraresi, P. [CEA Cadarache, Institut de Protection et de Surete Nucleaire, Dept. de Recherches en Securite, 13 - Saint Paul Lez Durance (France); Studer, E. [CEA Saclay, Dept. Modelisation de Systemes et Structures, 91 - Gif sur Yvette (France); Avvakumov, A.; Malofeev, V. [Nuclear Safety Institute of Russian Research Center, Kurchatov Institute, Moscow (Russian Federation); Diamond, D.; Bromley, B. [Nuclear Energy and Infrastructure Systems Div., Brookhaven National Lab., BNL, Upton, NY (United States)

    2001-07-01

    The increase of fuel burn up in core management poses actually the problem of the evaluation of the deposited energy during Reactivity Insertion Accidents (RIA). In order to precisely evaluate this energy, 3-D approaches are used more and more frequently in core calculations. This 'best-estimate' approach requires the evaluation of code uncertainties. To contribute to this evaluation, a code benchmark has been launched. A 3-D modelling for the TMI-1 central Ejected Rod Accident with zero and intermediate initial powers was carried out with three different methods of calculation for an inserted reactivity respectively fixed at 1.2 $ and 1.26 $. The studies implemented by the neutronics codes PARCS (BNL) and CRONOS (IPSN/CEA) describe an homogeneous assembly, whereas the BARS (KI) code allows a pin-by-pin representation (CRONOS has both possibilities). All the calculations are consistent, the variation in figures resulting mainly from the method used to build cross sections and reflectors constants. The maximum rise in enthalpy for the intermediate initial power (33 % P{sub N}) calculation is, for this academic calculation, about 30 cal/g. This work will be completed in a next step by an evaluation of the uncertainty induced by the uncertainty on model parameters, and a sensitivity study of the key parameters for a peripheral Rod Ejection Accident. (authors)

  11. Computer-Aided Test Flow in Core-Based Design

    OpenAIRE

    Zivkovic, V.; Tangelder, R.J.W.T.; Kerkhoff, Hans G.

    2000-01-01

    This paper copes with the test-pattern generation and fault coverage determination in the core based design. The basic core-test strategy that one has to apply in the core-based design is stated in this work. A Computer-Aided Test (CAT) flow is proposed resulting in accurate fault coverage of embedded cores. The CAT now is applied to a few cores within the Philips Core Test Pilot IC project

  12. Development of computer code SIMPSEX for simulation of FBR fuel reprocessing flowsheets: II. additional benchmarking results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shekhar Kumar; Koganti, S.B.

    2003-07-01

    Benchmarking and application of a computer code SIMPSEX for high plutonium FBR flowsheets was reported recently in an earlier report (IGC-234). Improvements and recompilation of the code (Version 4.01, March 2003) required re-validation with the existing benchmarks as well as additional benchmark flowsheets. Improvements in the high Pu region (Pu Aq >30 g/L) resulted in better results in the 75% Pu flowsheet benchmark. Below 30 g/L Pu Aq concentration, results were identical to those from the earlier version (SIMPSEX Version 3, code compiled in 1999). In addition, 13 published flowsheets were taken as additional benchmarks. Eleven of these flowsheets have a wide range of feed concentrations and few of them are β-γ active runs with FBR fuels having a wide distribution of burnup and Pu ratios. A published total partitioning flowsheet using externally generated U(IV) was also simulated using SIMPSEX. SIMPSEX predictions were compared with listed predictions from conventional SEPHIS, PUMA, PUNE and PUBG. SIMPSEX results were found to be comparable and better than the result from above listed codes. In addition, recently reported UREX demo results along with AMUSE simulations are also compared with SIMPSEX predictions. Results of the benchmarking SIMPSEX with these 14 benchmark flowsheets are discussed in this report. (author)

  13. RB reactor as the U-D2O benchmark criticality system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pesic, M.

    1998-01-01

    From a rich and valuable database fro 580 different reactor cores formed up to now in the RB nuclear reactor, a selected and well recorded set is carefully chosen and preliminarily proposed as a new uranium-heavy water benchmark criticality system for validation od reactor design computer codes and data libraries. The first results of validation of the MCNP code and adjoining neutron cross section libraries are resented in this paper. (author)

  14. Comparative analysis of a hypothetical 0.1 $/SEC transient overpower accident in an irradiated LMFBR core using different computer models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cacciabue, P.C.; Fremont, R. de; Renard, A.

    1982-01-01

    The Report gives the results of comparative calculations performed by the Whole Core Accident Codes Group which is a subgroup of the Safety Working Group of the Fast Reactor Coordinating Committee for a hypothetical transient overpower accident in an irradiated LMFBR core. Different computer codes from members of the European Community and the United States were used. The calculations are based on a Benchmark problem, using commonly agreed input data for the most important phenomena, such as the fuel pin failure threshold, FCl parameters, etc. Beside this, results with alternative assumptions for theoretical modelling are presented with the scope to show in a parametric way the influence of more advanced modelling capabilities and/or better (so-called best estimate) input data for the most important phenomena on the accident sequences

  15. Computational models of stellar collapse and core-collapse supernovae

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ott, Christian D; O'Connor, Evan; Schnetter, Erik; Loeffler, Frank; Burrows, Adam; Livne, Eli

    2009-01-01

    Core-collapse supernovae are among Nature's most energetic events. They mark the end of massive star evolution and pollute the interstellar medium with the life-enabling ashes of thermonuclear burning. Despite their importance for the evolution of galaxies and life in the universe, the details of the core-collapse supernova explosion mechanism remain in the dark and pose a daunting computational challenge. We outline the multi-dimensional, multi-scale, and multi-physics nature of the core-collapse supernova problem and discuss computational strategies and requirements for its solution. Specifically, we highlight the axisymmetric (2D) radiation-MHD code VULCAN/2D and present results obtained from the first full-2D angle-dependent neutrino radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of the post-core-bounce supernova evolution. We then go on to discuss the new code Zelmani which is based on the open-source HPC Cactus framework and provides a scalable AMR approach for 3D fully general-relativistic modeling of stellar collapse, core-collapse supernovae and black hole formation on current and future massively-parallel HPC systems. We show Zelmani's scaling properties to more than 16,000 compute cores and discuss first 3D general-relativistic core-collapse results.

  16. High Energy Physics (HEP) benchmark program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yasu, Yoshiji; Ichii, Shingo; Yashiro, Shigeo; Hirayama, Hideo; Kokufuda, Akihiro; Suzuki, Eishin.

    1993-01-01

    High Energy Physics (HEP) benchmark programs are indispensable tools to select suitable computer for HEP application system. Industry standard benchmark programs can not be used for this kind of particular selection. The CERN and the SSC benchmark suite are famous HEP benchmark programs for this purpose. The CERN suite includes event reconstruction and event generator programs, while the SSC one includes event generators. In this paper, we found that the results from these two suites are not consistent. And, the result from the industry benchmark does not agree with either of these two. Besides, we describe comparison of benchmark results using EGS4 Monte Carlo simulation program with ones from two HEP benchmark suites. Then, we found that the result from EGS4 in not consistent with the two ones. The industry standard of SPECmark values on various computer systems are not consistent with the EGS4 results either. Because of these inconsistencies, we point out the necessity of a standardization of HEP benchmark suites. Also, EGS4 benchmark suite should be developed for users of applications such as medical science, nuclear power plant, nuclear physics and high energy physics. (author)

  17. Computer-Aided Test Flow in Core-Based Design

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zivkovic, V.; Tangelder, R.J.W.T.; Kerkhoff, Hans G.

    2000-01-01

    This paper copes with the test-pattern generation and fault coverage determination in the core based design. The basic core-test strategy that one has to apply in the core-based design is stated in this work. A Computer-Aided Test (CAT) flow is proposed resulting in accurate fault coverage of

  18. Depletion benchmarks calculation of random media using explicit modeling approach of RMC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Shichang; She, Ding; Liang, Jin-gang; Wang, Kan

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Explicit modeling of RMC is applied to depletion benchmark for HTGR fuel element. • Explicit modeling can provide detailed burnup distribution and burnup heterogeneity. • The results would serve as a supplement for the HTGR fuel depletion benchmark. • The method of adjacent burnup regions combination is proposed for full-core problems. • The combination method can reduce memory footprint, keeping the computing accuracy. - Abstract: Monte Carlo method plays an important role in accurate simulation of random media, owing to its advantages of the flexible geometry modeling and the use of continuous-energy nuclear cross sections. Three stochastic geometry modeling methods including Random Lattice Method, Chord Length Sampling and explicit modeling approach with mesh acceleration technique, have been implemented in RMC to simulate the particle transport in the dispersed fuels, in which the explicit modeling method is regarded as the best choice. In this paper, the explicit modeling method is applied to the depletion benchmark for HTGR fuel element, and the method of combination of adjacent burnup regions has been proposed and investigated. The results show that the explicit modeling can provide detailed burnup distribution of individual TRISO particles, and this work would serve as a supplement for the HTGR fuel depletion benchmark calculations. The combination of adjacent burnup regions can effectively reduce the memory footprint while keeping the computational accuracy.

  19. KAERI results for BN600 full MOX benchmark (Phase 4)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Kibog Lee

    2003-01-01

    The purpose of this document is to report the results of KAERI's calculation for the Phase-4 of BN-600 full MOX fueled core benchmark analyses according to the RCM report of IAEA CRP Action on U pdated Codes and Methods to Reduce the Calculational Uncertainties of the LMFR Reactivity Effects. T he BN-600 full MOX core model is based on the specification in the document, F ull MOX Model (Phase4. doc ) . This document addresses the calculational methods employed in the benchmark analyses and benchmark results carried out by KAERI

  20. Computer-Aided Test Flow in Core-Based Design

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zivkovic, V.; Tangelder, R.J.W.T.; Kerkhoff, Hans G.

    2000-01-01

    This paper copes with the efficient test-pattern generation in a core-based design. A consistent Computer-Aided Test (CAT) flow is proposed based on the required core-test strategy. It generates a test-pattern set for the embedded cores with high fault coverage and low DfT area overhead. The CAT

  1. Verification of NUREC Code Transient Calculation Capability Using OECD NEA/US NRC PWR MOX/UO2 Core Transient Benchmark Problem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joo, Hyung Kook; Noh, Jae Man; Lee, Hyung Chul; Yoo, Jae Woon

    2006-01-01

    In this report, we verified the NUREC code transient calculation capability using OECD NEA/US NRC PWR MOX/UO2 Core Transient Benchmark Problem. The benchmark problem consists of Part 1, a 2-D problem with given T/H conditions, Part 2, a 3-D problem at HFP condition, Part 3, a 3-D problem at HZP condition, and Part 4, a transient state initiated by a control rod ejection at HZP condition in Part 3. In Part 1, the results of NUREC code agreed well with the reference solution obtained from DeCART calculation except for the pin power distributions at the rodded assemblies. In Part 2, the results of NUREC code agreed well with the reference DeCART solutions. In Part 3, some results of NUREC code such as critical boron concentration and core averaged delayed neutron fraction agreed well with the reference PARCS 2G solutions. But the error of the assembly power at the core center was quite large. The pin power errors of NUREC code at the rodded assemblies was much smaller the those of PARCS code. The axial power distribution also agreed well with the reference solution. In Part 4, the results of NUREC code agreed well with those of PARCS 2G code which was taken as the reference solution. From the above results we can conclude that the results of NUREC code for steady states and transient states of the MOX loaded LWR core agree well with those of the other codes

  2. Performance of Artificial Intelligence Workloads on the Intel Core 2 Duo Series Desktop Processors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdul Kareem PARCHUR

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available As the processor architecture becomes more advanced, Intel introduced its Intel Core 2 Duo series processors. Performance impact on Intel Core 2 Duo processors are analyzed using SPEC CPU INT 2006 performance numbers. This paper studied the behavior of Artificial Intelligence (AI benchmarks on Intel Core 2 Duo series processors. Moreover, we estimated the task completion time (TCT @1 GHz, @2 GHz and @3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo series processors frequency. Our results show the performance scalability in Intel Core 2 Duo series processors. Even though AI benchmarks have similar execution time, they have dissimilar characteristics which are identified using principal component analysis and dendogram. As the processor frequency increased from 1.8 GHz to 3.167 GHz the execution time is decreased by ~370 sec for AI workloads. In the case of Physics/Quantum Computing programs it was ~940 sec.

  3. Computational models of stellar collapse and core-collapse supernovae

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ott, Christian D; O' Connor, Evan [TAPIR, Mailcode 350-17, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States); Schnetter, Erik; Loeffler, Frank [Center for Computation and Technology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA (United States); Burrows, Adam [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (United States); Livne, Eli, E-mail: cott@tapir.caltech.ed [Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem (Israel)

    2009-07-01

    Core-collapse supernovae are among Nature's most energetic events. They mark the end of massive star evolution and pollute the interstellar medium with the life-enabling ashes of thermonuclear burning. Despite their importance for the evolution of galaxies and life in the universe, the details of the core-collapse supernova explosion mechanism remain in the dark and pose a daunting computational challenge. We outline the multi-dimensional, multi-scale, and multi-physics nature of the core-collapse supernova problem and discuss computational strategies and requirements for its solution. Specifically, we highlight the axisymmetric (2D) radiation-MHD code VULCAN/2D and present results obtained from the first full-2D angle-dependent neutrino radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of the post-core-bounce supernova evolution. We then go on to discuss the new code Zelmani which is based on the open-source HPC Cactus framework and provides a scalable AMR approach for 3D fully general-relativistic modeling of stellar collapse, core-collapse supernovae and black hole formation on current and future massively-parallel HPC systems. We show Zelmani's scaling properties to more than 16,000 compute cores and discuss first 3D general-relativistic core-collapse results.

  4. Comprehensive Benchmark Suite for Simulation of Particle Laden Flows Using the Discrete Element Method with Performance Profiles from the Multiphase Flow with Interface eXchanges (MFiX) Code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, Peiyuan [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Brown, Timothy [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Fullmer, William D. [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Hauser, Thomas [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Hrenya, Christine [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Grout, Ray [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Sitaraman, Hariswaran [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2016-01-29

    Five benchmark problems are developed and simulated with the computational fluid dynamics and discrete element model code MFiX. The benchmark problems span dilute and dense regimes, consider statistically homogeneous and inhomogeneous (both clusters and bubbles) particle concentrations and a range of particle and fluid dynamic computational loads. Several variations of the benchmark problems are also discussed to extend the computational phase space to cover granular (particles only), bidisperse and heat transfer cases. A weak scaling analysis is performed for each benchmark problem and, in most cases, the scalability of the code appears reasonable up to approx. 103 cores. Profiling of the benchmark problems indicate that the most substantial computational time is being spent on particle-particle force calculations, drag force calculations and interpolating between discrete particle and continuum fields. Hardware performance analysis was also carried out showing significant Level 2 cache miss ratios and a rather low degree of vectorization. These results are intended to serve as a baseline for future developments to the code as well as a preliminary indicator of where to best focus performance optimizations.

  5. Computational Benchmark for Estimation of Reactivity Margin from Fission Products and Minor Actinides in PWR Burnup Credit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wagner, J.C.

    2001-01-01

    This report proposes and documents a computational benchmark problem for the estimation of the additional reactivity margin available in spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from fission products and minor actinides in a burnup-credit storage/transport environment, relative to SNF compositions containing only the major actinides. The benchmark problem/configuration is a generic burnup credit cask designed to hold 32 pressurized water reactor (PWR) assemblies. The purpose of this computational benchmark is to provide a reference configuration for the estimation of the additional reactivity margin, which is encouraged in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) guidance for partial burnup credit (ISG8), and document reference estimations of the additional reactivity margin as a function of initial enrichment, burnup, and cooling time. Consequently, the geometry and material specifications are provided in sufficient detail to enable independent evaluations. Estimates of additional reactivity margin for this reference configuration may be compared to those of similar burnup-credit casks to provide an indication of the validity of design-specific estimates of fission-product margin. The reference solutions were generated with the SAS2H-depletion and CSAS25-criticality sequences of the SCALE 4.4a package. Although the SAS2H and CSAS25 sequences have been extensively validated elsewhere, the reference solutions are not directly or indirectly based on experimental results. Consequently, this computational benchmark cannot be used to satisfy the ANS 8.1 requirements for validation of calculational methods and is not intended to be used to establish biases for burnup credit analyses

  6. Benchmarking undedicated cloud computing providers for analysis of genomic datasets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yazar, Seyhan; Gooden, George E C; Mackey, David A; Hewitt, Alex W

    2014-01-01

    A major bottleneck in biological discovery is now emerging at the computational level. Cloud computing offers a dynamic means whereby small and medium-sized laboratories can rapidly adjust their computational capacity. We benchmarked two established cloud computing services, Amazon Web Services Elastic MapReduce (EMR) on Amazon EC2 instances and Google Compute Engine (GCE), using publicly available genomic datasets (E.coli CC102 strain and a Han Chinese male genome) and a standard bioinformatic pipeline on a Hadoop-based platform. Wall-clock time for complete assembly differed by 52.9% (95% CI: 27.5-78.2) for E.coli and 53.5% (95% CI: 34.4-72.6) for human genome, with GCE being more efficient than EMR. The cost of running this experiment on EMR and GCE differed significantly, with the costs on EMR being 257.3% (95% CI: 211.5-303.1) and 173.9% (95% CI: 134.6-213.1) more expensive for E.coli and human assemblies respectively. Thus, GCE was found to outperform EMR both in terms of cost and wall-clock time. Our findings confirm that cloud computing is an efficient and potentially cost-effective alternative for analysis of large genomic datasets. In addition to releasing our cost-effectiveness comparison, we present available ready-to-use scripts for establishing Hadoop instances with Ganglia monitoring on EC2 or GCE.

  7. Benchmarking undedicated cloud computing providers for analysis of genomic datasets.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seyhan Yazar

    Full Text Available A major bottleneck in biological discovery is now emerging at the computational level. Cloud computing offers a dynamic means whereby small and medium-sized laboratories can rapidly adjust their computational capacity. We benchmarked two established cloud computing services, Amazon Web Services Elastic MapReduce (EMR on Amazon EC2 instances and Google Compute Engine (GCE, using publicly available genomic datasets (E.coli CC102 strain and a Han Chinese male genome and a standard bioinformatic pipeline on a Hadoop-based platform. Wall-clock time for complete assembly differed by 52.9% (95% CI: 27.5-78.2 for E.coli and 53.5% (95% CI: 34.4-72.6 for human genome, with GCE being more efficient than EMR. The cost of running this experiment on EMR and GCE differed significantly, with the costs on EMR being 257.3% (95% CI: 211.5-303.1 and 173.9% (95% CI: 134.6-213.1 more expensive for E.coli and human assemblies respectively. Thus, GCE was found to outperform EMR both in terms of cost and wall-clock time. Our findings confirm that cloud computing is an efficient and potentially cost-effective alternative for analysis of large genomic datasets. In addition to releasing our cost-effectiveness comparison, we present available ready-to-use scripts for establishing Hadoop instances with Ganglia monitoring on EC2 or GCE.

  8. A benchmark test of computer codes for calculating average resonance parameters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ribon, P.; Thompson, A.

    1983-01-01

    A set of resonance parameters has been generated from known, but secret, average values; the parameters have then been adjusted to mimic experimental data by including the effects of Doppler broadening, resolution broadening and statistical fluctuations. Average parameters calculated from the dataset by various computer codes are compared with each other, and also with the true values. The benchmark test is fully described in the report NEANDC160-U (NEA Data Bank Newsletter No. 27 July 1982); the present paper is a summary of this document. (Auth.)

  9. In-core fuel management code package validation for BWRs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-12-01

    The main goal of the present CRP (Coordinated Research Programme) was to develop benchmarks which are appropriate to check and improve the fuel management computer code packages and their procedures. Therefore, benchmark specifications were established which included a set of realistic data for running in-core fuel management codes. Secondly, the results of measurements and/or operating data were also provided to verify and compare with these parameters as calculated by the in-core fuel management codes or code packages. For the BWR it was established that the Mexican Laguna Verde 1 BWR would serve as the model for providing data on the benchmark specifications. It was decided to provide results for the first 2 cycles of Unit 1 of the Laguna Verde reactor. The analyses of the above benchmarks are performed in two stages. In the first stage, the lattice parameters are generated as a function of burnup at different voids and with and without control rod. These lattice parameters form the input for 3-dimensional diffusion theory codes for over-all reactor analysis. The lattice calculations were performed using different methods, such as, Monte Carlo, 2-D integral transport theory methods. Supercell Model and transport-diffusion model with proper correction for burnable absorber. Thus the variety of results should provide adequate information for any institute or organization to develop competence to analyze In-core fuel management codes. 15 refs, figs and tabs

  10. Numerical methods: Analytical benchmarking in transport theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ganapol, B.D.

    1988-01-01

    Numerical methods applied to reactor technology have reached a high degree of maturity. Certainly one- and two-dimensional neutron transport calculations have become routine, with several programs available on personal computer and the most widely used programs adapted to workstation and minicomputer computational environments. With the introduction of massive parallelism and as experience with multitasking increases, even more improvement in the development of transport algorithms can be expected. Benchmarking an algorithm is usually not a very pleasant experience for the code developer. Proper algorithmic verification by benchmarking involves the following considerations: (1) conservation of particles, (2) confirmation of intuitive physical behavior, and (3) reproduction of analytical benchmark results. By using today's computational advantages, new basic numerical methods have been developed that allow a wider class of benchmark problems to be considered

  11. featsel: A framework for benchmarking of feature selection algorithms and cost functions

    OpenAIRE

    Marcelo S. Reis; Gustavo Estrela; Carlos Eduardo Ferreira; Junior Barrera

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, we introduce featsel, a framework for benchmarking of feature selection algorithms and cost functions. This framework allows the user to deal with the search space as a Boolean lattice and has its core coded in C++ for computational efficiency purposes. Moreover, featsel includes Perl scripts to add new algorithms and/or cost functions, generate random instances, plot graphs and organize results into tables. Besides, this framework already comes with dozens of algorithms and co...

  12. Calculations with ANSYS/FLOTRAN to a core catcher benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Willschuetz, H.G.

    1999-01-01

    There are numerous experiments for the exploration of the corium spreading behaviour, but comparable data have not been available up to now in the field of the long-term behaviour of a corium expanded in a core catcher. For the calculations a pure liquid oxidic melt with a homogeneous internal heat source was assumed. The melt was distributed uniformly over the spreading area of the EPR core catcher. All codes applied the well known k-ε-turbulence-model to simulate the turbulent flow regime of this melt configuration. While the FVM-code calculations were performed with three dimensional models using a simple symmetry, the problem was modelled two-dimensionally with ANSYS due to limited CPU performance. In addition, the 2D results of ANSYS should allow a comparison for the planned second stage of the calculations. In this second stage, the behaviour of a segregated metal oxide melt should be examined. However, first estimates and pre-calculations showed that a 3D simulation of the problem is not possible with any of the codes due to lacking computer performance. (orig.)

  13. Computational performance of a smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation for shared-memory parallel computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nishiura, Daisuke; Furuichi, Mikito; Sakaguchi, Hide

    2015-09-01

    The computational performance of a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation is investigated for three types of current shared-memory parallel computer devices: many integrated core (MIC) processors, graphics processing units (GPUs), and multi-core CPUs. We are especially interested in efficient shared-memory allocation methods for each chipset, because the efficient data access patterns differ between compute unified device architecture (CUDA) programming for GPUs and OpenMP programming for MIC processors and multi-core CPUs. We first introduce several parallel implementation techniques for the SPH code, and then examine these on our target computer architectures to determine the most effective algorithms for each processor unit. In addition, we evaluate the effective computing performance and power efficiency of the SPH simulation on each architecture, as these are critical metrics for overall performance in a multi-device environment. In our benchmark test, the GPU is found to produce the best arithmetic performance as a standalone device unit, and gives the most efficient power consumption. The multi-core CPU obtains the most effective computing performance. The computational speed of the MIC processor on Xeon Phi approached that of two Xeon CPUs. This indicates that using MICs is an attractive choice for existing SPH codes on multi-core CPUs parallelized by OpenMP, as it gains computational acceleration without the need for significant changes to the source code.

  14. The CMSSW benchmarking suite: Using HEP code to measure CPU performance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Benelli, G

    2010-01-01

    The demanding computing needs of the CMS experiment require thoughtful planning and management of its computing infrastructure. A key factor in this process is the use of realistic benchmarks when assessing the computing power of the different architectures available. In recent years a discrepancy has been observed between the CPU performance estimates given by the reference benchmark for HEP computing (SPECint) and actual performances of HEP code. Making use of the CPU performance tools from the CMSSW performance suite, comparative CPU performance studies have been carried out on several architectures. A benchmarking suite has been developed and integrated in the CMSSW framework, to allow computing centers and interested third parties to benchmark architectures directly with CMSSW. The CMSSW benchmarking suite can be used out of the box, to test and compare several machines in terms of CPU performance and report with the wanted level of detail the different benchmarking scores (e.g. by processing step) and results. In this talk we describe briefly the CMSSW software performance suite, and in detail the CMSSW benchmarking suite client/server design, the performance data analysis and the available CMSSW benchmark scores. The experience in the use of HEP code for benchmarking will be discussed and CMSSW benchmark results presented.

  15. IAEA coordinated research project (CRP) on 'Analytical and experimental benchmark analyses of accelerator driven systems'

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abanades, Alberto [Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain); Aliberti, Gerardo; Gohar, Yousry; Talamo, Alberto [ANL, Argonne (United States); Bornos, Victor; Kiyavitskaya, Anna [Joint Institute of Power Eng. and Nucl. Research ' Sosny' , Minsk (Belarus); Carta, Mario [ENEA, Casaccia (Italy); Janczyszyn, Jerzy [AGH-University of Science and Technology, Krakow (Poland); Maiorino, Jose [IPEN, Sao Paulo (Brazil); Pyeon, Cheolho [Kyoto University (Japan); Stanculescu, Alexander [IAEA, Vienna (Austria); Titarenko, Yury [ITEP, Moscow (Russian Federation); Westmeier, Wolfram [Wolfram Westmeier GmbH, Ebsdorfergrund (Germany)

    2008-07-01

    In December 2005, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has started a Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on 'Analytical and Experimental Benchmark Analyses of Accelerator Driven Systems'. The overall objective of the CRP, performed within the framework of the Technical Working Group on Fast Reactors (TWGFR) of IAEA's Nuclear Energy Department, is to increase the capability of interested Member States in developing and applying advanced reactor technologies in the area of long-lived radioactive waste utilization and transmutation. The specific objective of the CRP is to improve the present understanding of the coupling of an external neutron source (e.g. spallation source) with a multiplicative sub-critical core. The participants are performing computational and experimental benchmark analyses using integrated calculation schemes and simulation methods. The CRP aims at integrating some of the planned experimental demonstration projects of the coupling between a sub-critical core and an external neutron source (e.g. YALINA Booster in Belarus, and Kyoto University's Critical Assembly (KUCA)). The objective of these experimental programs is to validate computational methods, obtain high energy nuclear data, characterize the performance of sub-critical assemblies driven by external sources, and to develop and improve techniques for sub-criticality monitoring. The paper summarizes preliminary results obtained to-date for some of the CRP benchmarks. (authors)

  16. Benchmarking Benchmarks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    D.C. Blitz (David)

    2011-01-01

    textabstractBenchmarking benchmarks is a bundle of six studies that are inspired by the prevalence of benchmarking in academic finance research as well as in investment practice. Three studies examine if current benchmark asset pricing models adequately describe the cross-section of stock returns.

  17. Quantum computing applied to calculations of molecular energies: CH2 benchmark.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veis, Libor; Pittner, Jiří

    2010-11-21

    Quantum computers are appealing for their ability to solve some tasks much faster than their classical counterparts. It was shown in [Aspuru-Guzik et al., Science 309, 1704 (2005)] that they, if available, would be able to perform the full configuration interaction (FCI) energy calculations with a polynomial scaling. This is in contrast to conventional computers where FCI scales exponentially. We have developed a code for simulation of quantum computers and implemented our version of the quantum FCI algorithm. We provide a detailed description of this algorithm and the results of the assessment of its performance on the four lowest lying electronic states of CH(2) molecule. This molecule was chosen as a benchmark, since its two lowest lying (1)A(1) states exhibit a multireference character at the equilibrium geometry. It has been shown that with a suitably chosen initial state of the quantum register, one is able to achieve the probability amplification regime of the iterative phase estimation algorithm even in this case.

  18. The fifth AER dynamic benchmark calculation with hextran-smabre

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haemaelaeinen, A.; Kyrki-Rajamaeki, R.

    1998-01-01

    The first AER benchmark for coupling of the thermohydraulic codes and three-dimensional reactordynamic core models is discussed. HEXTRAN 2.7 is used for the core dynamics and SMABRE 4.6 as a thermohydraulic model for the primary and secondary loops. The plant model for SMABRE is based mainly on two input models, the Loviisa model and standard VVER-440/213 plant model. The primary circuit includes six separate loops, totally 505 nodes and 652 junctions. The reactor pressure vessel is divided into six parallel channels. In HEXTRAN calculation 1/6 symmetry is used in the core. In the calculations nuclear data is based on the ENDF/B-IV library and it has been evaluated with the CASMO-HEX code. The importance of the nuclear data was illustrated by repeating the benchmark calculation with using three different data sets. Optimal extensive data valid from hot to cold conditions were not available for all types of fuel enrichments needed in this benchmark. (author)

  19. Performance Benchmarking of Fast Multipole Methods

    KAUST Repository

    Al-Harthi, Noha A.

    2013-06-01

    The current trends in computer architecture are shifting towards smaller byte/flop ratios, while available parallelism is increasing at all levels of granularity – vector length, core count, and MPI process. Intel’s Xeon Phi coprocessor, NVIDIA’s Kepler GPU, and IBM’s BlueGene/Q all have a Byte/flop ratio close to 0.2, which makes it very difficult for most algorithms to extract a high percentage of the theoretical peak flop/s from these architectures. Popular algorithms in scientific computing such as FFT are continuously evolving to keep up with this trend in hardware. In the meantime it is also necessary to invest in novel algorithms that are more suitable for computer architectures of the future. The fast multipole method (FMM) was originally developed as a fast algorithm for ap- proximating the N-body interactions that appear in astrophysics, molecular dynamics, and vortex based fluid dynamics simulations. The FMM possesses have a unique combination of being an efficient O(N) algorithm, while having an operational intensity that is higher than a matrix-matrix multiplication. In fact, the FMM can reduce the requirement of Byte/flop to around 0.01, which means that it will remain compute bound until 2020 even if the cur- rent trend in microprocessors continues. Despite these advantages, there have not been any benchmarks of FMM codes on modern architectures such as Xeon Phi, Kepler, and Blue- Gene/Q. This study aims to provide a comprehensive benchmark of a state of the art FMM code “exaFMM” on the latest architectures, in hopes of providing a useful reference for deciding when the FMM will become useful as the computational engine in a given application code. It may also serve as a warning to certain problem size domains areas where the FMM will exhibit insignificant performance improvements. Such issues depend strongly on the asymptotic constants rather than the asymptotics themselves, and therefore are strongly implementation and hardware

  20. Computation of a BWR Turbine Trip with CATHARE-CRONOS2-FLICA4 Coupled Codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mignot, G.; Royer, E.; Rameau, B.; Todorova, N.

    2004-01-01

    The CEA/DEN modeling and computation results with the CATHARE, CRONOS2, and FLICA4 codes of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development boiling water reactor turbine trip benchmark are presented. The first exercise of the benchmark to model the whole reactor thermal hydraulics with specified power has been performed with the CATHARE system code. Exercise 2, devoted to core thermal-hydraulic neutronic analysis with provided boundary conditions and neutronic cross sections, has been carried out with the CRONOS2 and FLICA4 codes. Finally, exercise 3, combining system thermal hydraulics and core three-dimensional thermal-hydraulics-neutronics, was computed with the three coupled codes: CATHARE, CRONOS2, and FLICA4.Our one-dimensional thermal-hydraulic reactor computation agrees well with the benchmark reference data and demonstrates the capacities of CATHARE to model a turbine trip transient. Coupled three-dimensional thermal-hydraulic and neutronic analysis displays a high sensitivity of the power peak to the core thermal-hydraulic model. The use of at least 100 channels is recommended to achieve reasonable results for integral and local parameters. Deviations between experimental data and exercise 3 results are discussed: timing of events, core pressure drop, and neutronic model. Finally, analysis of extreme scenarios as sensitivity studies on the transient to assess the effect of the scram, the bypass relief valve, and the steam relief valves is presented

  1. An analytical model for the study of a small LFR core dynamics: development and benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bortot, S.; Cammi, A.; Lorenzi, S.; Moisseytsev, A.

    2011-01-01

    An analytical model for the study of a small Lead-cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) control-oriented dynamics has been developed aimed at providing a useful, very flexible and straightforward, though accurate, tool allowing relatively quick transient design-basis and stability analyses. A simplified lumped-parameter approach has been adopted to couple neutronics and thermal-hydraulics: the point-kinetics approximation has been employed and an average-temperature heat-exchange model has been implemented. The reactor transient responses following postulated accident initiators such as Unprotected Control Rod Withdrawal (UTOP), Loss of Heat Sink (ULOHS) and Loss of Flow (ULOF) have been studied for a MOX and a metal-fuelled core at the Beginning of Cycle (BoC) and End of Cycle (EoC) configurations. A benchmark analysis has been then performed by means of the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 Liquid Metal Reactor Code System, in which a core model based on three representative channels has been built with the purpose of providing verification for the analytical outcomes and indicating how the latter relate to more realistic one-dimensional calculations. As a general result, responses concerning the main core characteristics (namely, power, reactivity, etc.) have turned out to be mutually consistent in terms of both steady-state absolute figures and transient developments, showing discrepancies of the order of only some percents, thus confirming a very satisfactory agreement. (author)

  2. Benchmark calculations of power distribution within assemblies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cavarec, C.; Perron, J.F.; Verwaerde, D.; West, J.P.

    1994-09-01

    The main objective of this Benchmark is to compare different techniques for fine flux prediction based upon coarse mesh diffusion or transport calculations. We proposed 5 ''core'' configurations including different assembly types (17 x 17 pins, ''uranium'', ''absorber'' or ''MOX'' assemblies), with different boundary conditions. The specification required results in terms of reactivity, pin by pin fluxes and production rate distributions. The proposal for these Benchmark calculations was made by J.C. LEFEBVRE, J. MONDOT, J.P. WEST and the specification (with nuclear data, assembly types, core configurations for 2D geometry and results presentation) was distributed to correspondents of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. 11 countries and 19 companies answered the exercise proposed by this Benchmark. Heterogeneous calculations and homogeneous calculations were made. Various methods were used to produce the results: diffusion (finite differences, nodal...), transport (P ij , S n , Monte Carlo). This report presents an analysis and intercomparisons of all the results received

  3. Benchmark studies of computer prediction techniques for equilibrium chemistry and radionuclide transport in groundwater flow

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Broyd, T.W.

    1988-01-01

    A brief review of two recent benchmark exercises is presented. These were separately concerned with the equilibrium chemistry of groundwater and the geosphere migration of radionuclides, and involved the use of a total of 19 computer codes by 11 organisations in Europe and Canada. A similar methodology was followed for each exercise, in that series of hypothetical test cases were used to explore the limits of each code's application, and so provide an overview of current modelling potential. Aspects of the user-friendliness of individual codes were also considered. The benchmark studies have benefited participating organisations by providing a means of verifying current codes, and have provided problem data sets by which future models may be compared. (author)

  4. Modal analysis and acoustic transmission through offset-core honeycomb sandwich panels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mathias, Adam Dustin

    The work presented in this thesis is motivated by an earlier research that showed that double, offset-core honeycomb sandwich panels increased thermal resistance and, hence, decreased heat transfer through the panels. This result lead to the hypothesis that these panels could be used for acoustic insulation. Using commercial finite element modeling software, COMSOL Multiphysics, the acoustical properties, specifically the transmission loss across a variety of offset-core honeycomb sandwich panels, is studied for the case of a plane acoustic wave impacting the panel at normal incidence. The transmission loss results are compared with those of single-core honeycomb panels with the same cell sizes. The fundamental frequencies of the panels are also computed in an attempt to better understand the vibrational modes of these particular sandwich-structured panels. To ensure that the finite element analysis software is adequate for the task at hand, two relevant benchmark problems are solved and compared with theory. Results from these benchmark results compared well to those obtained from theory. Transmission loss results from the offset-core honeycomb sandwich panels show increased transmission loss, especially for large cell honeycombs when compared to single-core honeycomb panels.

  5. BN-600 MOX Core Benchmark Analysis. Results from Phases 4 and 6 of a Coordinated Research Project on Updated Codes and Methods to Reduce the Calculational Uncertainties of the LMFR Reactivity Effects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2013-12-01

    For those Member States that have or have had significant fast reactor development programmes, it is of utmost importance that they have validated up to date codes and methods for fast reactor physics analysis in support of R and D and core design activities in the area of actinide utilization and incineration. In particular, some Member States have recently focused on fast reactor systems for minor actinide transmutation and on cores optimized for consuming rather than breeding plutonium; the physics of the breeder reactor cycle having already been widely investigated. Plutonium burning systems may have an important role in managing plutonium stocks until the time when major programmes of self-sufficient fast breeder reactors are established. For assessing the safety of these systems, it is important to determine the prediction accuracy of transient simulations and their associated reactivity coefficients. In response to Member States' expressed interest, the IAEA sponsored a coordinated research project (CRP) on Updated Codes and Methods to Reduce the Calculational Uncertainties of the LMFR Reactivity Effects. The CRP started in November 1999 and, at the first meeting, the members of the CRP endorsed a benchmark on the BN-600 hybrid core for consideration in its first studies. Benchmark analyses of the BN-600 hybrid core were performed during the first three phases of the CRP, investigating different nuclear data and levels of approximation in the calculation of safety related reactivity effects and their influence on uncertainties in transient analysis prediction. In an additional phase of the benchmark studies, experimental data were used for the verification and validation of nuclear data libraries and methods in support of the previous three phases. The results of phases 1, 2, 3 and 5 of the CRP are reported in IAEA-TECDOC-1623, BN-600 Hybrid Core Benchmark Analyses, Results from a Coordinated Research Project on Updated Codes and Methods to Reduce the

  6. European benchmark on the ASTRID-like low-void-effect core characterization: neutronic parameters and safety coefficients - 15361

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bortot, S.; Mikityuk, K.; Panadero, A.L.; Pelloni, S.; Alvarez-Velarde, F.; Lopez, D.; Fridman, E.; Cruzado, I.G.; Herranz, N.G.; Ponomarev, A.; Sciora, P.; Vasile, A.; Seubert, A.; Tsige-Tamirat, H.

    2015-01-01

    A neutronic benchmark was launched with the participation of 8 European institutions using 10 codes and 4 data libraries, in order to study the main characteristics of a low-void-effect sodium-cooled fast spectrum core similar to the one of ASTRID at End-Of-Cycle conditions. The first results of this exercise are presented in this paper. As a major outcome of the study, the negative reactivity effect ensuing from the total voiding of the core was unanimously confirmed. Moreover, the code-to-code comparison allowed identifying a number of issues that require further clarifications and improvements. Some of them are mentioned here. The power generation in the non-fuel regions of the core was calculated by only 2 codes and the resulting result discrepancies reach 100%. Unexpected large discrepancies (up to 100 pcm) were observed in the Doppler constants predictions. The deviation of the Doppler effect's temperature dependence from a logarithmic law is also worth additional analysis. A discrepancy between nuclear data libraries (particularly between JEFF 3.1 and ENDF/B-VII.0) was observed in particular for the prediction of the CR worth

  7. Accelerator shielding benchmark problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hirayama, H.; Ban, S.; Nakamura, T.

    1993-01-01

    Accelerator shielding benchmark problems prepared by Working Group of Accelerator Shielding in the Research Committee on Radiation Behavior in the Atomic Energy Society of Japan were compiled by Radiation Safety Control Center of National Laboratory for High Energy Physics. Twenty-five accelerator shielding benchmark problems are presented for evaluating the calculational algorithm, the accuracy of computer codes and the nuclear data used in codes. (author)

  8. Shielding benchmark problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tanaka, Shun-ichi; Sasamoto, Nobuo; Oka, Yoshiaki; Kawai, Masayoshi; Nakazawa, Masaharu.

    1978-09-01

    Shielding benchmark problems were prepared by the Working Group of Assessment of Shielding Experiments in the Research Comittee on Shielding Design of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, and compiled by the Shielding Laboratory of Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. Twenty-one kinds of shielding benchmark problems are presented for evaluating the calculational algorithm and the accuracy of computer codes based on the discrete ordinates method and the Monte Carlo method and for evaluating the nuclear data used in the codes. (author)

  9. Predictive uncertainty reduction in coupled neutron-kinetics/thermal hydraulics modeling of the BWR-TT2 benchmark

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Badea, Aurelian F., E-mail: aurelian.badea@kit.edu [Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Vincenz-Prießnitz-Str. 3, 76131 Karlsruhe (Germany); Cacuci, Dan G. [Center for Nuclear Science and Energy/Dept. of ME, University of South Carolina, 300 Main Street, Columbia, SC 29208 (United States)

    2017-03-15

    Highlights: • BWR Turbine Trip 2 (BWR-TT2) benchmark. • Substantial (up to 50%) reduction of uncertainties in the predicted transient power. • 6660 uncertain model parameters were calibrated. - Abstract: By applying a comprehensive predictive modeling methodology, this work demonstrates a substantial (up to 50%) reduction of uncertainties in the predicted total transient power in the BWR Turbine Trip 2 (BWR-TT2) benchmark while calibrating the numerical simulation of this benchmark, comprising 6090 macroscopic cross sections, and 570 thermal-hydraulics parameters involved in modeling the phase-slip correlation, transient outlet pressure, and total mass flow. The BWR-TT2 benchmark is based on an experiment that was carried out in 1977 in the NPP Peach Bottom 2, involving the closure of the turbine stop valve which caused a pressure wave that propagated with attenuation into the reactor core. The condensation of the steam in the reactor core caused by the pressure increase led to a positive reactivity insertion. The subsequent rise of power was limited by the feedback and the insertion of the control rods. The BWR-TT2 benchmark was modeled with the three-dimensional reactor physics code system DYN3D, by coupling neutron kinetics with two-phase thermal-hydraulics. All 6660 DYN3D model parameters were calibrated by applying a predictive modeling methodology that combines experimental and computational information to produce optimally predicted best-estimate results with reduced predicted uncertainties. Simultaneously, the predictive modeling methodology yields optimally predicted values for the BWR total transient power while reducing significantly the accompanying predicted standard deviations.

  10. Predictive uncertainty reduction in coupled neutron-kinetics/thermal hydraulics modeling of the BWR-TT2 benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Badea, Aurelian F.; Cacuci, Dan G.

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • BWR Turbine Trip 2 (BWR-TT2) benchmark. • Substantial (up to 50%) reduction of uncertainties in the predicted transient power. • 6660 uncertain model parameters were calibrated. - Abstract: By applying a comprehensive predictive modeling methodology, this work demonstrates a substantial (up to 50%) reduction of uncertainties in the predicted total transient power in the BWR Turbine Trip 2 (BWR-TT2) benchmark while calibrating the numerical simulation of this benchmark, comprising 6090 macroscopic cross sections, and 570 thermal-hydraulics parameters involved in modeling the phase-slip correlation, transient outlet pressure, and total mass flow. The BWR-TT2 benchmark is based on an experiment that was carried out in 1977 in the NPP Peach Bottom 2, involving the closure of the turbine stop valve which caused a pressure wave that propagated with attenuation into the reactor core. The condensation of the steam in the reactor core caused by the pressure increase led to a positive reactivity insertion. The subsequent rise of power was limited by the feedback and the insertion of the control rods. The BWR-TT2 benchmark was modeled with the three-dimensional reactor physics code system DYN3D, by coupling neutron kinetics with two-phase thermal-hydraulics. All 6660 DYN3D model parameters were calibrated by applying a predictive modeling methodology that combines experimental and computational information to produce optimally predicted best-estimate results with reduced predicted uncertainties. Simultaneously, the predictive modeling methodology yields optimally predicted values for the BWR total transient power while reducing significantly the accompanying predicted standard deviations.

  11. Development of three dimensional transient analysis code STTA for SCWR core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Lianjie; Zhao, Wenbo; Chen, Bingde; Yao, Dong; Yang, Ping

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • A coupled three dimensional neutronics/thermal-hydraulics code STTA is developed for SCWR core transient analysis. • The Dynamic Link Libraries method is adopted for coupling computation for SCWR multi-flow core transient analysis. • The NEACRP-L-335 PWR benchmark problems are studied to verify STTA. • The SCWR rod ejection problems are studied to verify STTA. • STTA meets what is expected from a code for SCWR core 3-D transient preliminary analysis. - Abstract: A coupled three dimensional neutronics/thermal-hydraulics code STTA (SCWR Three dimensional Transient Analysis code) is developed for SCWR core transient analysis. Nodal Green’s Function Method based on the second boundary condition (NGFMN-K) is used for solving transient neutron diffusion equation. The SCWR sub-channel code ATHAS is integrated into NGFMN-K through the serial integration coupling approach. The NEACRP-L-335 PWR benchmark problem and SCWR rod ejection problems are studied to verify STTA. Numerical results show that the PWR solution of STTA agrees well with reference solutions and the SCWR solution is reasonable. The coupled code can be well applied to the core transients and accidents analysis with 3-D core model during both subcritical pressure and supercritical pressure operation

  12. Discussion of OECD LWR Uncertainty Analysis in Modelling Benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ivanov, K.; Avramova, M.; Royer, E.; Gillford, J.

    2013-01-01

    The demand for best estimate calculations in nuclear reactor design and safety evaluations has increased in recent years. Uncertainty quantification has been highlighted as part of the best estimate calculations. The modelling aspects of uncertainty and sensitivity analysis are to be further developed and validated on scientific grounds in support of their performance and application to multi-physics reactor simulations. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) / Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) has endorsed the creation of an Expert Group on Uncertainty Analysis in Modelling (EGUAM). Within the framework of activities of EGUAM/NSC the OECD/NEA initiated the Benchmark for Uncertainty Analysis in Modelling for Design, Operation, and Safety Analysis of Light Water Reactor (OECD LWR UAM benchmark). The general objective of the benchmark is to propagate the predictive uncertainties of code results through complex coupled multi-physics and multi-scale simulations. The benchmark is divided into three phases with Phase I highlighting the uncertainty propagation in stand-alone neutronics calculations, while Phase II and III are focused on uncertainty analysis of reactor core and system respectively. This paper discusses the progress made in Phase I calculations, the Specifications for Phase II and the incoming challenges in defining Phase 3 exercises. The challenges of applying uncertainty quantification to complex code systems, in particular the time-dependent coupled physics models are the large computational burden and the utilization of non-linear models (expected due to the physics coupling). (authors)

  13. Polytopol computing for multi-core and distributed systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spaanenburg, Henk; Spaanenburg, Lambert; Ranefors, Johan

    2009-05-01

    Multi-core computing provides new challenges to software engineering. The paper addresses such issues in the general setting of polytopol computing, that takes multi-core problems in such widely differing areas as ambient intelligence sensor networks and cloud computing into account. It argues that the essence lies in a suitable allocation of free moving tasks. Where hardware is ubiquitous and pervasive, the network is virtualized into a connection of software snippets judiciously injected to such hardware that a system function looks as one again. The concept of polytopol computing provides a further formalization in terms of the partitioning of labor between collector and sensor nodes. Collectors provide functions such as a knowledge integrator, awareness collector, situation displayer/reporter, communicator of clues and an inquiry-interface provider. Sensors provide functions such as anomaly detection (only communicating singularities, not continuous observation), they are generally powered or self-powered, amorphous (not on a grid) with generation-and-attrition, field re-programmable, and sensor plug-and-play-able. Together the collector and the sensor are part of the skeleton injector mechanism, added to every node, and give the network the ability to organize itself into some of many topologies. Finally we will discuss a number of applications and indicate how a multi-core architecture supports the security aspects of the skeleton injector.

  14. [Three-dimensional computer aided design for individualized post-and-core restoration].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gu, Xiao-yu; Wang, Ya-ping; Wang, Yong; Lü, Pei-jun

    2009-10-01

    To develop a method of three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) of post-and-core restoration. Two plaster casts with extracted natural teeth were used in this study. The extracted teeth were prepared and scanned using tomography method to obtain three-dimensional digitalized models. According to the basic rules of post-and-core design, posts, cores and cavity surfaces of the teeth were designed using the tools for processing point clouds, curves and surfaces on the forward engineering software of Tanglong prosthodontic system. Then three-dimensional figures of the final restorations were corrected according to the configurations of anterior teeth, premolars and molars respectively. Computer aided design of 14 post-and-core restorations were finished, and good fitness between the restoration and the three-dimensional digital models were obtained. Appropriate retention forms and enough spaces for the full crown restorations can be obtained through this method. The CAD of three-dimensional figures of the post-and-core restorations can fulfill clinical requirements. Therefore they can be used in computer-aided manufacture (CAM) of post-and-core restorations.

  15. EGS4 benchmark program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yasu, Y.; Hirayama, H.; Namito, Y.; Yashiro, S.

    1995-01-01

    This paper proposes EGS4 Benchmark Suite which consists of three programs called UCSAMPL4, UCSAMPL4I and XYZDOS. This paper also evaluates optimization methods of recent RISC/UNIX systems, such as IBM, HP, DEC, Hitachi and Fujitsu, for the benchmark suite. When particular compiler option and math library were included in the evaluation process, system performed significantly better. Observed performance of some of the RISC/UNIX systems were beyond some so-called Mainframes of IBM, Hitachi or Fujitsu. The computer performance of EGS4 Code System on an HP9000/735 (99MHz) was defined to be the unit of EGS4 Unit. The EGS4 Benchmark Suite also run on various PCs such as Pentiums, i486 and DEC alpha and so forth. The performance of recent fast PCs reaches that of recent RISC/UNIX systems. The benchmark programs have been evaluated with correlation of industry benchmark programs, namely, SPECmark. (author)

  16. EBR-II Reactor Physics Benchmark Evaluation Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pope, Chad L. [Idaho State Univ., Pocatello, ID (United States); Lum, Edward S [Idaho State Univ., Pocatello, ID (United States); Stewart, Ryan [Idaho State Univ., Pocatello, ID (United States); Byambadorj, Bilguun [Idaho State Univ., Pocatello, ID (United States); Beaulieu, Quinton [Idaho State Univ., Pocatello, ID (United States)

    2017-12-28

    This report provides a reactor physics benchmark evaluation with associated uncertainty quantification for the critical configuration of the April 1986 Experimental Breeder Reactor II Run 138B core configuration.

  17. An FPGA computing demo core for space charge simulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, Jinyuan; Huang, Yifei

    2009-01-01

    In accelerator physics, space charge simulation requires large amount of computing power. In a particle system, each calculation requires time/resource consuming operations such as multiplications, divisions, and square roots. Because of the flexibility of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), we implemented this task with efficient use of the available computing resources and completely eliminated non-calculating operations that are indispensable in regular micro-processors (e.g. instruction fetch, instruction decoding, etc.). We designed and tested a 16-bit demo core for computing Coulomb's force in an Altera Cyclone II FPGA device. To save resources, the inverse square-root cube operation in our design is computed using a memory look-up table addressed with nine to ten most significant non-zero bits. At 200 MHz internal clock, our demo core reaches a throughput of 200 M pairs/s/core, faster than a typical 2 GHz micro-processor by about a factor of 10. Temperature and power consumption of FPGAs were also lower than those of micro-processors. Fast and convenient, FPGAs can serve as alternatives to time-consuming micro-processors for space charge simulation.

  18. An FPGA computing demo core for space charge simulation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wu, Jinyuan; Huang, Yifei; /Fermilab

    2009-01-01

    In accelerator physics, space charge simulation requires large amount of computing power. In a particle system, each calculation requires time/resource consuming operations such as multiplications, divisions, and square roots. Because of the flexibility of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), we implemented this task with efficient use of the available computing resources and completely eliminated non-calculating operations that are indispensable in regular micro-processors (e.g. instruction fetch, instruction decoding, etc.). We designed and tested a 16-bit demo core for computing Coulomb's force in an Altera Cyclone II FPGA device. To save resources, the inverse square-root cube operation in our design is computed using a memory look-up table addressed with nine to ten most significant non-zero bits. At 200 MHz internal clock, our demo core reaches a throughput of 200 M pairs/s/core, faster than a typical 2 GHz micro-processor by about a factor of 10. Temperature and power consumption of FPGAs were also lower than those of micro-processors. Fast and convenient, FPGAs can serve as alternatives to time-consuming micro-processors for space charge simulation.

  19. Benchmark problem suite for reactor physics study of LWR next generation fuels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamamoto, Akio; Ikehara, Tadashi; Ito, Takuya; Saji, Etsuro

    2002-01-01

    This paper proposes a benchmark problem suite for studying the physics of next-generation fuels of light water reactors. The target discharge burnup of the next-generation fuel was set to 70 GWd/t considering the increasing trend in discharge burnup of light water reactor fuels. The UO 2 and MOX fuels are included in the benchmark specifications. The benchmark problem consists of three different geometries: fuel pin cell, PWR fuel assembly and BWR fuel assembly. In the pin cell problem, detailed nuclear characteristics such as burnup dependence of nuclide-wise reactivity were included in the required calculation results to facilitate the study of reactor physics. In the assembly benchmark problems, important parameters for in-core fuel management such as local peaking factors and reactivity coefficients were included in the required results. The benchmark problems provide comprehensive test problems for next-generation light water reactor fuels with extended high burnup. Furthermore, since the pin cell, the PWR assembly and the BWR assembly problems are independent, analyses of the entire benchmark suite is not necessary: e.g., the set of pin cell and PWR fuel assembly problems will be suitable for those in charge of PWR in-core fuel management, and the set of pin cell and BWR fuel assembly problems for those in charge of BWR in-core fuel management. (author)

  20. An improved benchmark model for the Big Ten critical assembly - 021

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mosteller, R.D.

    2010-01-01

    A new benchmark specification is developed for the BIG TEN uranium critical assembly. The assembly has a fast spectrum, and its core contains approximately 10 wt.% enriched uranium. Detailed specifications for the benchmark are provided, and results from the MCNP5 Monte Carlo code using a variety of nuclear-data libraries are given for this benchmark and two others. (authors)

  1. Shielding benchmark problems, (2)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tanaka, Shun-ichi; Sasamoto, Nobuo; Oka, Yoshiaki; Shin, Kazuo; Tada, Keiko.

    1980-02-01

    Shielding benchmark problems prepared by Working Group of Assessment of Shielding Experiments in the Research Committee on Shielding Design in the Atomic Energy Society of Japan were compiled by Shielding Laboratory in Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. Fourteen shielding benchmark problems are presented newly in addition to twenty-one problems proposed already, for evaluating the calculational algorithm and accuracy of computer codes based on discrete ordinates method and Monte Carlo method and for evaluating the nuclear data used in codes. The present benchmark problems are principally for investigating the backscattering and the streaming of neutrons and gamma rays in two- and three-dimensional configurations. (author)

  2. VENUS-2 Benchmark Problem Analysis with HELIOS-1.9

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jeong, Hyeon-Jun; Choe, Jiwon; Lee, Deokjung

    2014-01-01

    Since there are reliable results of benchmark data from the OECD/NEA report of the VENUS-2 MOX benchmark problem, by comparing benchmark results users can identify the credibility of code. In this paper, the solution of the VENUS-2 benchmark problem from HELIOS 1.9 using the ENDF/B-VI library(NJOY91.13) is compared with the result from HELIOS 1.7 with consideration of the MCNP-4B result as reference data. The comparison contains the results of pin cell calculation, assembly calculation, and core calculation. The eigenvalues from those are considered by comparing the results from other codes. In the case of UOX and MOX assemblies, the differences from the MCNP-4B results are about 10 pcm. However, there is some inaccuracy in baffle-reflector condition, and relatively large differences were found in the MOX-reflector assembly and core calculation. Although HELIOS 1.9 utilizes an inflow transport correction, it seems that it has a limited effect on the error in baffle-reflector condition

  3. Summary of the First Workshop on OECD/NRC boiling water reactor turbine trip benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2000-11-01

    The reference problem chosen for simulation in a BWR is a Turbine Trip transient, which begins with a sudden Turbine Stop Valve (TSV) closure. The pressure oscillation generated in the main steam piping propagates with relatively little attenuation into the reactor core. The induced core pressure oscillation results in dramatic changes of the core void distribution and fluid flow. The magnitude of the neutron flux transient taking place in the BWR core is strongly affected by the initial rate of pressure rise caused by pressure oscillation and has a strong spatial variation. The correct simulation of the power response to the pressure pulse and subsequent void collapse requires a 3-D core modeling supplemented by 1-D simulation of the remainder of the reactor coolant system. A BWR TT benchmark exercise, based on a well-defined problem with complete set of input specifications and reference experimental data, has been proposed for qualification of the coupled 3-D neutron kinetics/thermal-hydraulic system transient codes. Since this kind of transient is a dynamically complex event with reactor variables changing very rapidly, it constitutes a good benchmark problem to test the coupled codes on both levels: neutronics/thermal-hydraulic coupling and core/plant system coupling. Subsequently, the objectives of the proposed benchmark are: comprehensive feedback testing and examination of the capability of coupled codes to analyze complex transients with coupled core/plant interactions by comparison with actual experimental data. The benchmark consists of three separate exercises: Exercise 1 - Power vs. Time Plant System Simulation with Fixed Axial Power Profile Table (Obtained from Experimental Data). Exercise 2 - Coupled 3-D Kinetics/Core Thermal-Hydraulic BC Model and/or 1-D Kinetics Plant System Simulation. Exercise 3 - Best-Estimate Coupled 3-D Core/Thermal-Hydraulic System Modeling. This first workshop was focused on technical issues connected with the first draft of

  4. RNAontheBENCH: computational and empirical resources for benchmarking RNAseq quantification and differential expression methods

    KAUST Repository

    Germain, Pierre-Luc

    2016-06-20

    RNA sequencing (RNAseq) has become the method of choice for transcriptome analysis, yet no consensus exists as to the most appropriate pipeline for its analysis, with current benchmarks suffering important limitations. Here, we address these challenges through a rich benchmarking resource harnessing (i) two RNAseq datasets including ERCC ExFold spike-ins; (ii) Nanostring measurements of a panel of 150 genes on the same samples; (iii) a set of internal, genetically-determined controls; (iv) a reanalysis of the SEQC dataset; and (v) a focus on relative quantification (i.e. across-samples). We use this resource to compare different approaches to each step of RNAseq analysis, from alignment to differential expression testing. We show that methods providing the best absolute quantification do not necessarily provide good relative quantification across samples, that count-based methods are superior for gene-level relative quantification, and that the new generation of pseudo-alignment-based software performs as well as established methods, at a fraction of the computing time. We also assess the impact of library type and size on quantification and differential expression analysis. Finally, we have created a R package and a web platform to enable the simple and streamlined application of this resource to the benchmarking of future methods.

  5. RNAontheBENCH: computational and empirical resources for benchmarking RNAseq quantification and differential expression methods

    KAUST Repository

    Germain, Pierre-Luc; Vitriolo, Alessandro; Adamo, Antonio; Laise, Pasquale; Das, Vivek; Testa, Giuseppe

    2016-01-01

    RNA sequencing (RNAseq) has become the method of choice for transcriptome analysis, yet no consensus exists as to the most appropriate pipeline for its analysis, with current benchmarks suffering important limitations. Here, we address these challenges through a rich benchmarking resource harnessing (i) two RNAseq datasets including ERCC ExFold spike-ins; (ii) Nanostring measurements of a panel of 150 genes on the same samples; (iii) a set of internal, genetically-determined controls; (iv) a reanalysis of the SEQC dataset; and (v) a focus on relative quantification (i.e. across-samples). We use this resource to compare different approaches to each step of RNAseq analysis, from alignment to differential expression testing. We show that methods providing the best absolute quantification do not necessarily provide good relative quantification across samples, that count-based methods are superior for gene-level relative quantification, and that the new generation of pseudo-alignment-based software performs as well as established methods, at a fraction of the computing time. We also assess the impact of library type and size on quantification and differential expression analysis. Finally, we have created a R package and a web platform to enable the simple and streamlined application of this resource to the benchmarking of future methods.

  6. A GFR benchmark comparison of transient analysis codes based on the ETDR concept

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bubelis, E.; Coddington, P.; Castelliti, D.; Dor, I.; Fouillet, C.; Geus, E. de; Marshall, T.D.; Van Rooijen, W.; Schikorr, M.; Stainsby, R.

    2007-01-01

    A GFR (Gas-cooled Fast Reactor) transient benchmark study was performed to investigate the ability of different code systems to calculate the transition in the core heat removal from the main circuit forced flow to natural circulation cooling using the Decay Heat Removal (DHR) system. This benchmark is based on a main blower failure in the Experimental Technology Demonstration Reactor (ETDR) with reactor scram. The codes taking part into the benchmark are: RELAP5, TRAC/AAA, CATHARE, SIM-ADS, MANTA and SPECTRA. For comparison purposes the benchmark was divided into several stages: the initial steady-state solution, the main blower flow run-down, the opening of the DHR loop and the transition to natural circulation and finally the 'quasi' steady heat removal from the core by the DHR system. The results submitted by the participants showed that all the codes gave consistent results for all four stages of the benchmark. In the steady-state the calculations revealed some differences in the clad and fuel temperatures, the core and main loop pressure drops and in the total Helium mass inventory. Also some disagreements were observed in the Helium and water flow rates in the DHR loop during the final natural circulation stage. Good agreement was observed for the total main blower flow rate and Helium temperature rise in the core, as well as for the Helium inlet temperature into the core. In order to understand the reason for the differences in the initial 'blind' calculations a second round of calculations was performed using a more precise set of boundary conditions

  7. Application of PHEBUS results to benchmarking of nuclear plant safety codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Birchley, J.; Cripps, R.; Guentay, S.; Hosemann, J.P.

    2001-01-01

    The PHEBUS Fission Product project comprises six nuclear reactor severe accident simulations, using prototypic core materials and representative geometry and boundary conditions for the coolant loop and containment. The data thus produced are being used to benchmark the computer tools used for nuclear plant accident analysis to reduce the excessive conservatism typical for estimates of the radiological source term. A set of calculations has been carried out to simulate the results of experiment PHEBUS FPT-1 through each of its main stages, using computer models and methods analogous to those currently employed at PSI for assessments of Swiss nuclear plants. Good agreement for the core degradation and containment behaviour builds confidence in the models, while some open questions remain concerning some aspects of the release of fission products from the fuel, their transport and chemical speciation. Of potentially great importance to the reduction in source term estimates is the formation of the non-volatile species, silver iodide. Current investigations are focused on the uncertainty concerning fission product behaviour and the stability of silver iodide under irradiation. (author)

  8. Many-core computing for space-based stereoscopic imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCall, Paul; Torres, Gildo; LeGrand, Keith; Adjouadi, Malek; Liu, Chen; Darling, Jacob; Pernicka, Henry

    The potential benefits of using parallel computing in real-time visual-based satellite proximity operations missions are investigated. Improvements in performance and relative navigation solutions over single thread systems can be achieved through multi- and many-core computing. Stochastic relative orbit determination methods benefit from the higher measurement frequencies, allowing them to more accurately determine the associated statistical properties of the relative orbital elements. More accurate orbit determination can lead to reduced fuel consumption and extended mission capabilities and duration. Inherent to the process of stereoscopic image processing is the difficulty of loading, managing, parsing, and evaluating large amounts of data efficiently, which may result in delays or highly time consuming processes for single (or few) processor systems or platforms. In this research we utilize the Single-Chip Cloud Computer (SCC), a fully programmable 48-core experimental processor, created by Intel Labs as a platform for many-core software research, provided with a high-speed on-chip network for sharing information along with advanced power management technologies and support for message-passing. The results from utilizing the SCC platform for the stereoscopic image processing application are presented in the form of Performance, Power, Energy, and Energy-Delay-Product (EDP) metrics. Also, a comparison between the SCC results and those obtained from executing the same application on a commercial PC are presented, showing the potential benefits of utilizing the SCC in particular, and any many-core platforms in general for real-time processing of visual-based satellite proximity operations missions.

  9. Summary of the OECD/NRC Boiling Water Reactor Turbine Trip Benchmark - Fifth Workshop (BWR-TT5)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2003-01-01

    The reference problem chosen for simulation in a BWR is a Turbine Trip transient, which begins with a sudden Turbine Stop Valve (TSV) closure. The pressure oscillation generated in the main steam piping propagates with relatively little attenuation into the reactor core. The induced core pressure oscillation results in dramatic changes of the core void distribution and fluid flow. The magnitude of the neutron flux transient taking place in the BWR core is strongly affected by the initial rate of pressure rise caused by pressure oscillation and has a strong spatial variation. The correct simulation of the power response to the pressure pulse and subsequent void collapse requires a 3-D core modeling supplemented by 1-D simulation of the remainder of the reactor coolant system. A BWR TT benchmark exercise, based on a well-defined problem with complete set of input specifications and reference experimental data, has been proposed for qualification of the coupled 3-D neutron kinetics/thermal-hydraulic system transient codes. Since this kind of transient is a dynamically complex event with reactor variables changing very rapidly, it constitutes a good benchmark problem to test the coupled codes on both levels: neutronics/thermal-hydraulic coupling and core/plant system coupling. Subsequently, the objectives of the proposed benchmark are: comprehensive feedback testing and examination of the capability of coupled codes to analyze complex transients with coupled core/plant interactions by comparison with actual experimental data. The benchmark consists of three separate exercises: Exercise 1 - Power vs. Time Plant System Simulation with Fixed Axial Power Profile Table (Obtained from Experimental Data). Exercise 2 - Coupled 3-D Kinetics/Core Thermal-Hydraulic BC Model and/or 1-D Kinetics Plant System Simulation. Exercise 3 - Best-Estimate Coupled 3-D Core/Thermal-Hydraulic System Modeling. The purpose of this fifth workshop was to discuss the results from Phase III (best

  10. Comparative Neutronics Analysis of DIMPLE S06 Criticality Benchmark with Contemporary Reactor Core Analysis Computer Code Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wonkyeong Kim

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A high-leakage core has been known to be a challenging problem not only for a two-step homogenization approach but also for a direct heterogeneous approach. In this paper the DIMPLE S06 core, which is a small high-leakage core, has been analyzed by a direct heterogeneous modeling approach and by a two-step homogenization modeling approach, using contemporary code systems developed for reactor core analysis. The focus of this work is a comprehensive comparative analysis of the conventional approaches and codes with a small core design, DIMPLE S06 critical experiment. The calculation procedure for the two approaches is explicitly presented in this paper. Comprehensive comparative analysis is performed by neutronics parameters: multiplication factor and assembly power distribution. Comparison of two-group homogenized cross sections from each lattice physics codes shows that the generated transport cross section has significant difference according to the transport approximation to treat anisotropic scattering effect. The necessity of the ADF to correct the discontinuity at the assembly interfaces is clearly presented by the flux distributions and the result of two-step approach. Finally, the two approaches show consistent results for all codes, while the comparison with the reference generated by MCNP shows significant error except for another Monte Carlo code, SERPENT2.

  11. The coupled code system DORT-TD/THERMIX and its application to the OECD/NEA/NSC PBMR400 MW coupled neutronics thermal hydraulics transient benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pautz, A.; Tyobeka, B.; Ivanov, K.

    2009-01-01

    In new reactor designs that are still under review such as the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), not much experimental data exists to benchmark newly developed computer codes against. Such a situation requires that nuclear engineers and designers of this novel reactor design must resort to the validation of a newly developed code through a code-to-code benchmarking exercise because there are validated codes that are currently in use to analyze this reactor design, albeit very few of them. There are numerous HTR core physics benchmarks that are currently being pursued by different organizations, for different purposes. One such benchmark exercise is the PBMR-400MW OECD/NEA coupled neutronics/thermal hydraulics transient benchmark. In this paper, a newly developed coupled neutronics thermal hydraulics code system, DORT-TD/THERMIX with both transport and diffusion theory options, is used to simulate both the steady-state as well as several transient scenarios in this benchmark problem. (orig.)

  12. The change of radial power factor distribution due to RCCA insertion at the first cycle core of AP1000

    Science.gov (United States)

    Susilo, J.; Suparlina, L.; Deswandri; Sunaryo, G. R.

    2018-02-01

    The using of a computer program for the PWR type core neutronic design parameters analysis has been carried out in some previous studies. These studies included a computer code validation on the neutronic parameters data values resulted from measurements and benchmarking calculation. In this study, the AP1000 first cycle core radial power peaking factor validation and analysis were performed using CITATION module of the SRAC2006 computer code. The computer code has been also validated with a good result to the criticality values of VERA benchmark core. The AP1000 core power distribution calculation has been done in two-dimensional X-Y geometry through ¼ section modeling. The purpose of this research is to determine the accuracy of the SRAC2006 code, and also the safety performance of the AP1000 core first cycle operating. The core calculations were carried out with the several conditions, those are without Rod Cluster Control Assembly (RCCA), by insertion of a single RCCA (AO, M1, M2, MA, MB, MC, MD) and multiple insertion RCCA (MA + MB, MA + MB + MC, MA + MB + MC + MD, and MA + MB + MC + MD + M1). The maximum power factor of the fuel rods value in the fuel assembly assumedapproximately 1.406. The calculation results analysis showed that the 2-dimensional CITATION module of SRAC2006 code is accurate in AP1000 power distribution calculation without RCCA and with MA+MB RCCA insertion.The power peaking factor on the first operating cycle of the AP1000 core without RCCA, as well as with single and multiple RCCA are still below in the safety limit values (less then about 1.798). So in terms of thermal power generated by the fuel assembly, then it can be considered that the AP100 core at the first operating cycle is safe.

  13. Scalable Parallelization of Skyline Computation for Multi-core Processors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chester, Sean; Sidlauskas, Darius; Assent, Ira

    2015-01-01

    The skyline is an important query operator for multi-criteria decision making. It reduces a dataset to only those points that offer optimal trade-offs of dimensions. In general, it is very expensive to compute. Recently, multi-core CPU algorithms have been proposed to accelerate the computation...... of the skyline. However, they do not sufficiently minimize dominance tests and so are not competitive with state-of-the-art sequential algorithms. In this paper, we introduce a novel multi-core skyline algorithm, Hybrid, which processes points in blocks. It maintains a shared, global skyline among all threads...

  14. Evaluating the scalability of HEP software and multi-core hardware

    CERN Document Server

    Jarp, S; Leduc, J; Nowak, A

    2011-01-01

    As researchers have reached the practical limits of processor performance improvements by frequency scaling, it is clear that the future of computing lies in the effective utilization of parallel and multi-core architectures. Since this significant change in computing is well underway, it is vital for HEP programmers to understand the scalability of their software on modern hardware and the opportunities for potential improvements. This work aims to quantify the benefit of new mainstream architectures to the HEP community through practical benchmarking on recent hardware solutions, including the usage of parallelized HEP applications.

  15. Benchmark problems for numerical implementations of phase field models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jokisaari, A. M.; Voorhees, P. W.; Guyer, J. E.; Warren, J.; Heinonen, O. G.

    2016-01-01

    Here, we present the first set of benchmark problems for phase field models that are being developed by the Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). While many scientific research areas use a limited set of well-established software, the growing phase field community continues to develop a wide variety of codes and lacks benchmark problems to consistently evaluate the numerical performance of new implementations. Phase field modeling has become significantly more popular as computational power has increased and is now becoming mainstream, driving the need for benchmark problems to validate and verify new implementations. We follow the example set by the micromagnetics community to develop an evolving set of benchmark problems that test the usability, computational resources, numerical capabilities and physical scope of phase field simulation codes. In this paper, we propose two benchmark problems that cover the physics of solute diffusion and growth and coarsening of a second phase via a simple spinodal decomposition model and a more complex Ostwald ripening model. We demonstrate the utility of benchmark problems by comparing the results of simulations performed with two different adaptive time stepping techniques, and we discuss the needs of future benchmark problems. The development of benchmark problems will enable the results of quantitative phase field models to be confidently incorporated into integrated computational materials science and engineering (ICME), an important goal of the Materials Genome Initiative.

  16. Analysis of an OECD/NEA high-temperature reactor benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hosking, J. G.; Newton, T. D.; Koeberl, O.; Morris, P.; Goluoglu, S.; Tombakoglu, T.; Colak, U.; Sartori, E.

    2006-01-01

    This paper describes analyses of the OECD/NEA HTR benchmark organized by the 'Working Party on the Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS)', formerly the 'Working Party on the Physics of Plutonium Fuels and Innovative Fuel Cycles'. The benchmark was specifically designed to provide inter-comparisons for plutonium and thorium fuels when used in HTR systems. Calculations considering uranium fuel have also been included in the benchmark, in order to identify any increased uncertainties when using plutonium or thorium fuels. The benchmark consists of five phases, which include cell and whole-core calculations. Analysis of the benchmark has been performed by a number of international participants, who have used a range of deterministic and Monte Carlo code schemes. For each of the benchmark phases, neutronics parameters have been evaluated. Comparisons are made between the results of the benchmark participants, as well as comparisons between the predictions of the deterministic calculations and those from detailed Monte Carlo calculations. (authors)

  17. Calculation of the 5th AER dynamic benchmark with APROS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Puska, E.K.; Kontio, H.

    1998-01-01

    The model used for calculation of the 5th AER dynamic benchmark with APROS code is presented. In the calculation of the 5th AER dynamic benchmark the three-dimensional neutronics model of APROS was used. The core was divided axially into 20 nodes according to the specifications of the benchmark and each six identical fuel assemblies were placed into one one-dimensional thermal hydraulic channel. The five-equation thermal hydraulic model was used in the benchmark. The plant process and automation was described with a generic VVER-440 plant model created by IVO PE. (author)

  18. Benchmark Comparison of Dual- and Quad-Core Processor Linux Clusters with Two Global Climate Modeling Workloads

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGalliard, James

    2008-01-01

    This viewgraph presentation details the science and systems environments that NASA High End computing program serves. Included is a discussion of the workload that is involved in the processing for the Global Climate Modeling. The Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) is a system of models integrated using the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF). The GEOS-5 system was used for the Benchmark tests, and the results of the tests are shown and discussed. Tests were also run for the Cubed Sphere system, results for these test are also shown.

  19. Benchmarking

    OpenAIRE

    Meylianti S., Brigita

    1999-01-01

    Benchmarking has different meaning to different people. There are five types of benchmarking, namely internal benchmarking, competitive benchmarking, industry / functional benchmarking, process / generic benchmarking and collaborative benchmarking. Each type of benchmarking has its own advantages as well as disadvantages. Therefore it is important to know what kind of benchmarking is suitable to a specific application. This paper will discuss those five types of benchmarking in detail, includ...

  20. Development of common user data model for APOLLO3 and MARBLE and application to benchmark problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yokoyama, Kenji

    2009-07-01

    A Common User Data Model, CUDM, has been developed for the purpose of benchmark calculations between APOLLO3 and MARBLE code systems. The current version of CUDM was designed for core calculation benchmark problems with 3-dimensional Cartesian, 3-D XYZ, geometry. CUDM is able to manage all input/output data such as 3-D XYZ geometry, effective macroscopic cross section, effective multiplication factor and neutron flux. In addition, visualization tools for geometry and neutron flux were included. CUDM was designed by the object-oriented technique and implemented using Python programming language. Based on the CUDM, a prototype system for a benchmark calculation, CUDM-benchmark, was also developed. The CUDM-benchmark supports input/output data conversion for IDT solver in APOLLO3, and TRITAC and SNT solvers in MARBLE. In order to evaluate pertinence of CUDM, the CUDM-benchmark was applied to benchmark problems proposed by T. Takeda, G. Chiba and I. Zmijarevic. It was verified that the CUDM-benchmark successfully reproduced the results calculated with reference input data files, and provided consistent results among all the solvers by using one common input data defined by CUDM. In addition, a detailed benchmark calculation for Chiba benchmark was performed by using the CUDM-benchmark. Chiba benchmark is a neutron transport benchmark problem for fast criticality assembly without homogenization. This benchmark problem consists of 4 core configurations which have different sodium void regions, and each core configuration is defined by more than 5,000 fuel/material cells. In this application, it was found that the results by IDT and SNT solvers agreed well with the reference results by Monte-Carlo code. In addition, model effects such as quadrature set effect, S n order effect and mesh size effect were systematically evaluated and summarized in this report. (author)

  1. Links among available integral benchmarks and differential date evaluations, computational biases and uncertainties, and nuclear criticality safety biases on potential MOX production throughput

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goluoglu, S.; Hopper, C.M.

    2004-01-01

    Through the use of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's recently developed and applied sensitivity and uncertainty computational analysis techniques, this paper presents the relevance and importance of available and needed integral benchmarks and differential data evaluations impacting potential MOX production throughput determinations relative to low-moderated MOX fuel blending operations. The relevance and importance in the availability of or need for critical experiment benchmarks and data evaluations are presented in terms of computational biases as influenced by computational and experimental sensitivities and uncertainties relative to selected MOX production powder blending processes. Recent developments for estimating the safe margins of subcriticality for assuring nuclear criticality safety for process approval are presented. In addition, the impact of the safe margins (due to computational biases and uncertainties) on potential MOX production throughput will also be presented. (author)

  2. Benchmarking: contexts and details matter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Siyuan

    2017-07-05

    Benchmarking is an essential step in the development of computational tools. We take this opportunity to pitch in our opinions on tool benchmarking, in light of two correspondence articles published in Genome Biology.Please see related Li et al. and Newman et al. correspondence articles: www.dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13059-017-1256-5 and www.dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13059-017-1257-4.

  3. Parallelization characteristics of a three-dimensional whole-core code DeCART

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cho, J. Y.; Joo, H.K.; Kim, H. Y.; Lee, J. C.; Jang, M. H.

    2003-01-01

    Neutron transport calculation for three-dimensional amount of computing time but also huge memory. Therefore, whole-core codes such as DeCART need both also parallel computation and distributed memory capabilities. This paper is to implement such parallel capabilities based on MPI grouping and memory distribution on the DeCART code, and then to evaluate the performance by solving the C5G7 three-dimensional benchmark and a simplified three-dimensional SMART core problem. In C5G7 problem with 24 CPUs, a speedup of maximum 22 is obtained on IBM regatta machine and 21 on a LINUX cluster for the MOC kernel, which indicates good parallel performance of the DeCART code. The simplified SMART problem which need about 11 GBytes memory with one processors requires about 940 MBytes, which means that the DeCART code can now solve large core problems on affordable LINUX clusters

  4. Repeated Results Analysis for Middleware Regression Benchmarking

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Bulej, Lubomír; Kalibera, T.; Tůma, P.

    2005-01-01

    Roč. 60, - (2005), s. 345-358 ISSN 0166-5316 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA102/03/0672 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10300504 Keywords : middleware benchmarking * regression benchmarking * regression testing Subject RIV: JD - Computer Applications, Robotics Impact factor: 0.756, year: 2005

  5. A Computational Fluid Dynamic and Heat Transfer Model for Gaseous Core and Gas Cooled Space Power and Propulsion Reactors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anghaie, S.; Chen, G.

    1996-01-01

    A computational model based on the axisymmetric, thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations is developed to predict the convective, radiation and conductive heat transfer in high temperature space nuclear reactors. An implicit-explicit, finite volume, MacCormack method in conjunction with the Gauss-Seidel line iteration procedure is utilized to solve the thermal and fluid governing equations. Simulation of coolant and propellant flows in these reactors involves the subsonic and supersonic flows of hydrogen, helium and uranium tetrafluoride under variable boundary conditions. An enthalpy-rebalancing scheme is developed and implemented to enhance and accelerate the rate of convergence when a wall heat flux boundary condition is used. The model also incorporated the Baldwin and Lomax two-layer algebraic turbulence scheme for the calculation of the turbulent kinetic energy and eddy diffusivity of energy. The Rosseland diffusion approximation is used to simulate the radiative energy transfer in the optically thick environment of gas core reactors. The computational model is benchmarked with experimental data on flow separation angle and drag force acting on a suspended sphere in a cylindrical tube. The heat transfer is validated by comparing the computed results with the standard heat transfer correlations predictions. The model is used to simulate flow and heat transfer under a variety of design conditions. The effect of internal heat generation on the heat transfer in the gas core reactors is examined for a variety of power densities, 100 W/cc, 500 W/cc and 1000 W/cc. The maximum temperature, corresponding with the heat generation rates, are 2150 K, 2750 K and 3550 K, respectively. This analysis shows that the maximum temperature is strongly dependent on the value of heat generation rate. It also indicates that a heat generation rate higher than 1000 W/cc is necessary to maintain the gas temperature at about 3500 K, which is typical design temperature required to achieve high

  6. The fifth Atomic Energy Research dynamic benchmark calculation with HEXTRAN-SMABRE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haenaelaeinen, Anitta

    1998-01-01

    The fifth Atomic Energy Research dynamic benchmark is the first Atomic Energy Research benchmark for coupling of the thermohydraulic codes and three-dimensional reactor dynamic core models. In VTT HEXTRAN 2.7 is used for the core dynamics and SMABRE 4.6 as a thermohydraulic model for the primary and secondary loops. The plant model for SMABRE is based mainly on two input models. the Loviisa model and standard WWER-440/213 plant model. The primary circuit includes six separate loops, totally 505 nodes and 652 junctions. The reactor pressure vessel is divided into six parallel channels. In HEXTRAN calculation 176 symmetry is used in the core. In the sequence of main steam header break at the hot standby state, the liquid temperature is decreased symmetrically in the core inlet which leads to return to power. In the benchmark, no isolations of the steam generators are assumed and the maximum core power is about 38 % of the nominal power at four minutes after the break opening in the HEXTRAN-SMABRE calculation. Due to boric acid in the high pressure safety injection water, the power finally starts to decrease. The break flow is pure steam in the HEXTRAN-SMABRE calculation during the whole transient even in the swell levels in the steam generators are very high due to flashing. Because of sudden peaks in the preliminary results of the steam generator heat transfer, the SMABRE drift-flux model was modified. The new model is a simplified version of the EPRI correlation based on test data. The modified correlation behaves smoothly. In the calculations nuclear data is based on the ENDF/B-IV library and it has been evaluated with the CASMO-HEX code. The importance of the nuclear data was illustrated by repeating the benchmark calculation with using three different data sets. Optimal extensive data valid from hot to cold conditions were not available for all types of fuel enrichments needed in this benchmark.(Author)

  7. Programming the Linpack Benchmark for the IBM PowerXCell 8i Processor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Kistler

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we present the design and implementation of the Linpack benchmark for the IBM BladeCenter QS22, which incorporates two IBM PowerXCell 8i1 processors. The PowerXCell 8i is a new implementation of the Cell Broadband Engine™2 architecture and contains a set of special-purpose processing cores known as Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs. The SPEs can be used as computational accelerators to augment the main PowerPC processor. The added computational capability of the SPEs results in a peak double precision floating point capability of 108.8 GFLOPS. We explain how we modified the standard open source implementation of Linpack to accelerate key computational kernels using the SPEs of the PowerXCell 8i processors. We describe in detail the implementation and performance of the computational kernels and also explain how we employed the SPEs for high-speed data movement and reformatting. The result of these modifications is a Linpack benchmark optimized for the IBM PowerXCell 8i processor that achieves 170.7 GFLOPS on a BladeCenter QS22 with 32 GB of DDR2 SDRAM memory. Our implementation of Linpack also supports clusters of QS22s, and was used to achieve a result of 11.1 TFLOPS on a cluster of 84 QS22 blades. We compare our results on a single BladeCenter QS22 with the base Linpack implementation without SPE acceleration to illustrate the benefits of our optimizations.

  8. MOx Depletion Calculation Benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    San Felice, Laurence; Eschbach, Romain; Dewi Syarifah, Ratna; Maryam, Seif-Eddine; Hesketh, Kevin

    2016-01-01

    Under the auspices of the NEA Nuclear Science Committee (NSC), the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS) has been established to study the reactor physics, fuel performance, radiation transport and shielding, and the uncertainties associated with modelling of these phenomena in present and future nuclear power systems. The WPRS has different expert groups to cover a wide range of scientific issues in these fields. The Expert Group on Reactor Physics and Advanced Nuclear Systems (EGRPANS) was created in 2011 to perform specific tasks associated with reactor physics aspects of present and future nuclear power systems. EGRPANS provides expert advice to the WPRS and the nuclear community on the development needs (data and methods, validation experiments, scenario studies) for different reactor systems and also provides specific technical information regarding: core reactivity characteristics, including fuel depletion effects; core power/flux distributions; Core dynamics and reactivity control. In 2013 EGRPANS published a report that investigated fuel depletion effects in a Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR). This was entitled 'International Comparison of a Depletion Calculation Benchmark on Fuel Cycle Issues' NEA/NSC/DOC(2013) that documented a benchmark exercise for UO 2 fuel rods. This report documents a complementary benchmark exercise that focused on PuO 2 /UO 2 Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel rods. The results are especially relevant to the back-end of the fuel cycle, including irradiated fuel transport, reprocessing, interim storage and waste repository. Saint-Laurent B1 (SLB1) was the first French reactor to use MOx assemblies. SLB1 is a 900 MWe PWR, with 30% MOx fuel loading. The standard MOx assemblies, used in Saint-Laurent B1 reactor, include three zones with different plutonium enrichments, high Pu content (5.64%) in the center zone, medium Pu content (4.42%) in the intermediate zone and low Pu content (2.91%) in the peripheral zone

  9. Using E-mail in a Math/Computer Core Course.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gurwitz, Chaya

    This paper notes the advantages of using e-mail in computer literacy classes, and discusses the results of incorporating an e-mail assignment in the "Introduction to Mathematical Reasoning and Computer Programming" core course at Brooklyn College (New York). The assignment consisted of several steps. The students first read and responded…

  10. Visual Attention Modeling for Stereoscopic Video: A Benchmark and Computational Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Yuming; Zhang, Chi; Li, Jing; Lei, Jianjun; Perreira Da Silva, Matthieu; Le Callet, Patrick

    2017-10-01

    In this paper, we investigate the visual attention modeling for stereoscopic video from the following two aspects. First, we build one large-scale eye tracking database as the benchmark of visual attention modeling for stereoscopic video. The database includes 47 video sequences and their corresponding eye fixation data. Second, we propose a novel computational model of visual attention for stereoscopic video based on Gestalt theory. In the proposed model, we extract the low-level features, including luminance, color, texture, and depth, from discrete cosine transform coefficients, which are used to calculate feature contrast for the spatial saliency computation. The temporal saliency is calculated by the motion contrast from the planar and depth motion features in the stereoscopic video sequences. The final saliency is estimated by fusing the spatial and temporal saliency with uncertainty weighting, which is estimated by the laws of proximity, continuity, and common fate in Gestalt theory. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art stereoscopic video saliency detection models on our built large-scale eye tracking database and one other database (DML-ITRACK-3D).

  11. How to Advance TPC Benchmarks with Dependability Aspects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Almeida, Raquel; Poess, Meikel; Nambiar, Raghunath; Patil, Indira; Vieira, Marco

    Transactional systems are the core of the information systems of most organizations. Although there is general acknowledgement that failures in these systems often entail significant impact both on the proceeds and reputation of companies, the benchmarks developed and managed by the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) still maintain their focus on reporting bare performance. Each TPC benchmark has to pass a list of dependability-related tests (to verify ACID properties), but not all benchmarks require measuring their performances. While TPC-E measures the recovery time of some system failures, TPC-H and TPC-C only require functional correctness of such recovery. Consequently, systems used in TPC benchmarks are tuned mostly for performance. In this paper we argue that nowadays systems should be tuned for a more comprehensive suite of dependability tests, and that a dependability metric should be part of TPC benchmark publications. The paper discusses WHY and HOW this can be achieved. Two approaches are introduced and discussed: augmenting each TPC benchmark in a customized way, by extending each specification individually; and pursuing a more unified approach, defining a generic specification that could be adjoined to any TPC benchmark.

  12. Test Anxiety, Computer-Adaptive Testing and the Common Core

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colwell, Nicole Makas

    2013-01-01

    This paper highlights the current findings and issues regarding the role of computer-adaptive testing in test anxiety. The computer-adaptive test (CAT) proposed by one of the Common Core consortia brings these issues to the forefront. Research has long indicated that test anxiety impairs student performance. More recent research indicates that…

  13. HPCG Benchmark Technical Specification

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Heroux, Michael Allen [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Dongarra, Jack [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Luszczek, Piotr [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

    2013-10-01

    The High Performance Conjugate Gradient (HPCG) benchmark [cite SNL, UTK reports] is a tool for ranking computer systems based on a simple additive Schwarz, symmetric Gauss-Seidel preconditioned conjugate gradient solver. HPCG is similar to the High Performance Linpack (HPL), or Top 500, benchmark [1] in its purpose, but HPCG is intended to better represent how today’s applications perform. In this paper we describe the technical details of HPCG: how it is designed and implemented, what code transformations are permitted and how to interpret and report results.

  14. Analytical benchmarks for nuclear engineering applications. Case studies in neutron transport theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2008-01-01

    The developers of computer codes involving neutron transport theory for nuclear engineering applications seldom apply analytical benchmarking strategies to ensure the quality of their programs. A major reason for this is the lack of analytical benchmarks and their documentation in the literature. The few such benchmarks that do exist are difficult to locate, as they are scattered throughout the neutron transport and radiative transfer literature. The motivation for this benchmark compendium, therefore, is to gather several analytical benchmarks appropriate for nuclear engineering applications under one cover. We consider the following three subject areas: neutron slowing down and thermalization without spatial dependence, one-dimensional neutron transport in infinite and finite media, and multidimensional neutron transport in a half-space and an infinite medium. Each benchmark is briefly described, followed by a detailed derivation of the analytical solution representation. Finally, a demonstration of the evaluation of the solution representation includes qualified numerical benchmark results. All accompanying computer codes are suitable for the PC computational environment and can serve as educational tools for courses in nuclear engineering. While this benchmark compilation does not contain all possible benchmarks, by any means, it does include some of the most prominent ones and should serve as a valuable reference. (author)

  15. Calculation of the fifth atomic energy research dynamic benchmark with APROS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Puska Eija Karita; Kontio Harii

    1998-01-01

    The band-out presents the model used for calculation of the fifth atomic energy research dynamic benchmark with APROS code. In the calculation of the fifth atomic energy research dynamic benchmark the three-dimensional neutronics model of APROS was used. The core was divided axially into 20 nodes according to the specifications of the benchmark and each six identical fuel assemblies were placed into one one-dimensional thermal hydraulic channel. The five-equation thermal hydraulic model was used in the benchmark. The plant process and automation was described with a generic WWER-440 plant model created by IVO Power Engineering Ltd. - Finland. (Author)

  16. Burn-up TRIGA Mark II benchmark experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Persic, A.; Ravnik, M.; Zagar, T.

    1998-01-01

    Different reactor codes are used for calculations of reactor parameters. The accuracy of the programs is tested through comparison of the calculated values with the experimental results. Well-defined and accurately measured benchmarks are required. The experimental results of reactivity measurements, fuel element reactivity worth distribution and fuel-up measurements are presented in this paper. The experiments were performed with partly burnt reactor core. The experimental conditions were well defined, so that the results can be used as a burn-up benchmark test case for a TRIGA Mark II reactor calculations.(author)

  17. Computer supervision of the core outlet sodium temperatures of FBTR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boopathy, C.

    1976-01-01

    Safety monitoring of the fast breeder test reactor at Kalpakkam (India) is achieved by a CDPS-on-line dual computer system which is dedicated to plant supervision. The on-line subsystem scans and supervises all the 170 core thermocouple signals every second. Organisation of the reactor core instruments, supervision of mean sodium outlet temperature and mean temperature drop across the core, detection of plugging of a fuel assembly are explained. (A.K.)

  18. EXPERIENCE WITH FPGA-BASED PROCESSOR CORE AS FRONT-END COMPUTER

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    HOFF, L.T.

    2005-01-01

    The RHIC control system architecture follows the familiar ''standard model''. LINUX workstations are used as operator consoles. Front-end computers are distributed around the accelerator, close to equipment being controlled or monitored. These computers are generally based on VMEbus CPU modules running the VxWorks operating system. I/O is typically performed via the VMEbus, or via PMC daughter cards (via an internal PCI bus), or via on-board I/O interfaces (Ethernet or serial). Advances in FPGA size and sophistication now permit running virtual processor ''cores'' within the FPGA logic, including ''cores'' with advanced features such as memory management. Such systems offer certain advantages over traditional VMEbus Front-end computers. Advantages include tighter coupling with FPGA logic, and therefore higher I/O bandwidth, and flexibility in packaging, possibly resulting in a lower noise environment and/or lower cost. This paper presents the experience acquired while porting the RHIC control system to a PowerPC 405 core within a Xilinx FPGA for use in low-level RF control

  19. Experimental studies and computational benchmark on heavy liquid metal natural circulation in a full height-scale test loop for small modular reactors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shin, Yong-Hoon, E-mail: chaotics@snu.ac.kr [Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826 (Korea, Republic of); Cho, Jaehyun [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111 Daedeok-daero, 989 Beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34057 (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Jueun; Ju, Heejae; Sohn, Sungjune; Kim, Yeji; Noh, Hyunyub; Hwang, Il Soon [Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826 (Korea, Republic of)

    2017-05-15

    Highlights: • Experimental studies on natural circulation for lead-bismuth eutectic were conducted. • Adiabatic wall boundaries conditions were established by compensating heat loss. • Computational benchmark with a system thermal-hydraulics code was performed. • Numerical simulation and experiment showed good agreement in mass flow rate. • An empirical relation was formulated for mass flow rate with experimental data. - Abstract: In order to test the enhanced safety of small lead-cooled fast reactors, lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) natural circulation characteristics have been studied. We present results of experiments with LBE non-isothermal natural circulation in a full-height scale test loop, HELIOS (heavy eutectic liquid metal loop for integral test of operability and safety of PEACER), and the validation of a system thermal-hydraulics code. The experimental studies on LBE were conducted under steady state as a function of core power conditions from 9.8 kW to 33.6 kW. Local surface heaters on the main loop were activated and finely tuned by trial-and-error approach to make adiabatic wall boundary conditions. A thermal-hydraulic system code MARS-LBE was validated by using the well-defined benchmark data. It was found that the predictions were mostly in good agreement with the experimental data in terms of mass flow rate and temperature difference that were both within 7%, respectively. With experiment results, an empirical relation predicting mass flow rate at a non-isothermal, adiabatic condition in HELIOS was derived.

  20. Multilevel parallel strategy on Monte Carlo particle transport for the large-scale full-core pin-by-pin simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, B.; Li, G.; Wang, W.; Shangguan, D.; Deng, L.

    2015-01-01

    This paper introduces the Strategy of multilevel hybrid parallelism of JCOGIN Infrastructure on Monte Carlo Particle Transport for the large-scale full-core pin-by-pin simulations. The particle parallelism, domain decomposition parallelism and MPI/OpenMP parallelism are designed and implemented. By the testing, JMCT presents the parallel scalability of JCOGIN, which reaches the parallel efficiency 80% on 120,000 cores for the pin-by-pin computation of the BEAVRS benchmark. (author)

  1. The core protection computer system fitted in Grafenrheinfeld NPP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rietzsch, L.

    1986-01-01

    This paper gives an overview of a four-train core protection computer system for KWU pressurized water reactors. Attention is focused on the methods used to ensure correct computer operation and correct results. Experience gained in trial operation is dealt with. Results of safety analysis of the hardware and the software verification work performed are discussed. (author)

  2. Handbook of critical experiments benchmarks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Durst, B.M.; Bierman, S.R.; Clayton, E.D.

    1978-03-01

    Data from critical experiments have been collected together for use as benchmarks in evaluating calculational techniques and nuclear data. These benchmarks have been selected from the numerous experiments performed on homogeneous plutonium systems. No attempt has been made to reproduce all of the data that exists. The primary objective in the collection of these data is to present representative experimental data defined in a concise, standardized format that can easily be translated into computer code input

  3. Summary of the OECD/NRC Boiling Water Reactor Turbine Trip Benchmark - Fourth Workshop (BWR-TT4)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    The reference problem chosen for simulation in a BWR is a Turbine Trip transient, which begins with a sudden Turbine Stop Valve (TSV) closure. The pressure oscillation generated in the main steam piping propagates with relatively little attenuation into the reactor core. The induced core pressure oscillation results in dramatic changes of the core void distribution and fluid flow. The magnitude of the neutron flux transient taking place in the BWR core is strongly affected by the initial rate of pressure rise caused by pressure oscillation and has a strong spatial variation. The correct simulation of the power response to the pressure pulse and subsequent void collapse requires a 3-D core modeling supplemented by 1-D simulation of the remainder of the reactor coolant system. A BWR TT benchmark exercise, based on a well-defined problem with complete set of input specifications and reference experimental data, has been proposed for qualification of the coupled 3-D neutron kinetics/thermal-hydraulic system transient codes. Since this kind of transient is a dynamically complex event with reactor variables changing very rapidly, it constitutes a good benchmark problem to test the coupled codes on both levels: neutronics/thermal-hydraulic coupling and core/plant system coupling. Subsequently, the objectives of the proposed benchmark are: comprehensive feedback testing and examination of the capability of coupled codes to analyze complex transients with coupled core/plant interactions by comparison with actual experimental data. The benchmark consists of three separate exercises: Exercise 1 - Power vs. Time Plant System Simulation with Fixed Axial Power Profile Table (Obtained from Experimental Data). Exercise 2 - Coupled 3-D Kinetics/Core Thermal-Hydraulic BC Model and/or 1-D Kinetics Plant System Simulation. Exercise 3 - Best-Estimate Coupled 3-D Core/Thermal-Hydraulic System Modeling. The purpose of this fourth workshop was to present and discuss final results of

  4. Online In-Core Thermal Neutron Flux Measurement for the Validation of Computational Methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohamad Hairie Rabir; Muhammad Rawi Mohamed Zin; Yahya Ismail

    2016-01-01

    In order to verify and validate the computational methods for neutron flux calculation in RTP calculations, a series of thermal neutron flux measurement has been performed. The Self Powered Neutron Detector (SPND) was used to measure thermal neutron flux to verify the calculated neutron flux distribution in the TRIGA reactor. Measurements results obtained online for different power level of the reactor. The experimental results were compared to the calculations performed with Monte Carlo code MCNP using detailed geometrical model of the reactor. The calculated and measured thermal neutron flux in the core are in very good agreement indicating that the material and geometrical properties of the reactor core are modelled well. In conclusion one can state that our computational model describes very well the neutron flux distribution in the reactor core. Since the computational model properly describes the reactor core it can be used for calculations of reactor core parameters and for optimization of RTP utilization. (author)

  5. Preliminary Results for the OECD/NEA Time Dependent Benchmark using Rattlesnake, Rattlesnake-IQS and TDKENO

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    DeHart, Mark D. [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Mausolff, Zander [Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States); Weems, Zach [Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States); Popp, Dustin [Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States); Smith, Kristin [Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States); Shriver, Forrest [Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States); Goluoglu, Sedat [Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States); Prince, Zachary [Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States); Ragusa, Jean [Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)

    2016-08-01

    One goal of the MAMMOTH M&S project is to validate the analysis capabilities within MAMMOTH. Historical data has shown limited value for validation of full three-dimensional (3D) multi-physics methods. Initial analysis considered the TREAT startup minimum critical core and one of the startup transient tests. At present, validation is focusing on measurements taken during the M8CAL test calibration series. These exercises will valuable in preliminary assessment of the ability of MAMMOTH to perform coupled multi-physics calculations; calculations performed to date are being used to validate the neutron transport solver Rattlesnake\\cite{Rattlesnake} and the fuels performance code BISON. Other validation projects outside of TREAT are available for single-physics benchmarking. Because the transient solution capability of Rattlesnake is one of the key attributes that makes it unique for TREAT transient simulations, validation of the transient solution of Rattlesnake using other time dependent kinetics benchmarks has considerable value. The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently developed a computational benchmark for transient simulations. This benchmark considered both two-dimensional (2D) and 3D configurations for a total number of 26 different transients. All are negative reactivity insertions, typically returning to the critical state after some time.

  6. Preliminary Results for the OECD/NEA Time Dependent Benchmark using Rattlesnake, Rattlesnake-IQS and TDKENO

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    DeHart, Mark D.; Mausolff, Zander; Weems, Zach; Popp, Dustin; Smith, Kristin; Shriver, Forrest; Goluoglu, Sedat; Prince, Zachary; Ragusa, Jean

    2016-01-01

    One goal of the MAMMOTH M&S project is to validate the analysis capabilities within MAMMOTH. Historical data has shown limited value for validation of full three-dimensional (3D) multi-physics methods. Initial analysis considered the TREAT startup minimum critical core and one of the startup transient tests. At present, validation is focusing on measurements taken during the M8CAL test calibration series. These exercises will valuable in preliminary assessment of the ability of MAMMOTH to perform coupled multi-physics calculations; calculations performed to date are being used to validate the neutron transport solver Rattlesnake\\citelesnake) and the fuels performance code BISON. Other validation projects outside of TREAT are available for single-physics benchmarking. Because the transient solution capability of Rattlesnake is one of the key attributes that makes it unique for TREAT transient simulations, validation of the transient solution of Rattlesnake using other time dependent kinetics benchmarks has considerable value. The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently developed a computational benchmark for transient simulations. This benchmark considered both two-dimensional (2D) and 3D configurations for a total number of 26 different transients. All are negative reactivity insertions, typically returning to the critical state after some time.

  7. JNC results of BN-600 benchmark calculation (phase 4)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ishikawa, Makoto

    2003-01-01

    The present work is the results of JNC, Japan, for the Phase 4 of the BN-600 core benchmark problem (Hex-Z fully MOX fuelled core model) organized by IAEA. The benchmark specification is based on 1) the RCM report of IAEA CRP on 'Updated Codes and Methods to Reduce the Calculational Uncertainties of LMFR Reactivity Effects, Action 3.12' (Calculations for BN-600 fully fuelled MOX core for subsequent transient analyses). JENDL-3.2 nuclear data library was used for calculating 70 group ABBN-type group constants. Cell models for fuel assembly and control rod calculations were applied: homogeneous and heterogeneous (cylindrical supercell) model. Basic diffusion calculation was three-dimensional Hex-Z model, 18 group (Citation code). Transport calculations were 18 group, three-dimensional (NSHEC code) based on Sn-transport nodal method developed at JNC. The generated thermal power per fission was based on Sher's data corrected on the basis of ENDF/B-IV data library. Calculation results are presented in Tables for intercomparison

  8. Developing and modeling of the 'Laguna Verde' BWR CRDA benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Solis-Rodarte, J.; Fu, H.; Ivanov, K.N.; Matsui, Y.; Hotta, A.

    2002-01-01

    Reactivity initiated accidents (RIA) and design basis transients are one of the most important aspects related to nuclear power reactor safety. These events are re-evaluated whenever core alterations (modifications) are made as part of the nuclear safety analysis performed to a new design. These modifications usually include, but are not limited to, power upgrades, longer cycles, new fuel assembly and control rod designs, etc. The results obtained are compared with pre-established bounding analysis values to see if the new core design fulfills the requirements of safety constraints imposed on the design. The control rod drop accident (CRDA) is the design basis transient for the reactivity events of BWR technology. The CRDA is a very localized event depending on the control rod insertion position and the fuel assemblies surrounding the control rod falling from the core. A numerical benchmark was developed based on the CRDA RIA design basis accident to further asses the performance of coupled 3D neutron kinetics/thermal-hydraulics codes. The CRDA in a BWR is a mostly neutronic driven event. This benchmark is based on a real operating nuclear power plant - unit 1 of the Laguna Verde (LV1) nuclear power plant (NPP). The definition of the benchmark is presented briefly together with the benchmark specifications. Some of the cross-sections were modified in order to make the maximum control rod worth greater than one dollar. The transient is initiated at steady-state by dropping the control rod with maximum worth at full speed. The 'Laguna Verde' (LV1) BWR CRDA transient benchmark is calculated using two coupled codes: TRAC-BF1/NEM and TRAC-BF1/ENTREE. Neutron kinetics and thermal hydraulics models were developed for both codes. Comparison of the obtained results is presented along with some discussion of the sensitivity of results to some modeling assumptions

  9. Numerical simulations of concrete flow: A benchmark comparison

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Roussel, Nicolas; Gram, Annika; Cremonesi, Massimiliano

    2016-01-01

    First, we define in this paper two benchmark flows readily usable by anyone calibrating a numerical tool for concrete flow prediction. Such benchmark flows shall allow anyone to check the validity of their computational tools no matter the numerical methods and parameters they choose. Second, we ...

  10. Proposal for computer investigation of LMFBR core meltdown accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boudreau, J.E.; Harlow, F.H.; Reed, W.H.; Barnes, J.F.

    1974-01-01

    The environmental consequences of an LMFBR accident involving breach of containment are so severe that such accidents must not be allowed to happen. Present methods for analyzing hypothetical core disruptive accidents like a loss of flow with failure to scram cannot show conclusively that such accidents do not lead to a rupture of the pressure vessel. A major deficiency of present methods is their inability to follow large motions of a molten LMFBR core. Such motions may lead to a secondary supercritical configuration with a subsequent energy release that is sufficient to rupture the pressure vessel. The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory proposes to develop a computer program for describing the dynamics of hypothetical accidents. This computer program will utilize implicit Eulerian fluid dynamics methods coupled with a time-dependent transport theory description of the neutronic behavior. This program will be capable of following core motions until a stable coolable configuration is reached. Survey calculations of reactor accidents with a variety of initiating events will be performed for reactors under current design to assess the safety of such reactors

  11. A benchmark on computational simulation of a CT fracture experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Franco, C.; Brochard, J.; Ignaccolo, S.; Eripret, C.

    1992-01-01

    For a better understanding of the fracture behavior of cracked welds in piping, FRAMATOME, EDF and CEA have launched an important analytical research program. This program is mainly based on the analysis of the effects of the geometrical parameters (the crack size and the welded joint dimensions) and the yield strength ratio on the fracture behavior of several cracked configurations. Two approaches have been selected for the fracture analyses: on one hand, the global approach based on the concept of crack driving force J and on the other hand, a local approach of ductile fracture. In this approach the crack initiation and growth are modelized by the nucleation, growth and coalescence of cavities in front of the crack tip. The model selected in this study estimates only the growth of the cavities using the RICE and TRACEY relationship. The present study deals with a benchmark on computational simulation of CT fracture experiments using three computer codes : ALIBABA developed by EDF the CEA's code CASTEM 2000 and the FRAMATOME's code SYSTUS. The paper is split into three parts. At first, the authors present the experimental procedure for high temperature toughness testing of two CT specimens taken from a welded pipe, characteristic of pressurized water reactor primary piping. Secondly, considerations are outlined about the Finite Element analysis and the application procedure. A detailed description is given on boundary and loading conditions, on the mesh characteristics, on the numerical scheme involved and on the void growth computation. Finally, the comparisons between numerical and experimental results are presented up to the crack initiation, the tearing process being not taken into account in the present study. The variations of J and of the local variables used to estimate the damage around the crack tip (triaxiality and hydrostatic stresses, plastic deformations, void growth ...) are computed as a function of the increasing load

  12. Numerical and computational aspects of the coupled three-dimensional core/ plant simulations: organization for economic cooperation and development/ U.S. nuclear regulatory commission pressurized water reactor main-steam-line-break benchmark-II. 5. TMI-1 Benchmark Performed by Different Coupled Three-Dimensional Neutronics Thermal- Hydraulic Codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D'Auria, F.; Galassi, G.M.; Spadoni, A.; Gago, J.L.; Grgic, D.

    2001-01-01

    A comprehensive analysis of a double-ended main-steam-line-break (MSLB) accident assumed to have occurred in the Babcock and Wilcox Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit 1 nuclear power plant (NPP) has been carried out at the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Nucleare e della Produzione of the University of Pisa, Italy. The research has been carried out in cooperation with the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and with partial financial support from the European Union through a grant to one of the authors. The overall activity has been completed within the framework of the participation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations-Nuclear Science Committee PWR MSLB Benchmark. Different code versions have been adopted in the analysis. Results from the following codes (or code versions) are described in this paper: 1. RELAP5/mod 3.2.2, gamma version, coupled with the three-dimensional (3-D) neutron kinetics PARCS code; 2. RELAP5/mod 3.2.2, gamma version, coupled with the 3-D neutron kinetics QUABBOX code; 3. RELAP5/3D code coupled with the 3-D neutron kinetics NESTLE code. Boundary and initial conditions of the system, including those relevant to the fuel status, have been supplied by The Pennsylvania State University in cooperation with GPU Nuclear (the utility, owner of TMI) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The main challenge for the calculation was the prediction of the return to power (RTP) following the inlet of cold water into the core and one 'stuck-withdrawn' control rod. Non-realistic assumptions were proposed to augment the core power peak following scram. Zero-dimensional neutronics codes were capable of detecting the RTP after scram. However, the application of 3-D neutronics codes to the same scenario allowed the calculation of a similar value for overall core power peak but showed power increase occurrence in about one-tenth of the core volume. The results achieved in phase 1 of

  13. Three-dimensional coupled kinetics/thermal- hydraulic benchmark TRIGA experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Feltus, Madeline Anne; Miller, William Scott

    2000-01-01

    This research project provides separate effects tests in order to benchmark neutron kinetics models coupled with thermal-hydraulic (T/H) models used in best-estimate codes such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) RELAP and TRAC code series and industrial codes such as RETRAN. Before this research project was initiated, no adequate experimental data existed for reactivity initiated transients that could be used to assess coupled three-dimensional (3D) kinetics and 3D T/H codes which have been, or are being developed around the world. Using various Test Reactor Isotope General Atomic (TRIGA) reactor core configurations at the Penn State Breazeale Reactor (PSBR), it is possible to determine the level of neutronics modeling required to describe kinetics and T/H feedback interactions. This research demonstrates that the small compact PSBR TRIGA core does not necessarily behave as a point kinetics reactor, but that this TRIGA can provide actual test results for 3D kinetics code benchmark efforts. This research focused on developing in-reactor tests that exhibited 3D neutronics effects coupled with 3D T/H feedback. A variety of pulses were used to evaluate the level of kinetics modeling needed for prompt temperature feedback in the fuel. Ramps and square waves were used to evaluate the detail of modeling needed for the delayed T/H feedback of the coolant. A stepped ramp was performed to evaluate and verify the derived thermal constants for the specific PSBR TRIGA core loading pattern. As part of the analytical benchmark research, the STAR 3D kinetics code (, STAR: Space and time analysis of reactors, Version 5, Level 3, Users Guide, Yankee Atomic Electric Company, YEAC 1758, Bolton, MA) was used to model the transient experiments. The STAR models were coupled with the one-dimensional (1D) WIGL and LRA and 3D COBRA (, COBRA IIIC: A digital computer program for steady-state and transient thermal-hydraulic analysis of rod bundle nuclear fuel elements, Battelle

  14. EPRI depletion benchmark calculations using PARAGON

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kucukboyaci, Vefa N.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • PARAGON depletion calculations are benchmarked against the EPRI reactivity decrement experiments. • Benchmarks cover a wide range of enrichments, burnups, cooling times, and burnable absorbers, and different depletion and storage conditions. • Results from PARAGON-SCALE scheme are more conservative relative to the benchmark data. • ENDF/B-VII based data reduces the excess conservatism and brings the predictions closer to benchmark reactivity decrement values. - Abstract: In order to conservatively apply burnup credit in spent fuel pool criticality analyses, code validation for both fresh and used fuel is required. Fresh fuel validation is typically done by modeling experiments from the “International Handbook.” A depletion validation can determine a bias and bias uncertainty for the worth of the isotopes not found in the fresh fuel critical experiments. Westinghouse’s burnup credit methodology uses PARAGON™ (Westinghouse 2-D lattice physics code) and its 70-group cross-section library, which have been benchmarked, qualified, and licensed both as a standalone transport code and as a nuclear data source for core design simulations. A bias and bias uncertainty for the worth of depletion isotopes, however, are not available for PARAGON. Instead, the 5% decrement approach for depletion uncertainty is used, as set forth in the Kopp memo. Recently, EPRI developed a set of benchmarks based on a large set of power distribution measurements to ascertain reactivity biases. The depletion reactivity has been used to create 11 benchmark cases for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 GWd/MTU and 3 cooling times 100 h, 5 years, and 15 years. These benchmark cases are analyzed with PARAGON and the SCALE package and sensitivity studies are performed using different cross-section libraries based on ENDF/B-VI.3 and ENDF/B-VII data to assess that the 5% decrement approach is conservative for determining depletion uncertainty

  15. A Two-Step Approach to Uncertainty Quantification of Core Simulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Artem Yankov

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available For the multiple sources of error introduced into the standard computational regime for simulating reactor cores, rigorous uncertainty analysis methods are available primarily to quantify the effects of cross section uncertainties. Two methods for propagating cross section uncertainties through core simulators are the XSUSA statistical approach and the “two-step” method. The XSUSA approach, which is based on the SUSA code package, is fundamentally a stochastic sampling method. Alternatively, the two-step method utilizes generalized perturbation theory in the first step and stochastic sampling in the second step. The consistency of these two methods in quantifying uncertainties in the multiplication factor and in the core power distribution was examined in the framework of phase I-3 of the OECD Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling benchmark. With the Three Mile Island Unit 1 core as a base model for analysis, the XSUSA and two-step methods were applied with certain limitations, and the results were compared to those produced by other stochastic sampling-based codes. Based on the uncertainty analysis results, conclusions were drawn as to the method that is currently more viable for computing uncertainties in burnup and transient calculations.

  16. ZZ ECN-BUBEBO, ECN-Petten Burnup Benchmark Book, Inventories, Afterheat

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kloosterman, Jan Leen

    1999-01-01

    Description of program or function: Contains experimental benchmarks which can be used for the validation of burnup code systems and accompanied data libraries. Although the benchmarks presented here are thoroughly described in literature, it is in many cases not straightforward to retrieve unambiguously the correct input data and corresponding results from the benchmark Descriptions. Furthermore, results which can easily be measured, are sometimes difficult to calculate because of conversions to be made. Therefore, emphasis has been put to clarify the input of the benchmarks and to present the benchmark results in such a way that they can easily be calculated and compared. For more thorough Descriptions of the benchmarks themselves, the literature referred to here should be consulted. This benchmark book is divided in 11 chapters/files containing the following in text and tabular form: chapter 1: Introduction; chapter 2: Burnup Credit Criticality Benchmark Phase 1-B; chapter 3: Yankee-Rowe Core V Fuel Inventory Study; chapter 4: H.B. Robinson Unit 2 Fuel Inventory Study; chapter 5: Turkey Point Unit 3 Fuel Inventory Study; chapter 6: Turkey Point Unit 3 Afterheat Power Study; chapter 7: Dickens Benchmark on Fission Product Energy Release of U-235; chapter 8: Dickens Benchmark on Fission Product Energy Release of Pu-239; chapter 9: Yarnell Benchmark on Decay Heat Measurements of U-233; chapter 10: Yarnell Benchmark on Decay Heat Measurements of U-235; chapter 11: Yarnell Benchmark on Decay Heat Measurements of Pu-239

  17. Thermal reactor benchmark tests on JENDL-2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takano, Hideki; Tsuchihashi, Keichiro; Yamane, Tsuyoshi; Akino, Fujiyoshi; Ishiguro, Yukio; Ido, Masaru.

    1983-11-01

    A group constant library for the thermal reactor standard nuclear design code system SRAC was produced by using the evaluated nuclear data JENDL-2. Furthermore, the group constants for 235 U were calculated also from ENDF/B-V. Thermal reactor benchmark calculations were performed using the produced group constant library. The selected benchmark cores are two water-moderated lattices (TRX-1 and 2), two heavy water-moderated cores (DCA and ETA-1), two graphite-moderated cores (SHE-8 and 13) and eight critical experiments for critical safety. The effective multiplication factors and lattice cell parameters were calculated and compared with the experimental values. The results are summarized as follows. (1) Effective multiplication factors: The results by JENDL-2 are considerably improved in comparison with ones by ENDF/B-IV. The best agreement is obtained by using JENDL-2 and ENDF/B-V (only 235 U) data. (2) Lattice cell parameters: For the rho 28 (the ratio of epithermal to thermal 238 U captures) and C* (the ratio of 238 U captures to 235 U fissions), the values calculated by JENDL-2 are in good agreement with the experimental values. The rho 28 (the ratio of 238 U to 235 U fissions) are overestimated as found also for the fast reactor benchmarks. The rho 02 (the ratio of epithermal to thermal 232 Th captures) calculated by JENDL-2 or ENDF/B-IV are considerably underestimated. The functions of the SRAC system have been continued to be extended according to the needs of its users. A brief description will be given, in Appendix B, to the extended parts of the SRAC system together with the input specification. (author)

  18. Track 3: growth of nuclear technology and research numerical and computational aspects of the coupled three-dimensional core/plant simulations: organization for economic cooperation and development/U.S. nuclear regulatory commission pressurized water reactor main-steam-line-break benchmark-I. 5. Analyses of the OECD MSLB Benchmark with the Codes DYN3D and DYN3D/ATHLET

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grundmann, U.; Kliem, S.

    2001-01-01

    The code DYN3D coupled with ATHLET was used for the analysis of the OECD Main-Steam-Line-Break (MSLB) Benchmark, which is based on real plant design and operational data of the TMI-1 pressurized water reactor (PWR). Like the codes RELAP or TRAC,ATHLET is a thermal-hydraulic system code with point or one-dimensional neutron kinetic models. ATHLET, developed by the Gesellschaft for Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit, is widely used in Germany for safety analyses of nuclear power plants. DYN3D consists of three-dimensional nodal kinetic models and a thermal-hydraulic part with parallel coolant channels of the reactor core. DYN3D was coupled with ATHLET for analyzing more complex transients with interactions between coolant flow conditions and core behavior. It can be applied to the whole spectrum of operational transients and accidents, from small and intermediate leaks to large breaks of coolant loops or steam lines at PWRs and boiling water reactors. The so-called external coupling is used for the benchmark, where the thermal hydraulics is split into two parts: DYN3D describes the thermal hydraulics of the core, while ATHLET models the coolant system. Three exercises of the benchmark were simulated: Exercise 1: point kinetics plant simulation (ATHLET) Exercise 2: coupled three-dimensional neutronics/core thermal-hydraulics evaluation of the core response for given core thermal-hydraulic boundary conditions (DYN3D) Exercise 3: best-estimate coupled core-plant transient analysis (DYN3D/ATHLET). Considering the best-estimate cases (scenarios 1 of exercises 2 and 3), the reactor does not reach criticality after the reactor trip. Defining more serious tests for the codes, the efficiency of the control rods was decreased (scenarios 2 of exercises 2 and 3) to obtain recriticality during the transient. Besides the standard simulation given by the specification, modifications are introduced for sensitivity studies. The results presented here show (a) the influence of a reduced

  19. Pericles and Attila results for the C5G7 MOX benchmark problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wareing, T.A.; McGhee, J.M.

    2002-01-01

    Recently the Nuclear Energy Agency has published a new benchmark entitled, 'C5G7 MOX Benchmark.' This benchmark is to test the ability of current transport codes to treat reactor core problems without spatial homogenization. The benchmark includes both a two- and three-dimensional problem. We have calculated results for these benchmark problems with our Pericles and Attila codes. Pericles is a one-,two-, and three-dimensional unstructured grid discrete-ordinates code and was used for the twodimensional benchmark problem. Attila is a three-dimensional unstructured tetrahedral mesh discrete-ordinate code and was used for the three-dimensional problem. Both codes use discontinuous finite element spatial differencing. Both codes use diffusion synthetic acceleration (DSA) for accelerating the inner iterations.

  20. OECD/NEA benchmark for time-dependent neutron transport calculations without spatial homogenization

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hou, Jason, E-mail: jason.hou@ncsu.edu [Department of Nuclear Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 (United States); Ivanov, Kostadin N. [Department of Nuclear Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 (United States); Boyarinov, Victor F.; Fomichenko, Peter A. [National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”, Kurchatov Sq. 1, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2017-06-15

    Highlights: • A time-dependent homogenization-free neutron transport benchmark was created. • The first phase, known as the kinetics phase, was described in this work. • Preliminary results for selected 2-D transient exercises were presented. - Abstract: A Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) benchmark for the time-dependent neutron transport calculations without spatial homogenization has been established in order to facilitate the development and assessment of numerical methods for solving the space-time neutron kinetics equations. The benchmark has been named the OECD/NEA C5G7-TD benchmark, and later extended with three consecutive phases each corresponding to one modelling stage of the multi-physics transient analysis of the nuclear reactor core. This paper provides a detailed introduction of the benchmark specification of Phase I, known as the “kinetics phase”, including the geometry description, supporting neutron transport data, transient scenarios in both two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) configurations, as well as the expected output parameters from the participants. Also presented are the preliminary results for the initial state 2-D core and selected transient exercises that have been obtained using the Monte Carlo method and the Surface Harmonic Method (SHM), respectively.

  1. A study on Monte Carlo analysis of Pebble-type VHTR core for hydrogen production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Hong Chul

    2005-02-01

    In order to pursue exact the core analysis for VHTR core which will be developed in future, a study on Monte Carol method was carried out. In Korea, pebble and prism type core are under investigation for VHTR core analysis. In this study, pebble-type core was investigated because it was known that it should not only maintain the nuclear fuel integrity but also have the advantage in economical efficiency and safety. The pebble-bed cores of HTR-PROTEUS critical facility in Swiss were selected for the benchmark model. After the detailed MCNP modeling of the whole facility, calculations of nuclear characteristics were performed. The two core configurations, Core 4.3 and Core 5 (reference state no. 3), among the 10 configurations of the HTR-PROTEUS cores were chosen to be analyzed in order to treat different fuel loading pattern and modeled. The former is a random packing core and the latter deterministic packing core. Based on the experimental data and the benchmark result of other research groups for the two different cores, some nuclear characteristics were calculated. Firstly, keff was calculated for these cores. The effect for TRIO homogeneity model was investigated. Control rod and shutdown rod worths also were calculated and the sensitivity analysis on cross-section library and reflector thickness was pursued. Lastly, neutron flux profiles were investigated in reflector regions. It is noted that Monte Carlo analysis of pebble-type VHTR core was firstly carried out in Korea. Also, this study should not only provide the basic data for pebble-type VHTR core analysis for hydrogen production but also be utilized as the verified data to validate a computer code for VHTR core analysis which will be developed in future

  2. Atomic Energy Research benchmark activity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Makai, M.

    1998-01-01

    The test problems utilized in the validation and verification process of computer programs in Atomic Energie Research are collected into one bunch. This is the first step towards issuing a volume in which tests for VVER are collected, along with reference solutions and a number of solutions. The benchmarks do not include the ZR-6 experiments because they have been published along with a number of comparisons in the Final reports of TIC. The present collection focuses on operational and mathematical benchmarks which cover almost the entire range of reaktor calculation. (Author)

  3. Benchmark calculation for GT-MHR using HELIOS/MASTER code package and MCNP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Kyung Hoon; Kim, Kang Seog; Noh, Jae Man; Song, Jae Seung; Zee, Sung Quun

    2005-01-01

    The latest research associated with the very high temperature gas-cooled reactor (VHTR) is focused on the verification of a system performance and safety under operating conditions for the VHTRs. As a part of those, an international gas-cooled reactor program initiated by IAEA is going on. The key objectives of this program are the validation of analytical computer codes and the evaluation of benchmark models for the projected and actual VHTRs. New reactor physics analysis procedure for the prismatic VHTR is under development by adopting the conventional two-step procedure. In this procedure, a few group constants are generated through the transport lattice calculations using the HELIOS code, and the core physics analysis is performed by the 3-dimensional nodal diffusion code MASTER. We evaluated the performance of the HELIOS/MASTER code package through the benchmark calculations related to the GT-MHR (Gas Turbine-Modular Helium Reactor) to dispose weapon plutonium. In parallel, MCNP is employed as a reference code to verify the results of the HELIOS/MASTER procedure

  4. Random geometry capability in RMC code for explicit analysis of polytype particle/pebble and applications to HTR-10 benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Shichang; Li, Zeguang; Wang, Kan; Cheng, Quan; She, Ding

    2018-01-01

    Highlights: •A new random geometry was developed in RMC for mixed and polytype particle/pebble. •This capability was applied to the full core calculations of HTR-10 benchmark. •Reactivity, temperature coefficient and control rod worth of HTR-10 were compared. •This method can explicitly model different packing fraction of different pebbles. •Monte Carlo code with this method can simulate polytype particle/pebble type reactor. -- Abstract: With the increasing demands of high fidelity neutronics analysis and the development of computer technology, Monte Carlo method is becoming more and more attractive in accurate simulation of pebble bed High Temperature gas-cooled Reactor (HTR), owing to its advantages of the flexible geometry modeling and the use of continuous-energy nuclear cross sections. For the double-heterogeneous geometry of pebble bed, traditional Monte Carlo codes can treat it by explicit geometry description. However, packing methods such as Random Sequential Addition (RSA) can only produce a sphere packing up to 38% volume packing fraction, while Discrete Element Method (DEM) is troublesome and also time consuming. Moreover, traditional Monte Carlo codes are difficult and inconvenient to simulate the mixed and polytype particles or pebbles. A new random geometry method was developed in Monte Carlo code RMC to simulate the particle transport in polytype particle/pebble in double heterogeneous geometry systems. This method was verified by some test cases, and applied to the full core calculations of HTR-10 benchmark. The reactivity, temperature coefficient and control rod worth of HTR-10 were compared for full core and initial core in helium and air atmosphere respectively, and the results agree well with the benchmark results and experimental results. This work would provide an efficient tool for the innovative design of pebble bed, prism HTRs and molten salt reactors with polytype particles or pebbles using Monte Carlo method.

  5. OECD/DOE/CEA VVER-1000 Coolant Transient Benchmark. Summary Record of the Fourth Workshop (V100-CT4)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2006-01-01

    The overall objective of the VVER-1000 coolant transient (V1000CT) benchmark is to assess computer codes used in the safety analysis of VVER power plants, specifically for their use in analysis of reactivity transients in a VVER-1000. The V1000CT benchmark consists of two phases: V1000CT-1 is a simulation of the switching on of one main coolant pump (MCP) when the other three MCPs are in operation, and V1000CT-2 concerns calculation of coolant mixing tests and main steam line break (MSLB) scenarios. Each of the two phases contains three exercises. The reference problem chosen for simulation in Phase 1 is a MCP switching on when the other three main coolant pumps are in operation in a VVER-1000. This event is characterized by rapid increase in the flow through the core resulting in a coolant temperature decrease, which is spatially dependent. This leads to insertion of spatially distributed positive reactivity due to the modelled feedback mechanisms and non-symmetric power distribution. Simulation of the transient requires evaluation of core response from a multi-dimensional perspective (coupled three-dimensional neutronics/core thermal-hydraulics) supplemented by a one-dimensional simulation of the remainder of the reactor coolant system. Three exercises are defined in the framework of Phase 1: a) Exercise 1 - Point kinetics plant simulation; b) Exercise 2 - Coupled 3-D neutronics/core thermal-hydraulics response evaluation; c) Exercise 3 - Best-estimate coupled 3-D core/plant system transient modelling. In addition to the measured (experiment) scenario, extreme calculation scenarios were defined in the frame of Exercise 3 for better testing 3-D neutronics/thermal-hydraulics techniques. The proposals concerned: rod ejection simulations with scram set points at two different power levels. Since the previous coupled code benchmarks indicated that further development of the mixing computation models in the integrated codes is necessary, a coolant mixing experiment and

  6. Shock loading of reactor vessel following hypothetical core disruptive accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Srinivas, G.; Doshi, J.B.

    1990-01-01

    Hypothetical Core Disruptive Accident (HCDA) has been historically considered as the maximum credible accident in Fast Breeder Reactor systems. Environmental consequences of such an accident depends to a great extent on the ability of the reactor vessel to maintain integrity during the shock loading following an HCDA. In the present paper, a computational model of the reactor core and the surrounding coolant with a free surface is numerical technique. The equations for conservation of mass, momentum and energy along with an equation of state are considered in two dimensional cylindrical geometry. The reactor core at the end of HCDA is taken as a bubble of hot, vaporized fuel at high temperature and pressure, formed at the center of the reactor vessel and expanding against the surrounding liquid sodium coolant. The free surface of sodium at the top of the vessel and the movement of the core bubble-liquid coolant interface are tracked by Marker and Cell (MAC) procedure. The results are obtained for the transient pressure at the vessel wall and also for the loading on the roof plug by the impact of the slug of liquid sodium. The computer code developed is validated against a benchmark experiment chosen to be ISPRA experiment reported in literature. The computer code is next applied to predict the loading on the Indian Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) being developed at Kalpakkam

  7. Computer organization and design the hardware/software interface

    CERN Document Server

    Patterson, David A

    2009-01-01

    The classic textbook for computer systems analysis and design, Computer Organization and Design, has been thoroughly updated to provide a new focus on the revolutionary change taking place in industry today: the switch from uniprocessor to multicore microprocessors. This new emphasis on parallelism is supported by updates reflecting the newest technologies with examples highlighting the latest processor designs, benchmarking standards, languages and tools. As with previous editions, a MIPS processor is the core used to present the fundamentals of hardware technologies, assembly language, compu

  8. SCDAP: a light water reactor computer code for severe core damage analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marino, G.P.; Allison, C.M.; Majumdar, D.

    1982-01-01

    Development of the first code version (MODO) of the Severe Core Damage Analysis Package (SCDAP) computer code is described, and calculations made with SCDAP/MODO are presented. The objective of this computer code development program is to develop a capability for analyzing severe disruption of a light water reactor core, including fuel and cladding liquefaction, flow, and freezing; fission product release; hydrogen generation; quenched-induced fragmentation; coolability of the resulting geometry; and ultimately vessel failure due to vessel-melt interaction. SCDAP will be used to identify the phenomena which control core behavior during a severe accident, to help quantify uncertainties in risk assessment analysis, and to support planning and evaluation of severe fuel damage experiments and data. SCDAP/MODO addresses the behavior of a single fuel bundle. Future versions will be developed with capabilities for core-wide and vessel-melt interaction analysis

  9. Fast three-dimensional core optimization based on modified one-group model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Freire, Fernando S. [ELETROBRAS Termonuclear S.A. - ELETRONUCLEAR, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Dept. GCN-T], e-mail: freire@eletronuclear.gov.br; Martinez, Aquilino S.; Silva, Fernando C. da [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-graduacao de Engenharia (COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia Nuclear], e-mail: aquilino@con.ufrj.br, e-mail: fernando@con.ufrj.br

    2009-07-01

    The optimization of any nuclear reactor core is an extremely complex process that consumes a large amount of computer time. Fortunately, the nuclear designer can rely on a variety of methodologies able to approximate the analysis of each available core loading pattern. Two-dimensional codes are usually used to analyze the loading scheme. However, when particular axial effects are present in the core, two-dimensional analysis cannot produce good results and three-dimensional analysis can be required at all time. Basically, in this paper are presented the major advantages that can be found when one use the modified one-group diffusion theory coupled with a buckling correction model in optimization process. The results of the proposed model are very accurate when compared to benchmark results obtained from detailed calculations using three-dimensional nodal codes (author)

  10. Fast three-dimensional core optimization based on modified one-group model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Freire, Fernando S.; Martinez, Aquilino S.; Silva, Fernando C. da

    2009-01-01

    The optimization of any nuclear reactor core is an extremely complex process that consumes a large amount of computer time. Fortunately, the nuclear designer can rely on a variety of methodologies able to approximate the analysis of each available core loading pattern. Two-dimensional codes are usually used to analyze the loading scheme. However, when particular axial effects are present in the core, two-dimensional analysis cannot produce good results and three-dimensional analysis can be required at all time. Basically, in this paper are presented the major advantages that can be found when one use the modified one-group diffusion theory coupled with a buckling correction model in optimization process. The results of the proposed model are very accurate when compared to benchmark results obtained from detailed calculations using three-dimensional nodal codes (author)

  11. Numisheet2005 Benchmark Analysis on Forming of an Automotive Deck Lid Inner Panel: Benchmark 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buranathiti, Thaweepat; Cao Jian

    2005-01-01

    Numerical simulations in sheet metal forming processes have been a very challenging topic in industry. There are many computer codes and modeling techniques existing today. However, there are many unknowns affecting the prediction accuracy. Systematic benchmark tests are needed to accelerate the future implementations and to provide as a reference. This report presents an international cooperative benchmark effort for an automotive deck lid inner panel. Predictions from simulations are analyzed and discussed against the corresponding experimental results. The correlations between accuracy of each parameter of interest are discussed in this report

  12. Nuclear data uncertainties for local power densities in the Martin-Hoogenboom benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van der Marck, S.C.; Rochman, D.A.

    2013-01-01

    The recently developed method of fast Total Monte Carlo to propagate nuclear data uncertainties was applied to the Martin-Hoogenboom benchmark. This Martin- Hoogenboom benchmark prescribes that one calculates local pin powers (of light water cooled reactor) with a statistical uncertainty lower than 1% everywhere. Here we report, for the first time, an estimate of the nuclear data uncertainties for these local pin powers. For each of the more than 6 million local power tallies, the uncertainty due to nuclear data uncertainties was calculated, based on random variation of data for 235 U, 238 U, 239 Pu and H in H 2 O thermal scattering. In the center of the core region, the nuclear data uncertainty is 0.9%. Towards the edges of the core, this uncertainty increases to roughly 3%. The nuclear data uncertainties have been shown to be larger than the statistical uncertainties that the benchmark prescribes

  13. Computation system for nuclear reactor core analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vondy, D.R.; Fowler, T.B.; Cunningham, G.W.; Petrie, L.M.

    1977-04-01

    This report documents a system which contains computer codes as modules developed to evaluate nuclear reactor core performance. The diffusion theory approximation to neutron transport may be applied with the VENTURE code treating up to three dimensions. The effect of exposure may be determined with the BURNER code, allowing depletion calculations to be made. The features and requirements of the system are discussed and aspects common to the computational modules, but the latter are documented elsewhere. User input data requirements, data file management, control, and the modules which perform general functions are described. Continuing development and implementation effort is enhancing the analysis capability available locally and to other installations from remote terminals

  14. Computer based core monitoring system for an operating CANDU reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoon, Moon Young; Kwon, O Hwan; Kim, Kyung Hwa; Yeom, Choong Sub

    2004-01-01

    The research was performed to develop a CANDU-6 Core Monitoring System(CCMS) that enables operators to have efficient core management by monitoring core power distribution, burnup distribution, and the other important core variables and managing the past core history for Wolsong nuclear power plant unit 1. The CCMS uses Reactor Fueling Simulation Program(RFSP, developed by AECL) for continuous core calculation by integrating the algorithm and assumptions validated and uses the information taken from Digital Control Computer(DCC) for the purpose of producing basic input data. The CCMS has two modules; CCMS server program and CCMS client program. The CCMS server program performs automatic and continuous core calculation and manages overall output controlled by DataBase Management System. The CCMS client program enables users to monitor current and past core status in the predefined GUI(Graphic-User Interface) environment. For the purpose of verifying the effectiveness of CCMS, we compared field-test data with the data used for Wolsong unit 1 operation. In the verification the mean percent differences of both cases were the same(0.008%), which showed that the CCMS could monitor core behaviors well

  15. SparseBeads data: benchmarking sparsity-regularized computed tomography

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørgensen, Jakob Sauer; Coban, Sophia B.; Lionheart, William R. B.

    2017-01-01

    -regularized reconstruction. A collection of 48 x-ray CT datasets called SparseBeads was designed for benchmarking SR reconstruction algorithms. Beadpacks comprising glass beads of five different sizes as well as mixtures were scanned in a micro-CT scanner to provide structured datasets with variable image sparsity levels...

  16. TRX and UO2 criticality benchmarks with SAM-CE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Beer, M.; Troubetzkoy, E.S.; Lichtenstein, H.; Rose, P.F.

    1980-01-01

    A set of thermal reactor benchmark calculations with SAM-CE which have been conducted at both MAGI and at BNL are described. Their purpose was both validation of the SAM-CE reactor eigenvalue capability developed by MAGI and a substantial contribution to the data testing of both ENDF/B-IV and ENDF/B-V libraries. This experience also resulted in increased calculational efficiency of the code and an example is given. The benchmark analysis included the TRX-1 infinite cell using both ENDF/B-IV and ENDF/B-V cross section sets and calculations using ENDF/B-IV of the TRX-1 full core and TRX-2 cell. BAPL-UO2-1 calculations were conducted for the cell using both ENDF/B-IV and ENDF/B-V and for the full core with ENDF/B-V

  17. DORT-TD/THERMIX solutions for the OECD/NEA/NSC PBMR400 MW coupled neutronics thermal hydraulics transient benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tyobeka, Bismark; Pautz, Andreas; Ivanov, Kostadin

    2008-01-01

    In new reactor designs that are still under review such as the PBMR, not much experimental data exists to benchmark newly developed computer codes against. Such a situation requires that nuclear engineers and designers of this novel reactor design must resort to the validation of a newly developed code through a code-to-code benchmarking exercise because there are validated codes that are currently in use to analyze this reactor design, albeit very few of them. There are numerous HTR core physics benchmarks that are currently being pursued by different organizations, for different purposes. One such benchmark exercise is the PBMR-400 MW OECD/NEA/NSC coupled neutronics/thermal hydraulics transient benchmark. In this paper, a newly developed coupled neutronics thermal hydraulics code system, DORT-TD/THERMIX with both transport and diffusion theory options, is used to simulate the transient scenarios in the above-mentioned benchmark problem. Steady-state calculations results are compared with selected participants' results as well as transient models in which the diffusion and transport theory solutions of the same code system are directly compared. Several sensitivity studies are also shown in order to determine how much the change in certain parameters influences the overall behaviour of a given transient. It is shown in this paper that DORT-TD/THERMIX is a versatile tool which can be deployed for design and safety analyses of high temperature reactors of pebble-bed type. (authors)

  18. Bench-marking beam-beam simulations using coherent quadrupole effects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krishnagopal, S.; Chin, Y.H.

    1992-06-01

    Computer simulations are used extensively in the study of the beam-beam interaction. The proliferation of such codes raises the important question of their reliability, and motivates the development of a dependable set of bench-marks. We argue that rather than detailed quantitative comparisons, the ability of different codes to predict the same qualitative physics should be used as a criterion for such bench-marks. We use the striking phenomenon of coherent quadrupole oscillations as one such bench-mark, and demonstrate that our codes do indeed observe this behaviour. We also suggest some other tests that could be used as bench-marks

  19. Bench-marking beam-beam simulations using coherent quadrupole effects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krishnagopal, S.; Chin, Y.H.

    1992-01-01

    Computer simulations are used extensively in the study of the beam-beam interaction. The proliferation of such codes raises the important question of their reliability, and motivates the development of a dependable set of bench-marks. We argue that rather than detailed quantitative comparisons, the ability of different codes to predict the same qualitative physics should be used as a criterion for such bench-marks. We use the striking phenomenon of coherent quadrupole oscillations as one such bench-mark, and demonstrate that our codes do indeed observe this behavior. We also suggest some other tests that could be used as bench-marks

  20. OECD/DOE/CEA VVER-1000 Coolant Transient Benchmark. Summary Record of the Third Workshop (V1000-CT3)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-01-01

    The overall objective of the VVER-1000 coolant transient (V1000CT) benchmark is to assess computer codes used in the safety analysis of VVER power plants, specifically for their use in analysis of reactivity transients in a VVER-1000. The V1000CT benchmark consists of two phases: V1000CT-1 is a simulation of the switching on of one main coolant pump (MCP) when the other three MCPs are in operation, and V1000CT-2 concerns calculation of coolant mixing tests and main steam line break (MSLB) scenarios. Each of the two phases contains three exercises. The reference problem chosen for simulation in Phase 1 is a MCP switching on when the other three main coolant pumps are in operation in a VVER-1000. This event is characterized by rapid increase in the flow through the core resulting in a coolant temperature decrease, which is spatially dependent. This leads to insertion of spatially distributed positive reactivity due to the modelled feedback mechanisms and non-symmetric power distribution. Simulation of the transient requires evaluation of core response from a multi-dimensional perspective (coupled three-dimensional neutronics/core thermal-hydraulics) supplemented by a one-dimensional simulation of the remainder of the reactor coolant system. Three exercises are defined in the framework of Phase 1: a) Exercise 1 - Point kinetics plant simulation; b) Exercise 2 - Coupled 3-D neutronics/core thermal-hydraulics response evaluation; c) Exercise 3 - Best-estimate coupled 3-D core/plant system transient modelling. In addition to the measured (experiment) scenario, extreme calculation scenarios were defined in the frame of Exercise 3 for better testing 3-D neutronics/thermal-hydraulics techniques. The proposals concerned: rod ejection simulations with scram set points at two different power levels. The technical topics presented at this workshop were: Review of the benchmark activities after the 2. Workshop; - Discussion of participant's feedback and introduced modifications

  1. Neutronics benchmark of a MOX assembly with near-weapons-grade plutonium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Difilippo, F.C.; Fisher, S.E.

    1998-01-01

    One of the proposed ways to dispose of surplus weapons-grade plutonium (Pu) is to irradiate the high-fissile material in light-water reactors in order to reduce the Pu enrichment to the level of spent fuels from commercial reactors. Considerable experience has been accumulated about the behavior of mixed-oxide (MOX) uranium and plutonium fuels for plutonium recycling in commercial reactors, but the experience is related to Pu enrichments typical of spent fuels quite below the values of weapons-grade plutonium. Important decisions related to the kind of reactors to be used for the disposition of the plutonium are going to be based on calculations, so the validation of computational algorithms related to all aspects of the fuel cycle (power distributions, isotopics as function of the burnup, etc.), for weapons-grade isotopics is very important. Analysis of public domain data reveals that the cycle-2 irradiation in the Quad cities boiling-water reactor (BWR) is the most recent US destructive examination. This effort involved the irradiation of five MOX assemblies using 80 and 90% fissile plutonium. These benchmark data were gathered by General Electric under the sponsorship of the Electric Power Research Institute. It is emphasized, however, that global parameters are not the focus of this benchmark, since the five bundles containing MOX fuels did not significantly affect the overall core performance. However, since the primary objective of this work is to compare against measured post-irradiation assembly data, the term benchmark is applied here. One important reason for performing the benchmark on Quad Cities irradiation is that the fissile blends (up to 90%) are higher than reactor-grade and, quite close to, weapons-grade isotopics

  2. OECD/NRC BWR Turbine Trip Benchmark: Simulation by POLCA-T Code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Panayotov, Dobromir

    2004-01-01

    Westinghouse transient code POLCA-T brings together the system thermal-hydraulics plant models and three-dimensional (3-D) neutron kinetics core models. Participation in the OECD/NRC BWR Turbine Trip (TT) Benchmark is a part of our efforts toward the code's validation. The paper describes the objectives for TT analyses and gives a brief overview of the developed plant system input deck and 3-D core model.The results of exercise 1, system model without netronics, are presented. Sensitivity studies performed cover the maximal time step, turbine stop valve position and mass flow, feedwater temperature, and steam bypass mass flow. Results of exercise 2, 3-D core neutronic and thermal-hydraulic model with boundary conditions, are also presented. Sensitivity studies include the core inlet temperature, cladding properties, and direct heating to core coolant and bypass.The entire plant model was validated in the framework of the benchmark's phase 3. Sensitivity studies include the effect of SCRAM initialization and carry-under. The results obtained - transient fission power and its initial axial distribution and steam dome, core exit, lower and upper plenum, main steam line, and turbine inlet pressures - showed good agreement with measured data. Thus, the POLCA-T code capabilities for correct simulation of pressurizing transients with very fast power were proved

  3. Higher order polynomial expansion nodal method for hexagonal core neutronics analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jin, Young Cho; Chang, Hyo Kim

    1998-01-01

    A higher-order polynomial expansion nodal(PEN) method is newly formulated as a means to improve the accuracy of the conventional PEN method solutions to multi-group diffusion equations in hexagonal core geometry. The new method is applied to solving various hexagonal core neutronics benchmark problems. The computational accuracy of the higher order PEN method is then compared with that of the conventional PEN method, the analytic function expansion nodal (AFEN) method, and the ANC-H method. It is demonstrated that the higher order PEN method improves the accuracy of the conventional PEN method and that it compares very well with the other nodal methods like the AFEN and ANC-H methods in accuracy

  4. ATLAS Distributed Computing: Its Central Services core

    CERN Document Server

    Lee, Christopher Jon; The ATLAS collaboration

    2018-01-01

    The ATLAS Distributed Computing (ADC) Project is responsible for the off-line processing of data produced by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. It facilitates data and workload management for ATLAS computing on the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). ADC Central Services operations (CSops)is a vital part of ADC, responsible for the deployment and configuration of services needed by ATLAS computing and operation of those services on CERN IT infrastructure, providing knowledge of CERN IT services to ATLAS service managers and developers, and supporting them in case of issues. Currently this entails the management of thirty seven different OpenStack projects, with more than five thousand cores allocated for these virtual machines, as well as overseeing the distribution of twenty nine petabytes of storage space in EOS for ATLAS. As the LHC begins to get ready for the next long shut-down, which will bring in many new upgrades to allow for more data to be captured by the on-line syste...

  5. Validation study of the COBRA-WC computer program for LMFBR core thermal-hydraulic analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khan, E.U.; Bates, J.M.

    1982-01-01

    The COBRA-WC (Whole Core) computer program has been developed as a benchmark code to predict flow and temperature fields in LMFBR rod bundles. Consequently, an extensive validation study has been conducted to reinforce its credibility. A set of generalized parameters predicts data well for a wide range of geometries and operating conditions which include conventional (current generation LMFBRs) fuel and blanket assembly geometry in the forced, mixed, and natural convection regimes. The data base used for validating COBRA-WC was obtained from out-of-pile and in-pile tests. Most of the data was obtained in fully heated bundles with bundle power skew across flats up to 3:1 (max:min), Reynolds number between 500 and 80,000, and coolant mixed-mean temperature rise (δ anti T) in the range, 78 0 F less than or equal to δ anti T less than or equal to 340 0 F. Within the bundle, 95% of the predicted coolant temperature data points fall within +-25 0 F for 150 0 F less than or equal to δ anti T less than or equal to 340 0 F and within +-17 0 F for 78 0 F less than or equal to δ anti T less than or equal to 150 0 F

  6. Activities of the AZTLAN team on the OECD/Nea benchmark on fast reactors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lopez S, R.; Gomez T, A.; Puente E, F. [ININ, Carretera Mexico-Toluca s/n, Ocoyoacac, Estado de Mexico (Mexico); Del Valle G, E.; Arriaga R, L., E-mail: armando.gomez@inin.gob.mx [IPN, Escuela Superior de Fisica y Matematicas, Av. IPN s/n, 07738 Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico)

    2017-09-15

    In the present paper, the activities of the AZTLAN Platform Fast Reactor Group on the OECD/Nea Benchmark will be described. The main objective of these activities is to test the group staff and capabilities as well as the domestic code reliability by putting them into test in this exercise with different institutions from around the world. Six different core configurations were treated; these are described in two different versions of the Benchmark document. The main tools used by the group were the Finnish stochastic Monte Carlo code Serpent for full core calculations and macroscopic Cross Sections (X S) generation, and the domestic deterministic code AZNHEX for full core calculations. Different calculations were performed, such as full core calculations under nominal conditions, with control rods fully and partially inserted and with the sodium voided in the active zone as well as different reactivity shift values due to various conditions of radial and axial expansion of the fuel elements and structural material. The results obtained in the full core calculations and most of the reactivity shift calculations obtained by our group were indeed comparable to the ones obtained by different institutions when using similar methodologies. Given these favorable results it can be said that the main objective was met and the group showed their capabilities, as well as its possibility to collaborate with other institutes, placing Mexico in a good position in fast reactor analysis. Future work will continue with the calculations not yet treated and with the new core specifications on the new versions of the Benchmark document. (Author)

  7. Use of Monte Carlo computation in benchmarking radiotherapy treatment planning system algorithms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lewis, R.D.; Ryde, S.J.S.; Seaby, A.W.; Hancock, D.A.; Evans, C.J.

    2000-01-01

    Radiotherapy treatments are becoming more complex, often requiring the dose to be calculated in three dimensions and sometimes involving the application of non-coplanar beams. The ability of treatment planning systems to accurately calculate dose under a range of these and other irradiation conditions requires evaluation. Practical assessment of such arrangements can be problematical, especially when a heterogeneous medium is used. This work describes the use of Monte Carlo computation as a benchmarking tool to assess the dose distribution of external photon beam plans obtained in a simple heterogeneous phantom by several commercially available 3D and 2D treatment planning system algorithms. For comparison, practical measurements were undertaken using film dosimetry. The dose distributions were calculated for a variety of irradiation conditions designed to show the effects of surface obliquity, inhomogeneities and missing tissue above tangential beams. The results show maximum dose differences of 47% between some planning algorithms and film at a point 1 mm below a tangentially irradiated surface. Overall, the dose distribution obtained from film was most faithfully reproduced by the Monte Carlo N-Particle results illustrating the potential of Monte Carlo computation in evaluating treatment planning system algorithms. (author)

  8. Benchmarking therapeutic drug monitoring software: a review of available computer tools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuchs, Aline; Csajka, Chantal; Thoma, Yann; Buclin, Thierry; Widmer, Nicolas

    2013-01-01

    Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) aims to optimize treatments by individualizing dosage regimens based on the measurement of blood concentrations. Dosage individualization to maintain concentrations within a target range requires pharmacokinetic and clinical capabilities. Bayesian calculations currently represent the gold standard TDM approach but require computation assistance. In recent decades computer programs have been developed to assist clinicians in this assignment. The aim of this survey was to assess and compare computer tools designed to support TDM clinical activities. The literature and the Internet were searched to identify software. All programs were tested on personal computers. Each program was scored against a standardized grid covering pharmacokinetic relevance, user friendliness, computing aspects, interfacing and storage. A weighting factor was applied to each criterion of the grid to account for its relative importance. To assess the robustness of the software, six representative clinical vignettes were processed through each of them. Altogether, 12 software tools were identified, tested and ranked, representing a comprehensive review of the available software. Numbers of drugs handled by the software vary widely (from two to 180), and eight programs offer users the possibility of adding new drug models based on population pharmacokinetic analyses. Bayesian computation to predict dosage adaptation from blood concentration (a posteriori adjustment) is performed by ten tools, while nine are also able to propose a priori dosage regimens, based only on individual patient covariates such as age, sex and bodyweight. Among those applying Bayesian calculation, MM-USC*PACK© uses the non-parametric approach. The top two programs emerging from this benchmark were MwPharm© and TCIWorks. Most other programs evaluated had good potential while being less sophisticated or less user friendly. Programs vary in complexity and might not fit all healthcare

  9. BEAVRS full core burnup calculation in hot full power condition by RMC code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Shichang; Liang, Jingang; Wu, Qu; Guo, JuanJuan; Huang, Shanfang; Tang, Xiao; Li, Zeguang; Wang, Kan

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • TMS and thermal scattering interpolation were developed to treat cross sections OTF. • Hybrid coupling system was developed for HFP burnup calculation of BEAVRS benchmark. • Domain decomposition was applied to handle memory problem of full core burnup. • Critical boron concentration with burnup by RMC agrees with the benchmark results. • RMC is capable of multi-physics coupling for simulations of nuclear reactors in HFP. - Abstract: Monte Carlo method can provide high fidelity neutronics analysis of different types of nuclear reactors, owing to its advantages of the flexible geometry modeling and the use of continuous-energy nuclear cross sections. However, nuclear reactors are complex systems with multi-physics interacting and coupling. MC codes can couple with depletion solver and thermal-hydraulics (T/H) codes simultaneously for the “transport-burnup-thermal-hydraulics” coupling calculations. MIT BEAVRS is a typical “transport-burnup-thermal-hydraulics” coupling benchmark. In this paper, RMC was coupled with sub-channel code COBRA, equipped with on-the-fly temperature-dependent cross section treatment and large-scale detailed burnup calculation based on domain decomposition. Then RMC was applied to the full core burnup calculations of BEAVRS benchmark in hot full power (HFP) condition. The numerical tests show that domain decomposition method can achieve the consistent results compared with original version of RMC while enlarging the computational burnup regions. The results of HFP by RMC agree well with the reference values of BEAVRS benchmark and also agree well with those of MC21. This work proves the feasibility and accuracy of RMC in multi-physics coupling and lifecycle simulations of nuclear reactors.

  10. Upgrade and benchmarking of the NIFS physics-engineering-cost code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dolan, T.J.; Yamazaki, K.

    2004-07-01

    The NIFS Physics-Engineering-Cost (PEC) code for helical and tokamak fusion reactors is upgraded by adding data from three blanket-shield designs, a new cost section based on the ARIES cost schedule, more recent unit costs, and improved algorithms for various computations. The PEC code is also benchmarked by modeling the ARIES-AT (advanced technology) tokamak and the ARIES-SPPS (stellarator power plant system). The PEC code succeeds in predicting many of the pertinent plasma parameters and reactor component masses within about 10%. There are cost differences greater than 10% for some fusion power core components, which may be attributed to differences of unit costs used by the codes. The COEs estimated by the PEC code differ from the COEs of the ARIES-AT and ARIES-SPPS studies by 5%. (author)

  11. Simulation of radioactive waste transmutation on the t.node parallel computer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bacha, F.; Maillard, J.; Silva, J.

    1995-01-01

    Before any experiment on reactor driven by an accelerator, computer simulation supplies tools for optimization. Some of the key parameters are neutron production on a heavy target and neutronic distribution flux in the core. During two code benchmarks organized by the NEA-OECD, simulations of energetic incident proton collisions on a thin lead target for the first one, on a thick lead target for the second one, are described. One validation of the numeric codes is based on these results. A preliminary design of a burning waste system using benchmark result analysis and fission focused simulations is proposed

  12. Simulation of radioactive waste transmutation on the T. Node parallel computer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bacha, F.; Maillard, J.; Silva, J.

    1995-01-01

    Before any experiment on reactor driven by an accelerator, computer simulation supplies tools for optimization. Some of the key parameters are neutron production on a heavy target and neutronic distribution flux in the core. During two code benchmarks organized by the NEA-OECD, simulations of energetic incident proton collisions on a thin lead target for the first one, on a thick lead target for the second one, are described. One validation of our numeric codes is based on these results. A preliminary design of a burning waste system using benchmark result analysis and fission focused simulations is proposed

  13. Simulation of radioactive waste transmutation on the t.node parallel computer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bacha, F.; Maillard, J.; Silva, J. [LPC College de France, Paris (France)

    1995-10-01

    Before any experiment on reactor driven by an accelerator, computer simulation supplies tools for optimization. Some of the key parameters are neutron production on a heavy target and neutronic distribution flux in the core. During two code benchmarks organized by the NEA-OECD, simulations of energetic incident proton collisions on a thin lead target for the first one, on a thick lead target for the second one, are described. One validation of the numeric codes is based on these results. A preliminary design of a burning waste system using benchmark result analysis and fission focused simulations is proposed.

  14. Unstructured Computational Aerodynamics on Many Integrated Core Architecture

    KAUST Repository

    Al Farhan, Mohammed A.

    2016-06-08

    Shared memory parallelization of the flux kernel of PETSc-FUN3D, an unstructured tetrahedral mesh Euler flow code previously studied for distributed memory and multi-core shared memory, is evaluated on up to 61 cores per node and up to 4 threads per core. We explore several thread-level optimizations to improve flux kernel performance on the state-of-the-art many integrated core (MIC) Intel processor Xeon Phi “Knights Corner,” with a focus on strong thread scaling. While the linear algebraic kernel is bottlenecked by memory bandwidth for even modest numbers of cores sharing a common memory, the flux kernel, which arises in the control volume discretization of the conservation law residuals and in the formation of the preconditioner for the Jacobian by finite-differencing the conservation law residuals, is compute-intensive and is known to exploit effectively contemporary multi-core hardware. We extend study of the performance of the flux kernel to the Xeon Phi in three thread affinity modes, namely scatter, compact, and balanced, in both offload and native mode, with and without various code optimizations to improve alignment and reduce cache coherency penalties. Relative to baseline “out-of-the-box” optimized compilation, code restructuring optimizations provide about 3.8x speedup using the offload mode and about 5x speedup using the native mode. Even with these gains for the flux kernel, with respect to execution time the MIC simply achieves par with optimized compilation on a contemporary multi-core Intel CPU, the 16-core Sandy Bridge E5 2670. Nevertheless, the optimizations employed to reduce the data motion and cache coherency protocol penalties of the MIC are expected to be of value for CFD and many other unstructured applications as many-core architecture evolves. We explore large-scale distributed-shared memory performance on the Cray XC40 supercomputer, to demonstrate that optimizations employed on Phi hybridize to this context, where each of

  15. Unstructured Computational Aerodynamics on Many Integrated Core Architecture

    KAUST Repository

    Al Farhan, Mohammed A.; Kaushik, Dinesh K.; Keyes, David E.

    2016-01-01

    Shared memory parallelization of the flux kernel of PETSc-FUN3D, an unstructured tetrahedral mesh Euler flow code previously studied for distributed memory and multi-core shared memory, is evaluated on up to 61 cores per node and up to 4 threads per core. We explore several thread-level optimizations to improve flux kernel performance on the state-of-the-art many integrated core (MIC) Intel processor Xeon Phi “Knights Corner,” with a focus on strong thread scaling. While the linear algebraic kernel is bottlenecked by memory bandwidth for even modest numbers of cores sharing a common memory, the flux kernel, which arises in the control volume discretization of the conservation law residuals and in the formation of the preconditioner for the Jacobian by finite-differencing the conservation law residuals, is compute-intensive and is known to exploit effectively contemporary multi-core hardware. We extend study of the performance of the flux kernel to the Xeon Phi in three thread affinity modes, namely scatter, compact, and balanced, in both offload and native mode, with and without various code optimizations to improve alignment and reduce cache coherency penalties. Relative to baseline “out-of-the-box” optimized compilation, code restructuring optimizations provide about 3.8x speedup using the offload mode and about 5x speedup using the native mode. Even with these gains for the flux kernel, with respect to execution time the MIC simply achieves par with optimized compilation on a contemporary multi-core Intel CPU, the 16-core Sandy Bridge E5 2670. Nevertheless, the optimizations employed to reduce the data motion and cache coherency protocol penalties of the MIC are expected to be of value for CFD and many other unstructured applications as many-core architecture evolves. We explore large-scale distributed-shared memory performance on the Cray XC40 supercomputer, to demonstrate that optimizations employed on Phi hybridize to this context, where each of

  16. Benchmark analysis of MCNP trademark ENDF/B-VI iron

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Court, J.D.; Hendricks, J.S.

    1994-12-01

    The MCNP ENDF/B-VI iron cross-section data was subjected to four benchmark studies as part of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki dose re-evaluation for the National Academy of Science and the Defense Nuclear Agency. The four benchmark studies were: (1) the iron sphere benchmarks from the Lawrence Livermore Pulsed Spheres; (2) the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fusion Reactor Shielding Benchmark; (3) a 76-cm diameter iron sphere benchmark done at the University of Illinois; (4) the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Benchmark for Neutron Transport through Iron. MCNP4A was used to model each benchmark and computational results from the ENDF/B-VI iron evaluations were compared to ENDF/B-IV, ENDF/B-V, the MCNP Recommended Data Set (which includes Los Alamos National Laboratory Group T-2 evaluations), and experimental data. The results show that the ENDF/B-VI iron evaluations are as good as, or better than, previous data sets

  17. Multilevel criticality computations in AREVA NP'S core simulation code artemis - 195

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Geemert, R.

    2010-01-01

    This paper discusses the multi-level critical boron iteration approach that is applied per default in AREVA NP's whole-core neutronics and thermal hydraulics core simulation program ARTEMIS. This multi-level approach is characterized by the projection of variational boron concentration adjustments to the coarser mesh levels in a multi-level re-balancing hierarchy that is associated with the nodal flux equations to be solved in steady-state core simulation. At each individual re-balancing mesh level, optimized variational criticality tuning formulas are applied. The latter drive the core model to a numerically highly accurate self-sustaining state (i.e. with the neutronic eigenvalue being 1 up to a very high numerical precision) by continuous adjustment of the boron concentration as a system-wide scalar criticality parameter. Due to the default application of this approach in ARTEMIS reactor cycle simulations, an accuracy of all critical boron concentration estimates better than 0.001 ppm is enabled for all burnup time steps in a computationally efficient way. This high accuracy is relevant for precision optimization in industrial core simulation as well as for enabling accurate reactivity perturbation assessments. The developed approach is presented from a numerical methodology point of view with an emphasis on the multi-grid aspect of the concept. Furthermore, an application-relevant verification is presented in terms of achieved coupled iteration convergence efficiency for an application-representative industrial core cycle computation. (authors)

  18. Analysis of a computational benchmark for a high-temperature reactor using SCALE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goluoglu, S.

    2006-01-01

    Several proposed advanced reactor concepts require methods to address effects of double heterogeneity. In doubly heterogeneous systems, heterogeneous fuel particles in a moderator matrix form the fuel region of the fuel element and thus constitute the first level of heterogeneity. Fuel elements themselves are also heterogeneous with fuel and moderator or reflector regions, forming the second level of heterogeneity. The fuel elements may also form regular or irregular lattices. A five-phase computational benchmark for a high-temperature reactor (HTR) fuelled with uranium or reactor-grade plutonium has been defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD NEA), Nuclear Science Committee, Working Party on the Physics of Plutonium Fuels and Innovative Fuel Cycles. This paper summarizes the analysis results using the latest SCALE code system (to be released in CY 2006 as SCALE 5.1). (authors)

  19. Modeling Cardiac Electrophysiology at the Organ Level in the Peta FLOPS Computing Age

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mitchell, Lawrence; Bishop, Martin; Hoetzl, Elena; Neic, Aurel; Liebmann, Manfred; Haase, Gundolf; Plank, Gernot

    2010-01-01

    Despite a steep increase in available compute power, in-silico experimentation with highly detailed models of the heart remains to be challenging due to the high computational cost involved. It is hoped that next generation high performance computing (HPC) resources lead to significant reductions in execution times to leverage a new class of in-silico applications. However, performance gains with these new platforms can only be achieved by engaging a much larger number of compute cores, necessitating strongly scalable numerical techniques. So far strong scalability has been demonstrated only for a moderate number of cores, orders of magnitude below the range required to achieve the desired performance boost.In this study, strong scalability of currently used techniques to solve the bidomain equations is investigated. Benchmark results suggest that scalability is limited to 512-4096 cores within the range of relevant problem sizes even when systems are carefully load-balanced and advanced IO strategies are employed.

  20. Preliminary Assessment of ATR-C Capabilities to Provide Integral Benchmark Data for Key Structural/Matrix Materials that May be Used for Nuclear Data Testing and Analytical Methods Validation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    John D. Bess

    2009-03-01

    The purpose of this research is to provide a fundamental computational investigation into the possible integration of experimental activities with the Advanced Test Reactor Critical (ATR-C) facility with the development of benchmark experiments. Criticality benchmarks performed in the ATR-C could provide integral data for key matrix and structural materials used in nuclear systems. Results would then be utilized in the improvement of nuclear data libraries and as a means for analytical methods validation. It is proposed that experiments consisting of well-characterized quantities of materials be placed in the Northwest flux trap position of the ATR-C. The reactivity worth of the material could be determined and computationally analyzed through comprehensive benchmark activities including uncertainty analyses. Experiments were modeled in the available benchmark model of the ATR using MCNP5 with the ENDF/B-VII.0 cross section library. A single bar (9.5 cm long, 0.5 cm wide, and 121.92 cm high) of each material could provide sufficient reactivity difference in the core geometry for computational modeling and analysis. However, to provide increased opportunity for the validation of computational models, additional bars of material placed in the flux trap would increase the effective reactivity up to a limit of 1$ insertion. For simplicity in assembly manufacture, approximately four bars of material could provide a means for additional experimental benchmark configurations, except in the case of strong neutron absorbers and many materials providing positive reactivity. Future tasks include the cost analysis and development of the experimental assemblies, including means for the characterization of the neutron flux and spectral indices. Oscillation techniques may also serve to provide additional means for experimentation and validation of computational methods and acquisition of integral data for improving neutron cross sections. Further assessment of oscillation

  1. Computing sextic centrifugal distortion constants by DFT: A benchmark analysis on halogenated compounds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pietropolli Charmet, Andrea; Stoppa, Paolo; Tasinato, Nicola; Giorgianni, Santi

    2017-05-01

    This work presents a benchmark study on the calculation of the sextic centrifugal distortion constants employing cubic force fields computed by means of density functional theory (DFT). For a set of semi-rigid halogenated organic compounds several functionals (B2PLYP, B3LYP, B3PW91, M06, M06-2X, O3LYP, X3LYP, ωB97XD, CAM-B3LYP, LC-ωPBE, PBE0, B97-1 and B97-D) were used for computing the sextic centrifugal distortion constants. The effects related to the size of basis sets and the performances of hybrid approaches, where the harmonic data obtained at higher level of electronic correlation are coupled with cubic force constants yielded by DFT functionals, are presented and discussed. The predicted values were compared to both the available data published in the literature and those obtained by calculations carried out at increasing level of electronic correlation: Hartree-Fock Self Consistent Field (HF-SCF), second order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2), and coupled-cluster single and double (CCSD) level of theory. Different hybrid approaches, having the cubic force field computed at DFT level of theory coupled to harmonic data computed at increasing level of electronic correlation (up to CCSD level of theory augmented by a perturbational estimate of the effects of connected triple excitations, CCSD(T)) were considered. The obtained results demonstrate that they can represent reliable and computationally affordable methods to predict sextic centrifugal terms with an accuracy almost comparable to that yielded by the more expensive anharmonic force fields fully computed at MP2 and CCSD levels of theory. In view of their reduced computational cost, these hybrid approaches pave the route to the study of more complex systems.

  2. Optimizations of Unstructured Aerodynamics Computations for Many-core Architectures

    KAUST Repository

    Al Farhan, Mohammed Ahmed

    2018-04-13

    We investigate several state-of-the-practice shared-memory optimization techniques applied to key routines of an unstructured computational aerodynamics application with irregular memory accesses. We illustrate for the Intel KNL processor, as a representative of the processors in contemporary leading supercomputers, identifying and addressing performance challenges without compromising the floating point numerics of the original code. We employ low and high-level architecture-specific code optimizations involving thread and data-level parallelism. Our approach is based upon a multi-level hierarchical distribution of work and data across both the threads and the SIMD units within every hardware core. On a 64-core KNL chip, we achieve nearly 2.9x speedup of the dominant routines relative to the baseline. These exhibit almost linear strong scalability up to 64 threads, and thereafter some improvement with hyperthreading. At substantially fewer Watts, we achieve up to 1.7x speedup relative to the performance of 72 threads of a 36-core Haswell CPU and roughly equivalent performance to 112 threads of a 56-core Skylake scalable processor. These optimizations are expected to be of value for many other unstructured mesh PDE-based scientific applications as multi and many-core architecture evolves.

  3. Development of parallel benchmark code by sheet metal forming simulator 'ITAS'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watanabe, Hiroshi; Suzuki, Shintaro; Minami, Kazuo

    1999-03-01

    This report describes the development of parallel benchmark code by sheet metal forming simulator 'ITAS'. ITAS is a nonlinear elasto-plastic analysis program by the finite element method for the purpose of the simulation of sheet metal forming. ITAS adopts the dynamic analysis method that computes displacement of sheet metal at every time unit and utilizes the implicit method with the direct linear equation solver. Therefore the simulator is very robust. However, it requires a lot of computational time and memory capacity. In the development of the parallel benchmark code, we designed the code by MPI programming to reduce the computational time. In numerical experiments on the five kinds of parallel super computers at CCSE JAERI, i.e., SP2, SR2201, SX-4, T94 and VPP300, good performances are observed. The result will be shown to the public through WWW so that the benchmark results may become a guideline of research and development of the parallel program. (author)

  4. Experimental and computational benchmark tests

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gilliam, D.M.; Briesmeister, J.F.

    1994-01-01

    A program involving principally NIST, LANL, and ORNL has been in progress for about four years now to establish a series of benchmark measurements and calculations related to the moderation and leakage of 252 Cf neutrons from a source surrounded by spherical aqueous moderators of various thicknesses and compositions. The motivation for these studies comes from problems in criticality calculations concerning arrays of multiplying components, where the leakage from one component acts as a source for the other components. This talk compares experimental and calculated values for the fission rates of four nuclides - 235 U, 239 Pu, 238 U, and 237 Np - in the leakage spectrum from moderator spheres of diameters 76.2 mm, 101.6 mm, and 127.0 mm, with either pure water or enriched B-10 solutions as the moderator. Very detailed Monte Carlo calculations were done with the MCNP code, using a open-quotes light waterclose quotes S(α,β) scattering kernel

  5. Hextran-Smabre calculation of the VVER-1000 coolant transient benchmark

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Elina Syrjaelahti; Anitta Haemaelaeinen [VTT Processes, P.O.Box 1604, FIN-02044 VTT (Finland)

    2005-07-01

    Full text of publication follows: The VVER-1000 Coolant Transient benchmark is intended for validation of couplings of the thermal hydraulic codes and three dimensional neutron kinetic core models. It concerns a switching on a main coolant pump when the other three main coolant pumps are in operation. Problem is based on experiment performed in Kozloduy NPP in Bulgaria. In addition to the real plant transient, two extreme scenarios concerning control rod ejection after switching on a main coolant pump were calculated. In VTT the three-dimensional advanced nodal code HEXTRAN is used for the core kinetics and dynamics, and thermohydraulic system code SMABRE as a thermal hydraulic model for the primary and secondary loop. Parallelly coupled HEXTRAN-SMABRE code has been in production use since early 90's, and it has been extensively used for analysis of VVER NPPs. The SMABRE input model is based on the standard VVER-1000 input used in VTT. Last plant specific modifications to the input model have been made in EU projects. The whole core calculation is performed in the core with HEXTRAN. Also the core model is based on earlier VVER-1000 models. Nuclear data for the calculation was specified in the benchmark. The paper outlines the input models used for both codes. Calculated results are introduced both for the coupled core system with inlet and outlet boundary conditions and for the whole plant model. Sensitivity studies have been performed for selected parameters. (authors)

  6. Hextran-Smabre calculation of the VVER-1000 coolant transient benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Elina Syrjaelahti; Anitta Haemaelaeinen

    2005-01-01

    Full text of publication follows: The VVER-1000 Coolant Transient benchmark is intended for validation of couplings of the thermal hydraulic codes and three dimensional neutron kinetic core models. It concerns a switching on a main coolant pump when the other three main coolant pumps are in operation. Problem is based on experiment performed in Kozloduy NPP in Bulgaria. In addition to the real plant transient, two extreme scenarios concerning control rod ejection after switching on a main coolant pump were calculated. In VTT the three-dimensional advanced nodal code HEXTRAN is used for the core kinetics and dynamics, and thermohydraulic system code SMABRE as a thermal hydraulic model for the primary and secondary loop. Parallelly coupled HEXTRAN-SMABRE code has been in production use since early 90's, and it has been extensively used for analysis of VVER NPPs. The SMABRE input model is based on the standard VVER-1000 input used in VTT. Last plant specific modifications to the input model have been made in EU projects. The whole core calculation is performed in the core with HEXTRAN. Also the core model is based on earlier VVER-1000 models. Nuclear data for the calculation was specified in the benchmark. The paper outlines the input models used for both codes. Calculated results are introduced both for the coupled core system with inlet and outlet boundary conditions and for the whole plant model. Sensitivity studies have been performed for selected parameters. (authors)

  7. ZZ WPPR, Pu Recycling Benchmark Results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lutz, D.; Mattes, M.; Delpech, Marc; Juanola, Marc

    2002-01-01

    Description of program or function: The NEA NSC Working Party on Physics of Plutonium Recycling has commissioned a series of benchmarks covering: - Plutonium recycling in pressurized-water reactors; - Void reactivity effect in pressurized-water reactors; - Fast Plutonium-burner reactors: beginning of life; - Plutonium recycling in fast reactors; - Multiple recycling in advanced pressurized-water reactors. The results have been published (see references). ZZ-WPPR-1-A/B contains graphs and tables relative to the PWR Mox pin cell benchmark, representing typical fuel for plutonium recycling, one corresponding to a first cycle, the second for a fifth cycle. These computer readable files contain the complete set of results, while the printed report contains only a subset. ZZ-WPPR-2-CYC1 are the results from cycle 1 of the multiple recycling benchmarks

  8. Benchmark referencing of neutron dosimetry measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eisenhauer, C.M.; Grundl, J.A.; Gilliam, D.M.; McGarry, E.D.; Spiegel, V.

    1980-01-01

    The concept of benchmark referencing involves interpretation of dosimetry measurements in applied neutron fields in terms of similar measurements in benchmark fields whose neutron spectra and intensity are well known. The main advantage of benchmark referencing is that it minimizes or eliminates many types of experimental uncertainties such as those associated with absolute detection efficiencies and cross sections. In this paper we consider the cavity external to the pressure vessel of a power reactor as an example of an applied field. The pressure vessel cavity is an accessible location for exploratory dosimetry measurements aimed at understanding embrittlement of pressure vessel steel. Comparisons with calculated predictions of neutron fluence and spectra in the cavity provide a valuable check of the computational methods used to estimate pressure vessel safety margins for pressure vessel lifetimes

  9. A heterogeneous computing accelerated SCE-UA global optimization method using OpenMP, OpenCL, CUDA, and OpenACC.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kan, Guangyuan; He, Xiaoyan; Ding, Liuqian; Li, Jiren; Liang, Ke; Hong, Yang

    2017-10-01

    The shuffled complex evolution optimization developed at the University of Arizona (SCE-UA) has been successfully applied in various kinds of scientific and engineering optimization applications, such as hydrological model parameter calibration, for many years. The algorithm possesses good global optimality, convergence stability and robustness. However, benchmark and real-world applications reveal the poor computational efficiency of the SCE-UA. This research aims at the parallelization and acceleration of the SCE-UA method based on powerful heterogeneous computing technology. The parallel SCE-UA is implemented on Intel Xeon multi-core CPU (by using OpenMP and OpenCL) and NVIDIA Tesla many-core GPU (by using OpenCL, CUDA, and OpenACC). The serial and parallel SCE-UA were tested based on the Griewank benchmark function. Comparison results indicate the parallel SCE-UA significantly improves computational efficiency compared to the original serial version. The OpenCL implementation obtains the best overall acceleration results however, with the most complex source code. The parallel SCE-UA has bright prospects to be applied in real-world applications.

  10. Benchmarking multimedia performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zandi, Ahmad; Sudharsanan, Subramania I.

    1998-03-01

    With the introduction of faster processors and special instruction sets tailored to multimedia, a number of exciting applications are now feasible on the desktops. Among these is the DVD playback consisting, among other things, of MPEG-2 video and Dolby digital audio or MPEG-2 audio. Other multimedia applications such as video conferencing and speech recognition are also becoming popular on computer systems. In view of this tremendous interest in multimedia, a group of major computer companies have formed, Multimedia Benchmarks Committee as part of Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. to address the performance issues of multimedia applications. The approach is multi-tiered with three tiers of fidelity from minimal to full compliant. In each case the fidelity of the bitstream reconstruction as well as quality of the video or audio output are measured and the system is classified accordingly. At the next step the performance of the system is measured. In many multimedia applications such as the DVD playback the application needs to be run at a specific rate. In this case the measurement of the excess processing power, makes all the difference. All these make a system level, application based, multimedia benchmark very challenging. Several ideas and methodologies for each aspect of the problems will be presented and analyzed.

  11. Benchmark test of JENDL-3T and -3T/Rev.1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takano, Hideki; Kaneko, Kunio.

    1989-10-01

    The fast reactor 70-group constant set JFS-3-J3T has been generated by using the JENDL-3T nuclear data. One-dimensional 21-benchmark cores and the ZPPR-9 core were analysed with the JFS-3-J3T set. The results obtained are summarized as follows: (1) The values of keff are underestimated by 0.6% for Pu-fueled cores and overestimated by 2% for U-fueled cores. (2) The central reaction rate ratio 239 σ f φ/ 235 σ f φ is in a good agreement with the experimental value, though 238 σ c φ/ 239 σ f φ and 238 σ f φ/ 235 σ f φ are overestimated. (3) Doppler and Na-void reactivities are in a good agreement with the measured data. (4) The prediction accuracy of radial reaction rate distributions are improved in the comparison of the results obtained with the JENDL-2 data. Furthermore, the benchmark test of JENDL-3T/Rev. 1 which was revised from JENDL-3T for several important nuclides has been again performed. It was shown that JENDL-3T/Rev. 1 would predict nuclear characteristics more satisfactorily than JENDL-3T. (author)

  12. The VULCANO VE-U7 Corium spreading benchmark

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Journeau, Christophe; Haquet, Jean-Francois [CEA Cadarache, Severe Accident Mastering experimental Laboratory (DEN/DTN/STRI/LMA), 13108 St Paul lez Durance (France); Spindler, Bertrand [CEA Grenoble, Physicochemistry and Multiphasic Thermalhydraulics Laboratory (DEN/DTN/SE2T/LPTM), 17 rue des Martyrs, F-38054 Grenoble CEDEX 9 (France); Spengler, Claus [Gesellschaft fuer Reaktorsicherheit mbH, Department for Thermohydraulics/Process Engineering, Schwertnergasse 1, D-50667 Koeln (Germany); Foit, Jerzy [Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH, Institut fuer Kern nd Energietechnik (IKET), P.O. Box 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe (Germany)

    2006-07-01

    In a hypothetical nuclear reactor severe accident, corium spreading is one possible mitigation measure that has been selected for the EPR design. A post-test benchmark exercise has been organized on the VULCANO VE-U7 corium spreading experiment. In this test, a prototypic corium mixture representative of what could be expected at the opening of EPR reactor-pit gate has been spread on siliceous concrete and on a reference channel in inert refractory ceramic. The spreading progression was not much affected by the presence of concrete and sparging gases. The procedure used to estimate the corium physical properties from its composition and temperature provided a satisfactory data set. The CORFLOW, LAVA and THEMA codes provide satisfactory calculations of the spreading front evolution and of its final length. LAVA and THEMA estimations of the substrate temperatures, which are the initial conditions for longer term Molten Core Concrete Interaction or Corium Ceramic Interaction computations, are also close to the measured data, within the experimental uncertainties. (authors)

  13. The VULCANO VE-U7 Corium spreading benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Journeau, Christophe; Haquet, Jean-Francois; Spindler, Bertrand; Spengler, Claus; Foit, Jerzy

    2006-01-01

    In a hypothetical nuclear reactor severe accident, corium spreading is one possible mitigation measure that has been selected for the EPR design. A post-test benchmark exercise has been organized on the VULCANO VE-U7 corium spreading experiment. In this test, a prototypic corium mixture representative of what could be expected at the opening of EPR reactor-pit gate has been spread on siliceous concrete and on a reference channel in inert refractory ceramic. The spreading progression was not much affected by the presence of concrete and sparging gases. The procedure used to estimate the corium physical properties from its composition and temperature provided a satisfactory data set. The CORFLOW, LAVA and THEMA codes provide satisfactory calculations of the spreading front evolution and of its final length. LAVA and THEMA estimations of the substrate temperatures, which are the initial conditions for longer term Molten Core Concrete Interaction or Corium Ceramic Interaction computations, are also close to the measured data, within the experimental uncertainties. (authors)

  14. Preparation of a criticality benchmark based on experiments performed at the RA-6 reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bazzana, S.; Blaumann, H; Marquez Damian, J.I

    2009-01-01

    The operation and fuel management of a reactor uses neutronic modeling to predict its behavior in operational and accidental conditions. This modeling uses computational tools and nuclear data that must be contrasted against benchmark experiments to ensure its accuracy. These benchmarks have to be simple enough to be possible to model with the desired computer code and have quantified and bound uncertainties. The start-up of the RA-6 reactor, final stage of the conversion and renewal project, allowed us to obtain experimental results with fresh fuel. In this condition the material composition of the fuel elements is precisely known, which contributes to a more precise modeling of the critical condition. These experimental results are useful to evaluate the precision of the models used to design the core, based on U 3 Si 2 and cadmium wires as burnable poisons, for which no data was previously available. The analysis of this information can be used to validate models for the analysis of similar configurations, which is necessary to follow the operational history of the reactor and perform fuel management. The analysis of the results and the generation of the model were done following the methodology established by International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project, which gathers and analyzes experimental data for critical systems. The results were very satisfactory resulting on a value for the multiplication factor of the model of 1.0000 ± 0.0044, and a calculated value of 0.9980 ± 0.0001 using MCNP 5 and ENDF/B-VI. The utilization of as-built dimensions and compositions, and the sensitivity analysis allowed us to review the design calculations and analyze their precision, accuracy and error compensation. [es

  15. The database 'EDUD Base' for validation of neutron-physics codes used to analyze the WWER-440 cores

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rocek, J.; Belac, J.; Miasnikov, A.

    2003-01-01

    The program and data system EDUDBase for validation of reactor computing codes was developed at NRI. It is designed for validation and evaluation of the precision of different computer codes used for WWER core analyses. The main goal of this database is to provide data for comparison with calculation results of tested codes and tools for statistical analysis or differences between the calculation results and the test data. The benchmark data sets are based on in-core measurements performed on WWER-440 reactors of Dukovany NPP. The initial data from NPP are verified, errors and inaccuracies are eliminated and data are transferred to a form, which is suitable for comparison with results of calculations. A special reduced operating history data set is created for each operating cycle ('Benchmark Operation History') to be used as an input data for calculation. It contains values of some integral quantities for each time point: effective time, integral thermal power, boron concentration, position of working group control assemblies (group 6) and inlet coolant temperature. At present, sets are available for all completed cycles up to: (unit/cycle) 1/17, 2/16, 3/15, 4/15. Power distribution is described for approx. 40 time steps during each operating cycle. 2D-power distributions are transferred into 60-degree core symmetry sector of reactor core. At present, such data sets are available only for later cycles starting with: (unit/cycle) 1/7, 2/6, 3/5, 4/5 (in other words last II cycles for each unit) (Authors)

  16. Benchmarking of the FENDL-3 Neutron Cross-section Data Starter Library for Fusion Applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fischer, U., E-mail: ulrich.fischer@kit.edu [Association KIT-Euratom, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (Germany); Angelone, M. [Associazione ENEA-Euratom, ENEA Fusion Division, Via E. Fermi 27, I-00044 Frascati (Italy); Bohm, T. [University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500 Engineering Dr, Madison, WI 53706 (United States); Kondo, K. [Association KIT-Euratom, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (Germany); Konno, C. [Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki-ken 319-1195 (Japan); Sawan, M. [University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500 Engineering Dr, Madison, WI 53706 (United States); Villari, R. [Associazione ENEA-Euratom, ENEA Fusion Division, Via E. Fermi 27, I-00044 Frascati (Italy); Walker, B. [University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500 Engineering Dr, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)

    2014-06-15

    This paper summarizes the benchmark analyses performed in a joint effort of ENEA (Italy), JAEA (Japan), KIT (Germany), and the University of Wisconsin (USA) on a computational ITER benchmark and a series of 14 MeV neutron benchmark experiments. The computational benchmark revealed a modest increase of the neutron flux levels in the deep penetration regions and a substantial increase of the gas production in steel components. The comparison to experimental results showed good agreement with no substantial differences between FENDL-3.0 and FENDL-2.1 for most of the responses. In general, FENDL-3 shows an improved performance for fusion neutronics applications.

  17. International Benchmark on Pressurised Water Reactor Sub-channel and Bundle Tests. Volume II: Benchmark Results of Phase I: Void Distribution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rubin, Adam; Avramova, Maria; Velazquez-Lozada, Alexander

    2016-03-01

    This report summarised the first phase of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Benchmark based on NUPEC PWR Sub-channel and Bundle Tests (PSBT), which was intended to provide data for the verification of void distribution models in participants' codes. This phase was composed of four exercises; Exercise 1: steady-state single sub-channel benchmark, Exercise 2: steady-state rod bundle benchmark, Exercise 3: transient rod bundle benchmark and Exercise 4: a pressure drop benchmark. The experimental data provided to the participants of this benchmark is from a series of void measurement tests using full-size mock-up tests for both Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) and Pressurised Water Reactors (PWRs). These tests were performed from 1987 to 1995 by the Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation (NUPEC) in Japan and made available by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organisation (JNES) for the purposes of this benchmark, which was organised by Pennsylvania State University. Twenty-one institutions from nine countries participated in this benchmark. Seventeen different computer codes were used in Exercises 1, 2, 3 and 4. Among the computer codes were porous media, sub-channel, systems thermal-hydraulic code and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes. It was observed that the codes tended to overpredict the thermal equilibrium quality at lower elevations and under predict it at higher elevations. There was also a tendency to overpredict void fraction at lower elevations and underpredict it at high elevations for the bundle test cases. The overprediction of void fraction at low elevations is likely caused by the x-ray densitometer measurement method used. Under sub-cooled boiling conditions, the voids accumulate at heated surfaces (and are therefore not seen in the centre of the sub-channel, where the measurements are being taken), so the experimentally-determined void fractions will be lower than the actual void fraction. Some of the best

  18. Solution of the fifth dynamic Atomic Energy Research benchmark problem using the coupled code DIN3/ATHLET

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kliem, S.

    1998-01-01

    The fifth dynamic benchmark is the first benchmark for coupled thermohydraulic system/three dimensional hexagonal neutron kinetic core models. In this benchmark the interaction between the components of a WWER-440 NPP with the reactor core has been investigated. The initiating event is a symmetrical break of the main steam header at the end of the first fuel cycle and the shutdown conditions with one control rod group s tucking. This break causes an overcooling of the primary circuit. During this overcooling the scram reactivity is compensated and the scrammed reactor becomes re critical. The calculation was continued until the highly-borated water from the high pressure injection system terminated the power excursion. Several aspects of the very complex and complicated benchmark problem are analyzed in detail. Sensitivity studies with different hydraulic parameters are made. The influence on the course of the transient and on the solution is discussed.(Author)

  19. SONATINA-2H: a computer program for seismic analysis of the two-dimensional horizontal slice HTGR core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ikushima, Takeshi

    1990-02-01

    A Computer program SONATINA-2H has been developed for predicting the behavior of a two-dimensional horizontal HTGR core under seismic excitation. SONATINA-2H is a general two-dimensional computer program capable of analyzing the horizontal slice HTGR core with the fixed side reflector blocks and its restraint structures and the core support structure. In the analytical model, each block is treated as a rigid body and represent one column of the reactor core and is connected to the core support structure by means of column springs and viscous dampers. A single dashpot model is used for the collision process between adjacent blocks. The core support structure is represented by a single block. The computer program SONATINA-2H is capable of analyzing the core behavior for an excitation input applied simultaneously in two mutually perpendicular horizontal directions. In the present report are given, the theoretical formulation of the analytical model, an user's manual to describe the input and output format and sample problems. (author)

  20. Analysis of the ITER computational shielding benchmark with the Monte Carlo TRIPOLI-4® neutron gamma coupled calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Yi-Kang

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Verification and validation of TRIPOLI-4 radiation transport calculations for ITER shielding benchmark. • Evaluation of CEA-V5.1.1 and FENDL-3.0 nuclear data libraries on D–T fusion neutron continuous energy transport calculations. • Advances in nuclear analyses for nuclear heating and radiation damage in iron. • This work also demonstrates that the “safety factors” concept is necessary in the nuclear analyses of ITER. - Abstract: With the growing interest in using the continuous-energy TRIPOLI-4 ® Monte Carlo radiation transport code for ITER applications, a key issue that arises is whether or not the released TRIPOLI-4 code and its associated nuclear data libraries are verified and validated for the D–T fusion neutronics calculations. Previous published benchmark results of TRIPOLI-4 code on the ITER related activities have concentrated on the first wall loading, the reactor dosimetry, the nuclear heating, and the tritium breeding ratio. To enhance the TRIPOLI-4 verification and validation on neutron-gamma coupled calculations for fusion device application, the computational ITER shielding benchmark of M. E. Sawan was performed in this work by using the 2013 released TRIPOLI-4.9S code and the associated CEA-V5.1.1 data library. First wall, blanket, vacuum vessel and toroidal field magnet of the inboard and outboard components were fully modelled in this 1-D toroidal cylindrical benchmark. The 14.1 MeV source neutrons were sampled from a uniform isotropic distribution in the plasma zone. Nuclear responses including neutron and gamma fluxes, nuclear heating, and material damage indicator were benchmarked against previous published results. The capabilities of the TRIPOLI-4 code on the evaluation of above physics parameters were presented. The nuclear data library from the new FENDL-3.0 evaluation was also benchmarked against the CEA-V5.1.1 results for the neutron transport calculations. The results show that both data libraries can be

  1. Local approach of cleavage fracture applied to a vessel with subclad flaw. A benchmark on computational simulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moinereau, D.; Brochard, J.; Guichard, D.; Bhandari, S.; Sherry, A.; France, C.

    1996-10-01

    A benchmark on the computational simulation of a cladded vessel with a 6.2 mm sub-clad flaw submitted to a thermal transient has been conducted. Two-dimensional elastic and elastic-plastic finite element computations of the vessel have been performed by the different partners with respective finite element codes ASTER (EDF), CASTEM 2000 (CEA), SYSTUS (Framatome) and ABAQUS (AEA Technology). Main results have been compared: temperature field in the vessel, crack opening, opening stress at crack tips, stress intensity factor in cladding and base metal, Weibull stress σ w and probability of failure in base metal, void growth rate R/R 0 in cladding. This comparison shows an excellent agreement on main results, in particular on results obtained with local approach. (K.A.)

  2. GPU in Physics Computation: Case Geant4 Navigation

    CERN Document Server

    Seiskari, Otto; Niemi, Tapio

    2012-01-01

    General purpose computing on graphic processing units (GPU) is a potential method of speeding up scientific computation with low cost and high energy efficiency. We experimented with the particle physics simulation toolkit Geant4 used at CERN to benchmark its geometry navigation functionality on a GPU. The goal was to find out whether Geant4 physics simulations could benefit from GPU acceleration and how difficult it is to modify Geant4 code to run in a GPU. We ported selected parts of Geant4 code to C99 & CUDA and implemented a simple gamma physics simulation utilizing this code to measure efficiency. The performance of the program was tested by running it on two different platforms: NVIDIA GeForce 470 GTX GPU and a 12-core AMD CPU system. Our conclusion was that GPUs can be a competitive alternate for multi-core computers but porting existing software in an efficient way is challenging.

  3. Computation system for nuclear reactor core analysis. [LMFBR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vondy, D.R.; Fowler, T.B.; Cunningham, G.W.; Petrie, L.M.

    1977-04-01

    This report documents a system which contains computer codes as modules developed to evaluate nuclear reactor core performance. The diffusion theory approximation to neutron transport may be applied with the VENTURE code treating up to three dimensions. The effect of exposure may be determined with the BURNER code, allowing depletion calculations to be made. The features and requirements of the system are discussed and aspects common to the computational modules, but the latter are documented elsewhere. User input data requirements, data file management, control, and the modules which perform general functions are described. Continuing development and implementation effort is enhancing the analysis capability available locally and to other installations from remote terminals.

  4. Benchmark of the CASMO-3G/MICROBURN-B codes for Commonwealth Edison boiling water reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wheeler, J.K.; Pallotta, A.S.

    1992-01-01

    The Commonwealth Edison Company has performed an extensive benchmark against measured data from three boiling water reactors using the Studsvik lattice physics code CASMO-3G and the Siemens Nuclear Power three-dimensional simulator code MICROBURN-B. The measured data of interest for this benchmark are the hot and cold reactivity, and the core power distributions as measured by the traversing incore probe system and gamma scan data for fuel pins and assemblies. A total of nineteen unit-cycles were evaluated. The database included fuel product lines manufactured by General Electric and Siemens Nuclear Power, wit assemblies containing 7 x 7 to 9 x 9 pin configurations, several water rod designs, various enrichments and gadolina loadings, and axially varying lattice designs throughout the enriched portion of the bundle. The results of the benchmark present evidence that the CASMO-3G/MICROBURN-B code package can adequately model the range of fuel and core types in the benchmark, and the codes are acceptable for performing neutronic analyses of Commonwealth Edison's boiling water reactors

  5. Parallelization of a three-dimensional whole core transport code DeCART

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jin Young, Cho; Han Gyu, Joo; Ha Yong, Kim; Moon-Hee, Chang [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Yuseong-gu, Daejon (Korea, Republic of)

    2003-07-01

    Parallelization of the DeCART (deterministic core analysis based on ray tracing) code is presented that reduces the computational burden of the tremendous computing time and memory required in three-dimensional whole core transport calculations. The parallelization employs the concept of MPI grouping and the MPI/OpenMP mixed scheme as well. Since most of the computing time and memory are used in MOC (method of characteristics) and the multi-group CMFD (coarse mesh finite difference) calculation in DeCART, variables and subroutines related to these two modules are the primary targets for parallelization. Specifically, the ray tracing module was parallelized using a planar domain decomposition scheme and an angular domain decomposition scheme. The parallel performance of the DeCART code is evaluated by solving a rodded variation of the C5G7MOX three dimensional benchmark problem and a simplified three-dimensional SMART PWR core problem. In C5G7MOX problem with 24 CPUs, a speedup of maximum 21 is obtained on an IBM Regatta machine and 22 on a LINUX Cluster in the MOC kernel, which indicates good parallel performance of the DeCART code. In the simplified SMART problem, the memory requirement of about 11 GBytes in the single processor cases reduces to 940 Mbytes with 24 processors, which means that the DeCART code can now solve large core problems with affordable LINUX clusters. (authors)

  6. Sensitivity Analysis of OECD Benchmark Tests in BISON

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Swiler, Laura Painton [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Gamble, Kyle [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Schmidt, Rodney C. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Williamson, Richard [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

    2015-09-01

    This report summarizes a NEAMS (Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation) project focused on sensitivity analysis of a fuels performance benchmark problem. The benchmark problem was defined by the Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling working group of the Nuclear Science Committee, part of the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD ). The benchmark problem involv ed steady - state behavior of a fuel pin in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). The problem was created in the BISON Fuels Performance code. Dakota was used to generate and analyze 300 samples of 17 input parameters defining core boundary conditions, manuf acturing tolerances , and fuel properties. There were 24 responses of interest, including fuel centerline temperatures at a variety of locations and burnup levels, fission gas released, axial elongation of the fuel pin, etc. Pearson and Spearman correlatio n coefficients and Sobol' variance - based indices were used to perform the sensitivity analysis. This report summarizes the process and presents results from this study.

  7. Status on benchmark testing of CENDL-3

    CERN Document Server

    Liu Ping

    2002-01-01

    CENDL-3, the newest version of China Evaluated Nuclear Data Library has been finished, and distributed for some benchmarks analysis recently. The processing was carried out using the NJOY nuclear data processing code system. The calculations and analysis of benchmarks were done with Monte Carlo code MCNP and reactor lattice code WIMSD5A. The calculated results were compared with the experimental results based on ENDF/B6. In most thermal and fast uranium criticality benchmarks, the calculated k sub e sub f sub f values with CENDL-3 were in good agreements with experimental results. In the plutonium fast cores, the k sub e sub f sub f values were improved significantly with CENDL-3. This is duo to reevaluation of the fission spectrum and elastic angular distributions of sup 2 sup 3 sup 9 Pu and sup 2 sup 4 sup 0 Pu. CENDL-3 underestimated the k sub e sub f sub f values compared with other evaluated data libraries for most spherical or cylindrical assemblies of plutonium or uranium with beryllium

  8. Benchmarking computational fluid dynamics models of lava flow simulation for hazard assessment, forecasting, and risk management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dietterich, Hannah; Lev, Einat; Chen, Jiangzhi; Richardson, Jacob A.; Cashman, Katharine V.

    2017-01-01

    Numerical simulations of lava flow emplacement are valuable for assessing lava flow hazards, forecasting active flows, designing flow mitigation measures, interpreting past eruptions, and understanding the controls on lava flow behavior. Existing lava flow models vary in simplifying assumptions, physics, dimensionality, and the degree to which they have been validated against analytical solutions, experiments, and natural observations. In order to assess existing models and guide the development of new codes, we conduct a benchmarking study of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for lava flow emplacement, including VolcFlow, OpenFOAM, FLOW-3D, COMSOL, and MOLASSES. We model viscous, cooling, and solidifying flows over horizontal planes, sloping surfaces, and into topographic obstacles. We compare model results to physical observations made during well-controlled analogue and molten basalt experiments, and to analytical theory when available. Overall, the models accurately simulate viscous flow with some variability in flow thickness where flows intersect obstacles. OpenFOAM, COMSOL, and FLOW-3D can each reproduce experimental measurements of cooling viscous flows, and OpenFOAM and FLOW-3D simulations with temperature-dependent rheology match results from molten basalt experiments. We assess the goodness-of-fit of the simulation results and the computational cost. Our results guide the selection of numerical simulation codes for different applications, including inferring emplacement conditions of past lava flows, modeling the temporal evolution of ongoing flows during eruption, and probabilistic assessment of lava flow hazard prior to eruption. Finally, we outline potential experiments and desired key observational data from future flows that would extend existing benchmarking data sets.

  9. JENDL-4.0 benchmarking for effective delayed neutron fraction with a continuous-energy Monte Carlo code MVP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagaya, Yasunobu

    2013-01-01

    Benchmark calculations with a continuous-energy Monte Carlo code have been performed for delayed neutron data of JENDL-4.0. JENDL-4.0 gives good prediction for the effective delayed neutron fraction in the present benchmarks but further detailed analysis is required for some cores. (author)

  10. Neutron radiography (NRAD) reactor 64-element core upgrade

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bess, John D. [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

    2014-03-01

    The neutron radiography (NRAD) reactor is a 250 kW TRIGA (registered) (Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics) Mark II , tank-type research reactor currently located in the basement, below the main hot cell, of the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). It is equipped with two beam tubes with separate radiography stations for the performance of neutron radiography irradiation on small test components. The interim critical configuration developed during the core upgrade, which contains only 62 fuel elements, has been evaluated as an acceptable benchmark experiment. The final 64-fuel-element operational core configuration of the NRAD LEU TRIGA reactor has also been evaluated as an acceptable benchmark experiment. Calculated eigenvalues differ significantly (approximately ±1%) from the benchmark eigenvalue and have demonstrated sensitivity to the thermal scattering treatment of hydrogen in the U-Er-Zr-H fuel.

  11. Benchmarks for Uncertainty Analysis in Modelling (UAM) for the Design, Operation and Safety Analysis of LWRs - Volume I: Specification and Support Data for Neutronics Cases (Phase I)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ivanov, K.; Avramova, M.; Kamerow, S.; Kodeli, I.; Sartori, E.; Ivanov, E.; Cabellos, O.

    2013-01-01

    released. This report presents benchmark specifications for Phase I (Neutronics Phase) of the OECD LWR UAM benchmark in a format similar to the previous OECD/NRC benchmark specifications. Phase I consists of the following exercises: - Exercise 1 (I-1): 'Cell Physics' focused on the derivation of the multi-group microscopic cross-section libraries and their uncertainties. - Exercise 2 (I-2): 'Lattice Physics' focused on the derivation of the few-group macroscopic cross-section libraries and their uncertainties. - Exercise 3 (I-3): 'Core Physics' focused on the core steady-state stand-alone neutronics calculations and their uncertainties. These exercises follow those established in the industry and regulation routine calculation scheme for LWR design and safety analysis. This phase is focused on understanding uncertainties in the prediction of key reactor core parameters associated with LWR stand-alone neutronics core simulation. Such uncertainties occur due to input data uncertainties, modelling errors, and numerical approximations. The chosen approach in Phase I is to select/propagate the most important contributors for each exercise which can be treated in a practical manner. The cross-section uncertainty information is considered as the most important source of input uncertainty for Phase I. The cross-section related uncertainties are propagated through the 3 Exercises of Phase I. In Exercise I-1 these are the variance and covariance data associated with continuous energy cross-sections in evaluated nuclear data files. In Exercise I-2 these are the variance and covariance data associated with multi-group cross-sections used as input in the lattice physics codes. In Exercise I-3 these are the variance and covariance data associated with few-group cross-sections used as input in the core simulators. Depending on the availability of different methods in the computer code of choice for a given exercise, the related methodological uncertainties can play a smaller or larger

  12. Detailed comparison between computed and measured FBR core seismic responses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forni, M.; Martelli, A.; Melloni, R.; Bonacina, G.

    1988-01-01

    This paper presents a detailed comparison between seismic calculations and measurements performed for various mock-ups consisting of groups of seven and nineteen simplified elements of the Italian PEC fast reactor core. Experimental tests had been performed on shaking tables in air and water (simulating sodium) with excitations increasing up to above Safe Shutdown Earthquake. The PEC core-restraint ring had been simulated in some tests. All the experimental tests have been analysed by use of both the one-dimensional computer program CORALIE and the two-dimensional program CLASH. Comparisons have been made for all the instrumented elements, in both the time and the frequency domains. The good agreement between calculations and measurements has confirmed adequacy of the fluid-structure interaction model used for PEC core seismic design verification

  13. Analyses and results of the OECD/NEA WPNCS EGUNF benchmark phase II. Technical report; Analysen und Ergebnisse zum OECD/NEA WPNCS EGUNF Benchmark Phase II. Technischer Bericht

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hannstein, Volker; Sommer, Fabian

    2017-05-15

    The report summarizes the performed studies and results in the frame of the phase II benchmarks of the expert group of used nuclear fuel (EGUNF) of the working party of nuclear criticality safety (WPNCS) of the nuclear energy agency (NEA) of the organization for economic co-operation and development (OECD). The studies specified within the benchmarks have been realized to the full extent. The scope of the benchmarks was the comparison of a generic BWR fuel element with gadolinium containing fuel rods with several computer codes and cross section libraries of different international working groups and institutions. The used computational model allows the evaluation of the accuracy of fuel rod and their influence of the inventory calculations and the respective influence on BWR burnout credit calculations.

  14. Computer code for simulating pressurized water reactor core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Serrano, A.M.B.

    1978-01-01

    A computer code was developed for the simulation of the steady-state and transient behaviour of the average channel of a Pressurizer Water Reactor core. Point kinetics equations were used with the reactivity calculated for average temperatures in the channel with the fuel and moderator temperature feedbacks. The radial heat conduction equation in the fuel was solved numerically. For calculating the thermodynamic properties of the coolant, the fundamental equations of conservation (mass, energy and momentum) were solved. The gap and clad were treated as a resistance added to the film coefficient. The fuel system equations were decoupled from the coolant equations. The program permitted the changes in the heat transfer correlations and the flow patterns along the coolant channel. Various test were performed to determine the steady-state and transient response employing the PWR core simulator developed, obtaining results with adequate precision. (author)

  15. Impact of cross-section generation procedures on the simulation of the VVER 1000 pump startup experiment in the OECD/DOE/CEA V1000CT benchmark by coupled 3-D thermal hydraulics/ neutron kinetics models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boyan D Ivanov; Kostadin N Ivanov; Sylvie Aniel; Eric Royer

    2005-01-01

    Full text of publication follows: In the framework of joint effort between the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of OECD, the United States Department of Energy (US DOE), and the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA), France a coupled 3-D thermal hydraulics/neutron kinetics benchmark was defined. The overall objective OECD/NEA V1000CT benchmark is to assess computer codes used in analysis of VVER-1000 reactivity transients where mixing phenomena (mass flow and temperature) in the reactor pressure vessel are complex. Original data from the Kozloduy-6 Nuclear Power Plant are available for the validation of computer codes: one experiment of pump start-up (V1000CT-1) and one experiment of steam generator isolation (V1000CT-2). Additional scenarios are defined for code-to-code comparison. As a 3D core model is necessary for a best-estimate computation of all the scenarios of the V1000CT benchmark, all participants were asked to develop their own core coupled 3-D thermal hydraulics/ neutron kinetics models based on the data available in the benchmark specifications. The first code to code comparisons based on the V1000CT-1 Exercise 2 specifications exhibited unacceptable discrepancies between 2 sets of results, one of them being close to experimental results. The present paper focuses first on the analysis of the observed discrepancies. The VVER 1000 3-D thermal hydraulics/neutron kinetics models are based on thermal-hydraulic and neutronic data homogenized at the assembly scale. The neutronic data, provided as part of the benchmark specifications, consist thus in a set of parametrized 2 group cross sections libraries representing the different assemblies and the reflectors. The origin of the high observed discrepancies was found to lie in the use of these neutronic libraries. The concern was then to find a way to provide neutronic data, compatible with all the benchmark participants neutronic models, that enable also comparisons with experimental results. An analysis of the

  16. Concrete benchmark experiment: ex-vessel LWR surveillance dosimetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ait Abderrahim, H.; D'Hondt, P.; Oeyen, J.; Risch, P.; Bioux, P.

    1993-09-01

    The analysis of DOEL-1 in-vessel and ex-vessel neutron dosimetry, using the DOT 3.5 Sn code coupled with the VITAMIN-C cross-section library, showed the same C/E values for different detectors at the surveillance capsule and the ex-vessel cavity positions. These results seem to be in contradiction with those obtained in several Benchmark experiments (PCA, PSF, VENUS...) when using the same computational tools. Indeed a strong decreasing radial trend of the C/E was observed, partly explained by the overestimation of the iron inelastic scattering. The flat trend seen in DOEL-1 could be explained by compensating errors in the calculation such as the backscattering due to the concrete walls outside the cavity. The 'Concrete Benchmark' experiment has been designed to judge the ability of this calculation methods to treat the backscattering. This paper describes the 'Concrete Benchmark' experiment, the measured and computed neutron dosimetry results and their comparison. This preliminary analysis seems to indicate an overestimation of the backscattering effect in the calculations. (authors). 5 figs., 1 tab., 7 refs

  17. Quantitative Performance Analysis of the SPEC OMPM2001 Benchmarks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vishal Aslot

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available The state of modern computer systems has evolved to allow easy access to multiprocessor systems by supporting multiple processors on a single physical package. As the multiprocessor hardware evolves, new ways of programming it are also developed. Some inventions may merely be adopting and standardizing the older paradigms. One such evolving standard for programming shared-memory parallel computers is the OpenMP API. The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC has created a suite of parallel programs called SPEC OMP to compare and evaluate modern shared-memory multiprocessor systems using the OpenMP standard. We have studied these benchmarks in detail to understand their performance on a modern architecture. In this paper, we present detailed measurements of the benchmarks. We organize, summarize, and display our measurements using a Quantitative Model. We present a detailed discussion and derivation of the model. Also, we discuss the important loops in the SPEC OMPM2001 benchmarks and the reasons for less than ideal speedup on our platform.

  18. 3D computer visualization and animation of CANDU reactor core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qian, T.; Echlin, M.; Tonner, P.; Sur, B.

    1999-01-01

    Three-dimensional (3D) computer visualization and animation models of typical CANDU reactor cores (Darlington, Point Lepreau) have been developed using world-wide-web (WWW) browser based tools: JavaScript, hyper-text-markup language (HTML) and virtual reality modeling language (VRML). The 3D models provide three-dimensional views of internal control and monitoring structures in the reactor core, such as fuel channels, flux detectors, liquid zone controllers, zone boundaries, shutoff rods, poison injection tubes, ion chambers. Animations have been developed based on real in-core flux detector responses and rod position data from reactor shutdown. The animations show flux changing inside the reactor core with the drop of shutoff rods and/or the injection of liquid poison. The 3D models also provide hypertext links to documents giving specifications and historical data for particular components. Data in HTML format (or other format such as PDF, etc.) can be shown in text, tables, plots, drawings, etc., and further links to other sources of data can also be embedded. This paper summarizes the use of these WWW browser based tools, and describes the resulting 3D reactor core static and dynamic models. Potential applications of the models are discussed. (author)

  19. SUMMARY OF GENERAL WORKING GROUP A+B+D: CODES BENCHMARKING.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    WEI, J.; SHAPOSHNIKOVA, E.; ZIMMERMANN, F.; HOFMANN, I.

    2006-05-29

    Computer simulation is an indispensable tool in assisting the design, construction, and operation of accelerators. In particular, computer simulation complements analytical theories and experimental observations in understanding beam dynamics in accelerators. The ultimate function of computer simulation is to study mechanisms that limit the performance of frontier accelerators. There are four goals for the benchmarking of computer simulation codes, namely debugging, validation, comparison and verification: (1) Debugging--codes should calculate what they are supposed to calculate; (2) Validation--results generated by the codes should agree with established analytical results for specific cases; (3) Comparison--results from two sets of codes should agree with each other if the models used are the same; and (4) Verification--results from the codes should agree with experimental measurements. This is the summary of the joint session among working groups A, B, and D of the HI32006 Workshop on computer codes benchmarking.

  20. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Briggs, J.B.

    2003-01-01

    The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) was initiated in 1992 by the United States Department of Energy. The ICSBEP became an official activity of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995. Representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, the Russian Federation, Hungary, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Yugoslavia, Kazakhstan, Israel, Spain, and Brazil are now participating. The purpose of the ICSBEP is to identify, evaluate, verify, and formally document a comprehensive and internationally peer-reviewed set of criticality safety benchmark data. The work of the ICSBEP is published as an OECD handbook entitled 'International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments.' The 2003 Edition of the Handbook contains benchmark model specifications for 3070 critical or subcritical configurations that are intended for validating computer codes that calculate effective neutron multiplication and for testing basic nuclear data. (author)

  1. Application of the coupled code Athlet-Quabox/Cubbox for the extreme scenarios of the OECD/NRC BWR turbine trip benchmark and its performance on multi-processor computers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Langenbuch, S.; Schmidt, K.D.; Velkov, K.

    2003-01-01

    The OECD/NRC BWR Turbine Trip (TT) Benchmark is investigated to perform code-to-code comparison of coupled codes including a comparison to measured data which are available from turbine trip experiments at Peach Bottom 2. This Benchmark problem for a BWR over-pressure transient represents a challenging application of coupled codes which integrate 3-dimensional neutron kinetics into thermal-hydraulic system codes for best-estimate simulation of plant transients. This transient represents a typical application of coupled codes which are usually performed on powerful workstations using a single CPU. Nowadays, the availability of multi-CPUs is much easier. Indeed, powerful workstations already provide 4 to 8 CPU, computer centers give access to multi-processor systems with numbers of CPUs in the order of 16 up to several 100. Therefore, the performance of the coupled code Athlet-Quabox/Cubbox on multi-processor systems is studied. Different cases of application lead to changing requirements of the code efficiency, because the amount of computer time spent in different parts of the code is varying. This paper presents main results of the coupled code Athlet-Quabox/Cubbox for the extreme scenarios of the BWR TT Benchmark together with evaluations of the code performance on multi-processor computers. (authors)

  2. RISKIND verification and benchmark comparisons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Biwer, B.M.; Arnish, J.J.; Chen, S.Y.; Kamboj, S.

    1997-08-01

    This report presents verification calculations and benchmark comparisons for RISKIND, a computer code designed to estimate potential radiological consequences and health risks to individuals and the population from exposures associated with the transportation of spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive materials. Spreadsheet calculations were performed to verify the proper operation of the major options and calculational steps in RISKIND. The program is unique in that it combines a variety of well-established models into a comprehensive treatment for assessing risks from the transportation of radioactive materials. Benchmark comparisons with other validated codes that incorporate similar models were also performed. For instance, the external gamma and neutron dose rate curves for a shipping package estimated by RISKIND were compared with those estimated by using the RADTRAN 4 code and NUREG-0170 methodology. Atmospheric dispersion of released material and dose estimates from the GENII and CAP88-PC codes. Verification results have shown the program to be performing its intended function correctly. The benchmark results indicate that the predictions made by RISKIND are within acceptable limits when compared with predictions from similar existing models.

  3. RISKIND verification and benchmark comparisons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Biwer, B.M.; Arnish, J.J.; Chen, S.Y.; Kamboj, S.

    1997-08-01

    This report presents verification calculations and benchmark comparisons for RISKIND, a computer code designed to estimate potential radiological consequences and health risks to individuals and the population from exposures associated with the transportation of spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive materials. Spreadsheet calculations were performed to verify the proper operation of the major options and calculational steps in RISKIND. The program is unique in that it combines a variety of well-established models into a comprehensive treatment for assessing risks from the transportation of radioactive materials. Benchmark comparisons with other validated codes that incorporate similar models were also performed. For instance, the external gamma and neutron dose rate curves for a shipping package estimated by RISKIND were compared with those estimated by using the RADTRAN 4 code and NUREG-0170 methodology. Atmospheric dispersion of released material and dose estimates from the GENII and CAP88-PC codes. Verification results have shown the program to be performing its intended function correctly. The benchmark results indicate that the predictions made by RISKIND are within acceptable limits when compared with predictions from similar existing models

  4. Effects of existing evaluated nuclear data files on neutronics characteristics of the BFS-62-3A critical assembly benchmark model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Semenov, Mikhail

    2002-11-01

    This report is continuation of studying of the experiments performed on BFS-62-3A critical assembly in Russia. The objective of work is definition of the cross section uncertainties on reactor neutronics parameters as applied to the hybrid core of the BN-600 reactor of Beloyarskaya NPP. Two-dimensional benchmark model of BFS-62-3A was created specially for these purposes and experimental values were reduced to it. Benchmark characteristics for this assembly are 1) criticality; 2) central fission rate ratios (spectral indices); and 3) fission rate distributions in stainless steel reflector. The effects of nuclear data libraries have been studied by comparing the results calculated using available modern data libraries - ENDF/B-V, ENDF/B-VI, ENDF/B-VI-PT, JENDL-3.2 and ABBN-93. All results were computed by Monte Carlo method with the continuous energy cross-sections. The checking of the cross sections of major isotopes on wide benchmark criticality collection was made. It was shown that ENDF/B-V data underestimate the criticality of fast reactor systems up to 2% Δk. As for the rest data, the difference between each other in criticality for BFS-62-3A is around 0.6% Δk. However, taking into account the results obtained for other fast reactor benchmarks (and steel-reflected also), it may conclude that the difference in criticality calculation results can achieve 1% Δk. This value is in a good agreement with cross section uncertainty evaluated for BN-600 hybrid core (±0.6% Δk). This work is related to the JNC-IPPE Collaboration on Experimental Investigation of Excess Weapons Grade Pu Disposition in BN-600 Reactor Using BFS-2 Facility. (author)

  5. Preliminary Assessment of ATR-C Capabilities to Provide Integral Benchmark Data for Key Structural/Matrix Materials that May be Used for Nuclear Data Testing and Analytical Methods Validation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    John D. Bess

    2009-07-01

    The purpose of this document is to identify some suggested types of experiments that can be performed in the Advanced Test Reactor Critical (ATR-C) facility. A fundamental computational investigation is provided to demonstrate possible integration of experimental activities in the ATR-C with the development of benchmark experiments. Criticality benchmarks performed in the ATR-C could provide integral data for key matrix and structural materials used in nuclear systems. Results would then be utilized in the improvement of nuclear data libraries and as a means for analytical methods validation. It is proposed that experiments consisting of well-characterized quantities of materials be placed in the Northwest flux trap position of the ATR-C. The reactivity worth of the material could be determined and computationally analyzed through comprehensive benchmark activities including uncertainty analyses. Experiments were modeled in the available benchmark model of the ATR using MCNP5 with the ENDF/B-VII.0 cross section library. A single bar (9.5 cm long, 0.5 cm wide, and 121.92 cm high) of each material could provide sufficient reactivity difference in the core geometry for computational modeling and analysis. However, to provide increased opportunity for the validation of computational models, additional bars of material placed in the flux trap would increase the effective reactivity up to a limit of 1$ insertion. For simplicity in assembly manufacture, approximately four bars of material could provide a means for additional experimental benchmark configurations, except in the case of strong neutron absorbers and many materials providing positive reactivity. Future tasks include the cost analysis and development of the experimental assemblies, including means for the characterization of the neutron flux and spectral indices. Oscillation techniques may also serve to provide additional means for experimentation and validation of computational methods and acquisition of

  6. Analysis of the ITER computational shielding benchmark with the Monte Carlo TRIPOLI-4{sup ®} neutron gamma coupled calculations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Yi-Kang, E-mail: yi-kang.lee@cea.fr

    2016-11-01

    Highlights: • Verification and validation of TRIPOLI-4 radiation transport calculations for ITER shielding benchmark. • Evaluation of CEA-V5.1.1 and FENDL-3.0 nuclear data libraries on D–T fusion neutron continuous energy transport calculations. • Advances in nuclear analyses for nuclear heating and radiation damage in iron. • This work also demonstrates that the “safety factors” concept is necessary in the nuclear analyses of ITER. - Abstract: With the growing interest in using the continuous-energy TRIPOLI-4{sup ®} Monte Carlo radiation transport code for ITER applications, a key issue that arises is whether or not the released TRIPOLI-4 code and its associated nuclear data libraries are verified and validated for the D–T fusion neutronics calculations. Previous published benchmark results of TRIPOLI-4 code on the ITER related activities have concentrated on the first wall loading, the reactor dosimetry, the nuclear heating, and the tritium breeding ratio. To enhance the TRIPOLI-4 verification and validation on neutron-gamma coupled calculations for fusion device application, the computational ITER shielding benchmark of M. E. Sawan was performed in this work by using the 2013 released TRIPOLI-4.9S code and the associated CEA-V5.1.1 data library. First wall, blanket, vacuum vessel and toroidal field magnet of the inboard and outboard components were fully modelled in this 1-D toroidal cylindrical benchmark. The 14.1 MeV source neutrons were sampled from a uniform isotropic distribution in the plasma zone. Nuclear responses including neutron and gamma fluxes, nuclear heating, and material damage indicator were benchmarked against previous published results. The capabilities of the TRIPOLI-4 code on the evaluation of above physics parameters were presented. The nuclear data library from the new FENDL-3.0 evaluation was also benchmarked against the CEA-V5.1.1 results for the neutron transport calculations. The results show that both data libraries

  7. Beyond core count: a look at new mainstream computing platforms for HEP workloads

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szostek, P; Nowak, A; Bitzes, G; Valsan, L; Jarp, S; Dotti, A

    2014-01-01

    As Moore's Law continues to deliver more and more transistors, the mainstream processor industry is preparing to expand its investments in areas other than simple core count. These new interests include deep integration of on-chip components, advanced vector units, memory, cache and interconnect technologies. We examine these moving trends with parallelized and vectorized High Energy Physics workloads in mind. In particular, we report on practical experience resulting from experiments with scalable HEP benchmarks on the Intel 'Ivy Bridge-EP' and 'Haswell' processor families. In addition, we examine the benefits of the new 'Haswell' microarchitecture and its impact on multiple facets of HEP software. Finally, we report on the power efficiency of new systems.

  8. Model-Based Engineering and Manufacturing CAD/CAM Benchmark.; FINAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Domm, T.C.; Underwood, R.S.

    1999-01-01

    The Benchmark Project was created from a desire to identify best practices and improve the overall efficiency and performance of the Y-12 Plant's systems and personnel supporting the manufacturing mission. The mission of the benchmark team was to search out industry leaders in manufacturing and evaluate their engineering practices and processes to determine direction and focus for Y-12 modernization efforts. The companies visited included several large established companies and a new, small, high-tech machining firm. As a result of this effort, changes are recommended that will enable Y-12 to become a more modern, responsive, cost-effective manufacturing facility capable of supporting the needs of the Nuclear Weapons Complex (NWC) into the 21st century. The benchmark team identified key areas of interest, both focused and general. The focus areas included Human Resources, Information Management, Manufacturing Software Tools, and Standards/Policies and Practices. Areas of general interest included Infrastructure, Computer Platforms and Networking, and Organizational Structure. The results of this benchmark showed that all companies are moving in the direction of model-based engineering and manufacturing. There was evidence that many companies are trying to grasp how to manage current and legacy data. In terms of engineering design software tools, the companies contacted were somewhere between 3-D solid modeling and surfaced wire-frame models. The manufacturing computer tools were varied, with most companies using more than one software product to generate machining data and none currently performing model-based manufacturing (MBM) from a common model. The majority of companies were closer to identifying or using a single computer-aided design (CAD) system than a single computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) system. The Internet was a technology that all companies were looking to either transport information more easily throughout the corporation or as a conduit for

  9. A rod-airfoil experiment as a benchmark for broadband noise modeling

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jacob, M.C. [Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Laboratoire de Mecanique des Fluides et d' Acoustique, Ecully Cedex (France); Universite Claude Bernard/Lyon I, Villeurbanne Cedex (France); Boudet, J.; Michard, M. [Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Laboratoire de Mecanique des Fluides et d' Acoustique, Ecully Cedex (France); Casalino, D. [Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Laboratoire de Mecanique des Fluides et d' Acoustique, Ecully Cedex (France); Fluorem SAS, Ecully Cedex (France)

    2005-07-01

    A low Mach number rod-airfoil experiment is shown to be a good benchmark for numerical and theoretical broadband noise modeling. The benchmarking approach is applied to a sound computation from a 2D unsteady-Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (U-RANS) flow field, where 3D effects are partially compensated for by a spanwise statistical model and by a 3D large eddy simulation. The experiment was conducted in the large anechoic wind tunnel of the Ecole Centrale de Lyon. Measurements taken included particle image velocity (PIV) around the airfoil, single hot wire, wall pressure coherence, and far field pressure. These measurements highlight the strong 3D effects responsible for spectral broadening around the rod vortex shedding frequency in the subcritical regime, and the dominance of the noise generated around the airfoil leading edge. The benchmarking approach is illustrated by two examples: the validation of a stochastical noise generation model applied to a 2D U-RANS computation; the assessment of a 3D LES computation using a new subgrid scale (SGS) model coupled to an advanced-time Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings sound computation. (orig.)

  10. Benchmark test cases for evaluation of computer-based methods for detection of setup errors: realistic digitally reconstructed electronic portal images with known setup errors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fritsch, Daniel S.; Raghavan, Suraj; Boxwala, Aziz; Earnhart, Jon; Tracton, Gregg; Cullip, Timothy; Chaney, Edward L.

    1997-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to develop methods and software for computing realistic digitally reconstructed electronic portal images with known setup errors for use as benchmark test cases for evaluation and intercomparison of computer-based methods for image matching and detecting setup errors in electronic portal images. Methods and Materials: An existing software tool for computing digitally reconstructed radiographs was modified to compute simulated megavoltage images. An interface was added to allow the user to specify which setup parameter(s) will contain computer-induced random and systematic errors in a reference beam created during virtual simulation. Other software features include options for adding random and structured noise, Gaussian blurring to simulate geometric unsharpness, histogram matching with a 'typical' electronic portal image, specifying individual preferences for the appearance of the 'gold standard' image, and specifying the number of images generated. The visible male computed tomography data set from the National Library of Medicine was used as the planning image. Results: Digitally reconstructed electronic portal images with known setup errors have been generated and used to evaluate our methods for automatic image matching and error detection. Any number of different sets of test cases can be generated to investigate setup errors involving selected setup parameters and anatomic volumes. This approach has proved to be invaluable for determination of error detection sensitivity under ideal (rigid body) conditions and for guiding further development of image matching and error detection methods. Example images have been successfully exported for similar use at other sites. Conclusions: Because absolute truth is known, digitally reconstructed electronic portal images with known setup errors are well suited for evaluation of computer-aided image matching and error detection methods. High-quality planning images, such as

  11. HTR-PROTEUS pebble bed experimental program cores 9 & 10: columnar hexagonal point-on-point packing with a 1:1 moderator-to-fuel pebble ratio

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bess, John D. [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

    2014-03-01

    PROTEUS is a zero-power research reactor based on a cylindrical graphite annulus with a central cylindrical cavity. The graphite annulus remains basically the same for all experimental programs, but the contents of the central cavity are changed according to the type of reactor being investigated. Through most of its service history, PROTEUS has represented light-water reactors, but from 1992 to 1996 PROTEUS was configured as a pebble-bed reactor (PBR) critical facility and designated as HTR-PROTEUS. The nomenclature was used to indicate that this series consisted of High Temperature Reactor experiments performed in the PROTEUS assembly. During this period, seventeen critical configurations were assembled and various reactor physics experiments were conducted. These experiments included measurements of criticality, differential and integral control rod and safety rod worths, kinetics, reaction rates, water ingress effects, and small sample reactivity effects (Ref. 3). HTR-PROTEUS was constructed, and the experimental program was conducted, for the purpose of providing experimental benchmark data for assessment of reactor physics computer codes. Considerable effort was devoted to benchmark calculations as a part of the HTR-PROTEUS program. References 1 and 2 provide detailed data for use in constructing models for codes to be assessed. Reference 3 is a comprehensive summary of the HTR-PROTEUS experiments and the associated benchmark program. This document draws freely from these references. Only Cores 9 and 10 are evaluated in this benchmark report due to similarities in their construction. The other core configurations of the HTR-PROTEUS program are evaluated in their respective reports as outlined in Section 1.0. Cores 9 and 10 were evaluated and determined to be acceptable benchmark experiments.

  12. HTR-PROTEUS PEBBLE BED EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM CORES 9 & 10: COLUMNAR HEXAGONAL POINT-ON-POINT PACKING WITH A 1:1 MODERATOR-TO-FUEL PEBBLE RATIO

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    John D. Bess

    2013-03-01

    PROTEUS is a zero-power research reactor based on a cylindrical graphite annulus with a central cylindrical cavity. The graphite annulus remains basically the same for all experimental programs, but the contents of the central cavity are changed according to the type of reactor being investigated. Through most of its service history, PROTEUS has represented light-water reactors, but from 1992 to 1996 PROTEUS was configured as a pebble-bed reactor (PBR) critical facility and designated as HTR-PROTEUS. The nomenclature was used to indicate that this series consisted of High Temperature Reactor experiments performed in the PROTEUS assembly. During this period, seventeen critical configurations were assembled and various reactor physics experiments were conducted. These experiments included measurements of criticality, differential and integral control rod and safety rod worths, kinetics, reaction rates, water ingress effects, and small sample reactivity effects (Ref. 3). HTR-PROTEUS was constructed, and the experimental program was conducted, for the purpose of providing experimental benchmark data for assessment of reactor physics computer codes. Considerable effort was devoted to benchmark calculations as a part of the HTR-PROTEUS program. References 1 and 2 provide detailed data for use in constructing models for codes to be assessed. Reference 3 is a comprehensive summary of the HTR-PROTEUS experiments and the associated benchmark program. This document draws freely from these references. Only Cores 9 and 10 are evaluated in this benchmark report due to similarities in their construction. The other core configurations of the HTR-PROTEUS program are evaluated in their respective reports as outlined in Section 1.0. Cores 9 and 10 were evaluated and determined to be acceptable benchmark experiments.

  13. Automated and Assistive Tools for Accelerated Code migration of Scientific Computing on to Heterogeneous MultiCore Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-04-13

    AFRL-AFOSR-UK-TR-2017-0029 Automated and Assistive Tools for Accelerated Code migration of Scientific Computing on to Heterogeneous MultiCore Systems ...2012, “ Automated and Assistive Tools for Accelerated Code migration of Scientific Computing on to Heterogeneous MultiCore Systems .” 2. The objective...2012 - 01/25/2015 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Automated and Assistive Tools for Accelerated Code migration of Scientific Computing on to Heterogeneous

  14. Concrete benchmark experiment: ex-vessel LWR surveillance dosimetry; Experience ``Benchmark beton`` pour la dosimetrie hors cuve dans les reacteurs a eau legere

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ait Abderrahim, H.; D`Hondt, P.; Oeyen, J.; Risch, P.; Bioux, P.

    1993-09-01

    The analysis of DOEL-1 in-vessel and ex-vessel neutron dosimetry, using the DOT 3.5 Sn code coupled with the VITAMIN-C cross-section library, showed the same C/E values for different detectors at the surveillance capsule and the ex-vessel cavity positions. These results seem to be in contradiction with those obtained in several Benchmark experiments (PCA, PSF, VENUS...) when using the same computational tools. Indeed a strong decreasing radial trend of the C/E was observed, partly explained by the overestimation of the iron inelastic scattering. The flat trend seen in DOEL-1 could be explained by compensating errors in the calculation such as the backscattering due to the concrete walls outside the cavity. The `Concrete Benchmark` experiment has been designed to judge the ability of this calculation methods to treat the backscattering. This paper describes the `Concrete Benchmark` experiment, the measured and computed neutron dosimetry results and their comparison. This preliminary analysis seems to indicate an overestimation of the backscattering effect in the calculations. (authors). 5 figs., 1 tab., 7 refs.

  15. Performance evaluation of throughput computing workloads using multi-core processors and graphics processors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dave, Gaurav P.; Sureshkumar, N.; Blessy Trencia Lincy, S. S.

    2017-11-01

    Current trend in processor manufacturing focuses on multi-core architectures rather than increasing the clock speed for performance improvement. Graphic processors have become as commodity hardware for providing fast co-processing in computer systems. Developments in IoT, social networking web applications, big data created huge demand for data processing activities and such kind of throughput intensive applications inherently contains data level parallelism which is more suited for SIMD architecture based GPU. This paper reviews the architectural aspects of multi/many core processors and graphics processors. Different case studies are taken to compare performance of throughput computing applications using shared memory programming in OpenMP and CUDA API based programming.

  16. Computer programs for the in-core fuel management of power reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1981-08-01

    This document gives a survey of the presently tested and used computer programs applicable to the in-core fuel management of light and heavy water moderated nuclear power reactors. Each computer program is described (provided that enough information was supplied) such that the nature of the physical problem solved and the basic mathematical or calculational approach are evident. In addition, further information regarding computer requirements, up-to-date applications and experiences and specific details concerning implementation, staff requirements, etc., are provided. Program procurement conditions, possible program implementation assistance and commercial conditions (where applicable) are given. (author)

  17. Benchmarking local healthcare-associated infections: Available benchmarks and interpretation challenges

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aiman El-Saed

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Summary: Growing numbers of healthcare facilities are routinely collecting standardized data on healthcare-associated infection (HAI, which can be used not only to track internal performance but also to compare local data to national and international benchmarks. Benchmarking overall (crude HAI surveillance metrics without accounting or adjusting for potential confounders can result in misleading conclusions. Methods commonly used to provide risk-adjusted metrics include multivariate logistic regression analysis, stratification, indirect standardization, and restrictions. The characteristics of recognized benchmarks worldwide, including the advantages and limitations are described. The choice of the right benchmark for the data from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC states is challenging. The chosen benchmark should have similar data collection and presentation methods. Additionally, differences in surveillance environments including regulations should be taken into consideration when considering such a benchmark. The GCC center for infection control took some steps to unify HAI surveillance systems in the region. GCC hospitals still need to overcome legislative and logistic difficulties in sharing data to create their own benchmark. The availability of a regional GCC benchmark may better enable health care workers and researchers to obtain more accurate and realistic comparisons. Keywords: Benchmarking, Comparison, Surveillance, Healthcare-associated infections

  18. Application of Computational Intelligence Methods to In-Core Fuel Management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Erdogan, A.

    2001-01-01

    In this study, a computer program package has been developed which supports the in-core fuel management activities for pressurized water reactors, generates and recommends an optimum loading pattern to ensure safe and efficient reactor operation. A search for an optimum fuel loading pattern must be conducted in the space of several core parameters such as power distribution, which is an excessively time consuming computational process. Global core calculation codes take a relatively long time to do the task. The time interval necessary for the iterative process was reduced by using an artificial neural network estimator for the calculations. In this way, it was possible to analyze more loading patterns in the same time interval and the probability of finding a desired optimum was increased. As a case study, the core of the Almaraz Nuclear Plant of Spain, a pressurized water reactor, was modeled for the core calculation code system. The 2-group cross sections for the fuel assembly types were calculated and stored for later usage with the diffusion code. 2000 loading patterns were generated by placing fuel assemblies to random positions in the core, and for each pattern the power distribution and effective multiplication factor (k e ff) were calculated with the diffusion code. At the next stage, 500 of the loading patterns were introduced to the neural network as input data for the training process. The remaining 1500 patterns were used to validate the neural network implementation. It was shown that the neural network estimates the power distribution and the K effective within acceptable error limits. To complete the system, a loading pattern generator was developed. This module consists of a set of rules and an algorithm that places the fuel assemblies to core positions. The neural network estimated the power distribution and k e ff for the loading patterns that were generated by this module. The patterns that have a maximum power fraction lower than, and a minimum

  19. Benchmark experiments of effective delayed neutron fraction βeff at FCA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sakurai, Takeshi; Okajima, Shigeaki

    1999-01-01

    Benchmark experiments of effective delayed neutron fraction β eff were performed at Fast Critical Assembly (FCA) in the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. The experiments were made in three cores providing systematic change of nuclide contribution to the β eff : XIX-1 core fueled with 93% enriched uranium, XIX-2 core fueled with plutonium and uranium (23% enrichment) and XIX-3 core fueled with plutonium (92% fissile Pu). Six organizations from five countries participated in these experiments and measured the β eff by using their own methods and instruments. Target accuracy in the β eff was achieved to be better than ±3% by averaging the β eff values measured using a wide variety of experimental methods. (author)

  20. CORAL: aligning conserved core regions across domain families.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fong, Jessica H; Marchler-Bauer, Aron

    2009-08-01

    Homologous protein families share highly conserved sequence and structure regions that are frequent targets for comparative analysis of related proteins and families. Many protein families, such as the curated domain families in the Conserved Domain Database (CDD), exhibit similar structural cores. To improve accuracy in aligning such protein families, we propose a profile-profile method CORAL that aligns individual core regions as gap-free units. CORAL computes optimal local alignment of two profiles with heuristics to preserve continuity within core regions. We benchmarked its performance on curated domains in CDD, which have pre-defined core regions, against COMPASS, HHalign and PSI-BLAST, using structure superpositions and comprehensive curator-optimized alignments as standards of truth. CORAL improves alignment accuracy on core regions over general profile methods, returning a balanced score of 0.57 for over 80% of all domain families in CDD, compared with the highest balanced score of 0.45 from other methods. Further, CORAL provides E-values to aid in detecting homologous protein families and, by respecting block boundaries, produces alignments with improved 'readability' that facilitate manual refinement. CORAL will be included in future versions of the NCBI Cn3D/CDTree software, which can be downloaded at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdtree/cdtree.shtml. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

  1. Benchmark Specification for an HTR Fuelled with Reactor-grade Plutonium (or Reactor-grade Pu/Th and U/Th). Proposal version 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hosking, J.G.; Newton, T.D.; Morris, P.

    2007-01-01

    This benchmark proposal builds upon that specified in NEA/NSC/DOC(2003)22 report. In addition to the three phases described in that report, another two phases have now been defined. Additional items for calculation have also been added to the existing phases. It is intended that further items may be added to the benchmark after consultation with its participants. Although the benchmark is specifically designed to provide inter-comparisons for plutonium- and thorium-containing fuels, it is proposed that phases considering simple calculations for a uranium fuel cell and uranium core be included. The purpose of these is to identify any increased uncertainties, relative to uranium fuel, associated with the lesser-known fuels to be investigated in different phases of this benchmark. The first phase considers an infinite array of fuel pebbles fuelled with uranium fuel. Phase 2 considers a similar array of pebbles but for plutonium fuel. Phase 3 continues the plutonium fuel inter-comparisons within the context of whole core calculations. Calculations for Phase 4 are for a uranium-fuelled core. Phase 5 considers an infinite array of pebbles containing thorium. In setting the benchmark the requirements in the definition of the LEUPRO-12 PROTEUS benchmark have been considered. Participants were invited to submit both deterministic results as well as, where appropriate, results from Monte Carlo calculations. Fundamental nuclear data, Avogadro's number, natural abundance data and atomic weights have been taken from the references indicated in the document

  2. Pynamic: the Python Dynamic Benchmark

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, G L; Ahn, D H; de Supinksi, B R; Gyllenhaal, J C; Miller, P J

    2007-07-10

    Python is widely used in scientific computing to facilitate application development and to support features such as computational steering. Making full use of some of Python's popular features, which improve programmer productivity, leads to applications that access extremely high numbers of dynamically linked libraries (DLLs). As a result, some important Python-based applications severely stress a system's dynamic linking and loading capabilities and also cause significant difficulties for most development environment tools, such as debuggers. Furthermore, using the Python paradigm for large scale MPI-based applications can create significant file IO and further stress tools and operating systems. In this paper, we present Pynamic, the first benchmark program to support configurable emulation of a wide-range of the DLL usage of Python-based applications for large scale systems. Pynamic has already accurately reproduced system software and tool issues encountered by important large Python-based scientific applications on our supercomputers. Pynamic provided insight for our system software and tool vendors, and our application developers, into the impact of several design decisions. As we describe the Pynamic benchmark, we will highlight some of the issues discovered in our large scale system software and tools using Pynamic.

  3. Development of the computer code system for the analyses of PWR core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tsujimoto, Iwao; Naito, Yoshitaka.

    1992-11-01

    This report is one of the materials for the work titled 'Development of the computer code system for the analyses of PWR core phenomena', which is performed under contracts between Shikoku Electric Power Company and JAERI. In this report, the numerical method adopted in our computer code system are described, that is, 'The basic course and the summary of the analysing method', 'Numerical method for solving the Boltzmann equation', 'Numerical method for solving the thermo-hydraulic equations' and 'Description on the computer code system'. (author)

  4. SparseBeads data: benchmarking sparsity-regularized computed tomography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jørgensen, Jakob S.; Coban, Sophia B.; Lionheart, William R. B.; McDonald, Samuel A.; Withers, Philip J.

    2017-12-01

    Sparsity regularization (SR) such as total variation (TV) minimization allows accurate image reconstruction in x-ray computed tomography (CT) from fewer projections than analytical methods. Exactly how few projections suffice and how this number may depend on the image remain poorly understood. Compressive sensing connects the critical number of projections to the image sparsity, but does not cover CT, however empirical results suggest a similar connection. The present work establishes for real CT data a connection between gradient sparsity and the sufficient number of projections for accurate TV-regularized reconstruction. A collection of 48 x-ray CT datasets called SparseBeads was designed for benchmarking SR reconstruction algorithms. Beadpacks comprising glass beads of five different sizes as well as mixtures were scanned in a micro-CT scanner to provide structured datasets with variable image sparsity levels, number of projections and noise levels to allow the systematic assessment of parameters affecting performance of SR reconstruction algorithms6. Using the SparseBeads data, TV-regularized reconstruction quality was assessed as a function of numbers of projections and gradient sparsity. The critical number of projections for satisfactory TV-regularized reconstruction increased almost linearly with the gradient sparsity. This establishes a quantitative guideline from which one may predict how few projections to acquire based on expected sample sparsity level as an aid in planning of dose- or time-critical experiments. The results are expected to hold for samples of similar characteristics, i.e. consisting of few, distinct phases with relatively simple structure. Such cases are plentiful in porous media, composite materials, foams, as well as non-destructive testing and metrology. For samples of other characteristics the proposed methodology may be used to investigate similar relations.

  5. JENDL-3.3 thermal reactor benchmark test

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Akie, Hiroshi

    2001-01-01

    Integral tests of JENDL-3.2 nuclear data library have been carried out by Reactor Integral Test WG of Japanese Nuclear Data Committee. The most important problem in the thermal reactor benchmark testing was the overestimation of the multiplication factor of the U fueled cores. With several revisions of the data of 235 U and the other nuclides, JENDL-3.3 data library gives a good estimation of multiplication factors both for U and Pu fueled thermal reactors. (author)

  6. Operating experience, measurements, and analysis of the LEU whole core demonstration at the FNR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weha, D.K.; Drumm, C.R.; King, J.S.; Martin, W.R.; Lee, J.C.

    1984-01-01

    The 2-MW Ford Nuclear Reactor at the University of Michigan is serving as the demonstration reactor for the MTR-type low enrichment (LEU) fuel for the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactor program. Operational experience gained through six months of LEU core operation and seven months of mixed HEU-LEU core operation is presented. Subcadmium flux measurements performed with rhodium self-powered neutron detectors and iron wire activations are compared with calculations. Measured reactivity parameters are compared for HEU and LEU cores. Finally, the benchmark calculations for several HEU, LEU, and mixed HEU-LEU FNR cores and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) benchmark problem are presented. (author)

  7. HTR-Proteus Pebble Bed Experimental Program Cores 5,6,7,&8: Columnar Hexagonal Point-on-Point Packing with a 1:2 Moderator-to-Fuel Pebble Ratio

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bess, John D. [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Sterbentz, James W. [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Snoj, Luka [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Lengar, Igor [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Koberl, Oliver [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

    2015-03-01

    PROTEUS is a zero-power research reactor based on a cylindrical graphite annulus with a central cylindrical cavity. The graphite annulus remains basically the same for all experimental programs, but the contents of the central cavity are changed according to the type of reactor being investigated. Through most of its service history, PROTEUS has represented light-water reactors, but from 1992 to 1996 PROTEUS was configured as a pebble-bed reactor (PBR) critical facility and designated as HTR-PROTEUS. The nomenclature was used to indicate that this series consisted of High Temperature Reactor experiments performed in the PROTEUS assembly. During this period, seventeen critical configurations were assembled and various reactor physics experiments were conducted. These experiments included measurements of criticality, differential and integral control rod and safety rod worths, kinetics, reaction rates, water ingress effects, and small sample reactivity effects (Ref. 3). HTR-PROTEUS was constructed, and the experimental program was conducted, for the purpose of providing experimental benchmark data for assessment of reactor physics computer codes. Considerable effort was devoted to benchmark calculations as a part of the HTR-PROTEUS program. References 1 and 2 provide detailed data for use in constructing models for codes to be assessed. Reference 3 is a comprehensive summary of the HTR-PROTEUS experiments and the associated benchmark program. This document draws freely from these references. Only Cores 9 and 10 are evaluated in this benchmark report due to similarities in their construction. The other core configurations of the HTR-PROTEUS program are evaluated in their respective reports as outlined in Section 1.0. Cores 9 and 10 were evaluated and determined to be acceptable benchmark experiments.

  8. HTR-PROTEUS PEBBLE BED EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM CORES 5, 6, 7, & 8: COLUMNAR HEXAGONAL POINT-ON-POINT PACKING WITH A 1:2 MODERATOR-TO-FUEL PEBBLE RATIO

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    John D. Bess

    2013-03-01

    PROTEUS is a zero-power research reactor based on a cylindrical graphite annulus with a central cylindrical cavity. The graphite annulus remains basically the same for all experimental programs, but the contents of the central cavity are changed according to the type of reactor being investigated. Through most of its service history, PROTEUS has represented light-water reactors, but from 1992 to 1996 PROTEUS was configured as a pebble-bed reactor (PBR) critical facility and designated as HTR-PROTEUS. The nomenclature was used to indicate that this series consisted of High Temperature Reactor experiments performed in the PROTEUS assembly. During this period, seventeen critical configurations were assembled and various reactor physics experiments were conducted. These experiments included measurements of criticality, differential and integral control rod and safety rod worths, kinetics, reaction rates, water ingress effects, and small sample reactivity effects (Ref. 3). HTR-PROTEUS was constructed, and the experimental program was conducted, for the purpose of providing experimental benchmark data for assessment of reactor physics computer codes. Considerable effort was devoted to benchmark calculations as a part of the HTR-PROTEUS program. References 1 and 2 provide detailed data for use in constructing models for codes to be assessed. Reference 3 is a comprehensive summary of the HTR-PROTEUS experiments and the associated benchmark program. This document draws freely from these references. Only Cores 9 and 10 are evaluated in this benchmark report due to similarities in their construction. The other core configurations of the HTR-PROTEUS program are evaluated in their respective reports as outlined in Section 1.0. Cores 9 and 10 were evaluated and determined to be acceptable benchmark experiments.

  9. Validation and applicability of the 3D core kinetics and thermal hydraulics coupled code SPARKLE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miyata, Manabu; Maruyama, Manabu; Ogawa, Junto; Otake, Yukihiko; Miyake, Shuhei; Tabuse, Shigehiko; Tanaka, Hirohisa

    2009-01-01

    The SPARKLE code is a coupled code system based on three individual codes whose physical models have already been verified and validated. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) confirmed the coupling calculation, including data transfer and the total reactor coolant system (RCS) behavior of the SPARKLE code. The confirmation uses the OECD/NEA MSLB benchmark problem, which is based on Three Mile Island Unit 1 (TMI-1) nuclear power plant data. This benchmark problem has been used to verify coupled codes developed and used by many organizations. Objectives of the benchmark program are as follows. Phase 1 is to compare the results of the system transient code using point kinetics. Phase 2 is to compare the results of the coupled three-dimensional (3D) core kinetics code and 3D core thermal-hydraulics (T/H) code, and Phase 3 is to compare the results of the combined coupled system transient code, 3D core kinetics code, and 3D core T/H code as a total validation of the coupled calculation. The calculation results of the SPARKLE code indicate good agreement with other benchmark participants' results. Therefore, the SPARKLE code is validated through these benchmark problems. In anticipation of applying the SPARKLE code to licensing analyses, MHI and Japanese PWR utilities have established a safety analysis method regarding the calculation conditions such as power distributions, reactivity coefficients, and event-specific features. (author)

  10. Neutron Fluence, Dosimetry and Damage Response Determination in In-Core/Ex-Core Components of the VENUS CEN/SCK LWR Using 3-D Monte Carlo Simulations: NEA's VENUS-3 Benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Perlado, J. Manuel; Marian, Jaime; Sanz, Jesus Garcia

    2000-01-01

    Validating state-of-the-art methods used to predict fluence exposure to reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) has become an important issue in identifying the sources of uncertainty in the estimated RPV fluence for pressurized water reactors. This is a very important aspect in evaluating irradiation damage leading to the hardening and embrittlement of such structural components. One of the major benchmark experiments carried out to test three-dimensional methodologies is the VENUS-3 Benchmark Experiment in which three-dimensional Monte Carlo and S n codes have proved more efficient than synthesis methods. At the Instituto de Fusion Nuclear (DENIM) at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, a detailed full three-dimensional model of the Venus Critical Facility has been developed making use of the Monte Carlo transport code MCNP4B. The problem geometry and source modeling are described, and results, including calculated versus experimental (C/E) ratios as well as additional studies, are presented. Evidence was found that the great majority of C/E values fell within the 10% tolerance and most within 5%. Tolerance limits are discussed on the basis of evaluated data library and fission spectra sensitivity, where a value ranging between 10 to 15% should be accepted. Also, a calculation of the atomic displacement rate has been carried out in various locations throughout the reactor, finding that values of 0.0001 displacements per atom in external components such as the core barrel are representative of this type of reactor during a 30-yr time span

  11. 3-D extension C5G7 MOX benchmark calculation using threedant code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, H.Ch.; Han, Ch.Y.; Kim, J.K.; Na, B.Ch.

    2005-01-01

    It pursued the benchmark on deterministic 3-D MOX fuel assembly transport calculations without spatial homogenization (C5G7 MOX Benchmark Extension). The goal of this benchmark is to provide a more through test results for the abilities of current available 3-D methods to handle the spatial heterogeneities of reactor core. The benchmark requires solutions in the form of normalized pin powers as well as the eigenvalue for each of the control rod configurations; without rod, with A rods, and with B rods. In this work, the DANTSYS code package was applied to analyze the 3-D Extension C5G7 MOX Benchmark problems. The THREEDANT code within the DANTSYS code package, which solves the 3-D transport equation in x-y-z, and r-z-theta geometries, was employed to perform the benchmark calculations. To analyze the benchmark with the THREEDANT code, proper spatial and angular approximations were made. Several calculations were performed to investigate the effects of the different spatial approximations on the accuracy. The results from these sensitivity studies were analyzed and discussed. From the results, it is found that the 4*4 grid per pin cell is sufficiently refined so that very little benefit is obtained by increasing the mesh size. (authors)

  12. Computed tomography-guided core-needle biopsy of lung lesions: an oncology center experience

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guimaraes, Marcos Duarte; Fonte, Alexandre Calabria da; Chojniak, Rubens, E-mail: marcosduarte@yahoo.com.b [Hospital A.C. Camargo, Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil). Dept. of Radiology and Imaging Diagnosis; Andrade, Marcony Queiroz de [Hospital Alianca, Salvador, BA (Brazil); Gross, Jefferson Luiz [Hospital A.C. Camargo, Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil). Dept. of Chest Surgery

    2011-03-15

    Objective: The present study is aimed at describing the experience of an oncology center with computed tomography guided core-needle biopsy of pulmonary lesions. Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis of 97 computed tomography-guided core-needle biopsy of pulmonary lesions performed in the period between 1996 and 2004 in a Brazilian reference oncology center (Hospital do Cancer - A.C. Camargo). Information regarding material appropriateness and the specific diagnoses were collected and analyzed. Results: Among 97 lung biopsies, 94 (96.9%) supplied appropriate specimens for histological analyses, with 71 (73.2%) cases being diagnosed as malignant lesions and 23 (23.7%) diagnosed as benign lesions. Specimens were inappropriate for analysis in three cases. The frequency of specific diagnosis was 83 (85.6%) cases, with high rates for both malignant lesions with 63 (88.7%) cases and benign lesions with 20 (86.7%). As regards complications, a total of 12 cases were observed as follows: 7 (7.2%) cases of hematoma, 3 (3.1%) cases of pneumothorax and 2 (2.1%) cases of hemoptysis. Conclusion: Computed tomography-guided core needle biopsy of lung lesions demonstrated high rates of material appropriateness and diagnostic specificity, and low rates of complications in the present study. (author)

  13. Benchmarking of the PHOENIX-P/ANC [Advanced Nodal Code] advanced nuclear design system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nguyen, T.Q.; Liu, Y.S.; Durston, C.; Casadei, A.L.

    1988-01-01

    At Westinghouse, an advanced neutronic methods program was designed to improve the quality of the predictions, enhance flexibility in designing advanced fuel and related products, and improve design lead time. Extensive benchmarking data is presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the Advanced Nodal Code (ANC) and the PHOENIX-P advanced lattice code. Qualification data to demonstrate the accuracy of ANC include comparison of key physics parameters against a fine-mesh diffusion theory code, TORTISE. Benchmarking data to demonstrate the validity of the PHOENIX-P methodologies include comparison of physics predictions against critical experiments, isotopics measurements and measured power distributions from spatial criticals. The accuracy of the PHOENIX-P/ANC Advanced Design System is demonstrated by comparing predictions of hot zero power physics parameters and hot full power core follow against measured data from operating reactors. The excellent performance of this system for a broad range of comparisons establishes the basis for implementation of these tools for core design, licensing and operational follow of PWR [pressurized water reactor] cores at Westinghouse

  14. OECD/DOE/CEA VVER-1000 coolant transient (V1000CT) benchmark - a consistent approach for assessing coupled codes for RIA analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boyan D Ivanov; Kostadin N Ivanov; Eric Royer; Sylvie Aniel; Nikola Kolev; Pavlin Groudev

    2005-01-01

    Full text of publication follows: The Rod Ejection Accident (REA) and Main Steam Line Break (MSLB) are two of the most important Design Basis Accidents (DBA) for VVER-1000 exhibiting significant localized space-time effects. A consistent approach for assessing coupled three-dimensional (3-D) neutron kinetics/thermal hydraulics codes for these Reactivity Insertion Accidents (RIA) is to first validate the codes using the available plant test (measured) data and after that perform cross code comparative analysis for REA and MSLB scenarios. In the framework of joint effort between the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of OECD, the United States Department of Energy (US DOE), and the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA), France a coupled 3-D neutron kinetics/thermal hydraulics benchmark was defined. The benchmark is based on data from the Unit 6 of the Bulgarian Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). In performing this work the PSU, USA and CEA-Saclay, France have collaborated with Bulgarian organizations, in particular with the KNPP and the INRNE. The benchmark consists of two phases: Phase 1: Main Coolant Pump Switching On; Phase 2: Coolant Mixing Tests and MSLB. In addition to the measured (experiment) scenario, an extreme calculation scenario was defined for better testing 3-D neutronics/thermal-hydraulics techniques: rod ejection simulation with control rod being ejected in the core sector cooled by the switched on MCP. Since the previous coupled code benchmarks indicated that further development of the mixing computation models in the integrated codes is necessary, a coolant mixing experiment and MSLB transients are selected for simulation in Phase 2 of the benchmark. The MSLB event is characterized by a large asymmetric cooling of the core, stuck rods and a large primary coolant flow variation. Two scenarios are defined in Phase 2: the first scenario is taken from the current licensing practice and the second one is derived from the original one using aggravating

  15. Energy Efficiency Evaluation and Benchmarking of AFRL’s Condor High Performance Computer

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-08-01

    PlayStation 3 nodes executing the HPL benchmark. When idle, the two PS3s consume 188.49 W on average. At peak HPL performance, the nodes draw an average of...AUG 2011 2. REPORT TYPE CONFERENCE PAPER (Post Print) 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) JAN 2011 – JUN 2011 4 . TITLE AND SUBTITLE ENERGY EFFICIENCY...the High Performance LINPACK (HPL) benchmark while also measuring the energy consumed to achieve such performance. Supercomputers are ranked by

  16. Effects of uncertainties of experimental data in the benchmarking of a computer code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meulemeester, E. de; Bouffioux, P.; Demeester, J.

    1980-01-01

    Fuel rod performance modelling is sometimes taken in an academical way. The experience of the COMETHE code development since 1967 has clearly shown that benchmarking was the most important part of modelling development. Unfortunately, it requires well characterized data. Although, the two examples presented here were not intended for benchmarking, as the COMETHE calculations were only performed for an interpretation of the results, they illustrate the effects of a lack of fuel characterization and of the power history uncertainties

  17. Analysis of Homogeneous BFS-73-1 MA Benchmark Core

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Yeong Il; Yoo, Jae Woon; Song, Hoon; Jang, Jin Wook; Kim, Yeong Il

    2007-06-15

    Analysis of BFS-73-1 critical assembly for MA transmutation has been carried out by using K-CORE system mainly, DIF3D code. All of measured data are compared with the results of analysis and sensitiveness of calculation conditions, for example, number of neutron energy groups, mesh size used, and analysis method, are assessed. Effective multiplication factor was in good agreement within experimental uncertainty in both transport and diffusion calculations. Fission rate distribution of U-235 and U-238 is also fairly good agreed with experimental results within maximum 5% in core region. But large discrepancy was seen in blanket region and it tends to increase as the location closes to core boundary. Largest error of relative reaction rate ratio was seen in Am-243 fission and U-238 capture. For the case of Am-243, the error lay on appropriate range considering the measurement uncertainty of that as 4.6%. Sample reactivity worths for scattering dominant isotope was greatly differ from the experimental results, which can be explained in terms of sample heterogeneity effect, sample self shielding and finally resonance bilinear correction effect. These effects will be evaluated as future study. C/E of effective delayed neutron fraction is within 4%, which is within the measurement uncertainty.

  18. Analysis of Homogeneous BFS-73-1 MA Benchmark Core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Yeong Il; Yoo, Jae Woon; Song, Hoon; Jang, Jin Wook; Kim, Yeong Il

    2007-06-01

    Analysis of BFS-73-1 critical assembly for MA transmutation has been carried out by using K-CORE system mainly, DIF3D code. All of measured data are compared with the results of analysis and sensitiveness of calculation conditions, for example, number of neutron energy groups, mesh size used, and analysis method, are assessed. Effective multiplication factor was in good agreement within experimental uncertainty in both transport and diffusion calculations. Fission rate distribution of U-235 and U-238 is also fairly good agreed with experimental results within maximum 5% in core region. But large discrepancy was seen in blanket region and it tends to increase as the location closes to core boundary. Largest error of relative reaction rate ratio was seen in Am-243 fission and U-238 capture. For the case of Am-243, the error lay on appropriate range considering the measurement uncertainty of that as 4.6%. Sample reactivity worths for scattering dominant isotope was greatly differ from the experimental results, which can be explained in terms of sample heterogeneity effect, sample self shielding and finally resonance bilinear correction effect. These effects will be evaluated as future study. C/E of effective delayed neutron fraction is within 4%, which is within the measurement uncertainty

  19. Two-dimensional benchmark calculations for PNL-30 through PNL-35

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mosteller, R.D.

    1997-01-01

    Interest in critical experiments with lattices of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel pins has been revived by the possibility that light water reactors will be used for disposition of weapons-grade plutonium. A series of six experiments with MOX lattices, designated PNL-30 through PNL-35, was performed at Pacific Northwest Laboratories in 1975 and 1976, and a set of benchmark specifications for these experiments subsequently was adopted by the Cross Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG). Although there appear to be some problems with these experiments, they remain the only CSEWG benchmarks for MOX lattices. The number of fuel pins in these experiments is relatively low, corresponding to fewer than 4 typical pressurized-water-reactor fuel assemblies. Accordingly, they are more appropriate as benchmarks for lattice-physics codes than for reactor-core simulator codes. Unfortunately, the CSEWG specifications retain the full three-dimensional (3D) detail of the experiments, while lattice-physics codes almost universally are limited to two dimensions (2D). This paper proposes an extension of the benchmark specifications to include a 2D model, and it justifies that extension by comparing results from the MCNP Monte Carlo code for the 2D and 3D specifications

  20. Current status and results of the PBMR -Pebble Box- benchmark within the framework of the IAEA CRP5 - 341

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reitsma, F.; Tyobeka, B.

    2010-01-01

    The verification and validation of computer codes used in the analysis of high temperature gas cooled pebble bed reactor systems has not been an easy goal to achieve. A limited amount of tests and operating reactor measurements are available. Code-to-code comparisons for realistic pebble bed reactor designs often exhibit differences that are difficult to explain and are often blamed on the complexity of the core models or the variety of analysis methods and cross section data sets employed. For this reason, within the framework of the IAEA CRP5, the 'Pebble Box' benchmark was formulated as a simple way to compare various treatments of neutronics phenomena. The problem is comprised of six test cases which were designed to investigate the treatments and effects of leakage and heterogeneity. This paper presents the preliminary results of the benchmark exercise as received during the CRP and suggests possible future steps towards the resolution of discrepancies between the results. Although few participants took part in the benchmarking exercise, the results presented here show that there is still a need for further evaluation and in-depth understanding in order to build the confidence that all the different methods, codes and cross-section data sets have the capability to handle the various neutronics effects for such systems. (authors)

  1. The OECD/NEA/NSC PBMR coupled neutronics/thermal hydraulics transient benchmark: The PBMR-400 core design

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reitsma, F.; Ivanov, K.; Downar, T.; De Haas, H.; Gougar, H. D.

    2006-01-01

    The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) is a High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) concept to be built in South Africa. As part of the verification and validation program the definition and execution of code-to-code benchmark exercises are important. The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has accepted, through the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC), the inclusion of the Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) coupled neutronics/thermal hydraulics transient benchmark problem in its program. The OECD benchmark defines steady-state and transients cases, including reactivity insertion transients. It makes use of a common set of cross sections (to eliminate uncertainties between different codes) and includes specific simplifications to the design to limit the need for participants to introduce approximations in their models. In this paper the detailed specification is explained, including the test cases to be calculated and the results required from participants. (authors)

  2. Monte Carlo benchmarking: Validation and progress

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sala, P.

    2010-01-01

    Document available in abstract form only. Full text of publication follows: Calculational tools for radiation shielding at accelerators are faced with new challenges from the present and next generations of particle accelerators. All the details of particle production and transport play a role when dealing with huge power facilities, therapeutic ion beams, radioactive beams and so on. Besides the traditional calculations required for shielding, activation predictions have become an increasingly critical component. Comparison and benchmarking with experimental data is obviously mandatory in order to build up confidence in the computing tools, and to assess their reliability and limitations. Thin target particle production data are often the best tools for understanding the predictive power of individual interaction models and improving their performances. Complex benchmarks (e.g. thick target data, deep penetration, etc.) are invaluable in assessing the overall performances of calculational tools when all ingredients are put at work together. A review of the validation procedures of Monte Carlo tools will be presented with practical and real life examples. The interconnections among benchmarks, model development and impact on shielding calculations will be highlighted. (authors)

  3. Three-dimensional computer code for the nonlinear dynamic response of an HTGR core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Subudhi, M.; Lasker, L.; Koplik, B.; Curreri, J.; Goradia, H.

    1979-01-01

    A three-dimensional dynamic code has been developed to determine the nonlinear response of an HTGR core. The HTGR core consists of several thousands of hexagonal core blocks. These are arranged inlayers stacked together. Each layer contains many core blocks surrounded on their outer periphery by reflector blocks. The entire assembly is contained within a prestressed concrete reactor vessel. Gaps exist between adjacent blocks in any horizontal plane. Each core block in a given layer is connected to the blocks directly above and below it via three dowell pins. The present analystical study is directed towards an invesstigation of the nonlinear response of the reactor core blocks in the event of a seismic occurrence. The computer code is developed for a specific mathemtical model which represents a vertical arrangement of layers of blocks. This comprises a block module of core elements which would be obtained by cutting a cylindrical portion consisting of seven fuel blocks per layer. It is anticipated that a number of such modules properly arranged could represent the entire core. Hence, the predicted response of this module would exhibit the response characteristics of the core

  4. Uranium systems to enhance benchmarks for use in the verification of criticality safety computer models. Final report, February 16, 1990--December 31, 1994

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Busch, R.D.

    1995-01-01

    Dr. Robert Busch of the Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering was the principal investigator on this project with technical direction provided by the staff in the Nuclear Criticality Safety Group at Los Alamos. During the period of the contract, he had a number of graduate and undergraduate students working on subtasks. The objective of this work was to develop information on uranium systems to enhance benchmarks for use in the verification of criticality safety computer models. During the first year of this project, most of the work was focused on setting up the SUN SPARC-1 Workstation and acquiring the literature which described the critical experiments. By august 1990, the Workstation was operational with the current version of TWODANT loaded on the system. MCNP, version 4 tape was made available from Los Alamos late in 1990. Various documents were acquired which provide the initial descriptions of the critical experiments under consideration as benchmarks. The next four years were spent working on various benchmark projects. A number of publications and presentations were made on this material. These are briefly discussed in this report

  5. Thermohydraulic simulation of HTR-10 nuclear reactor core using realistic CFD approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Silva, Alexandro S.; Dominguez, Dany S.; Mazaira, Leorlen Y. Rojas; Hernandez, Carlos R.G.; Lira, Carlos Alberto Brayner de Oliveira

    2015-01-01

    High-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) have the potential to be used as possible energy generation sources in the near future, owing to their inherently safe performance by using a large amount of graphite, low power density design, and high conversion efficiency. However, safety is the most important issue for its commercialization in nuclear energy industry. It is very important for safety design and operation of an HTGR to investigate its thermal–hydraulic characteristics. In this article, it was performed the thermal–hydraulic simulation of compressible flow inside the core of the pebble bed reactor HTR (High Temperature Reactor)-10 using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The realistic approach was used, where every closely packed pebble is realistically modelled considering a graphite layer and sphere of fuel. Due to the high computational cost is impossible simulate the full core; therefore, the geometry used is a column of FCC (Face Centered Cubic) cells, with 41 layers and 82 pebbles. The input data used were taken from the thermohydraulic IAEA Benchmark (TECDOC-1694). The results show the profiles of velocity and temperature of the coolant in the core, and the temperature distribution inside the pebbles. The maximum temperatures in the pebbles do not exceed the allowable limit for this type of nuclear fuel. (author)

  6. Benchmarking Variable Selection in QSAR.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eklund, Martin; Norinder, Ulf; Boyer, Scott; Carlsson, Lars

    2012-02-01

    Variable selection is important in QSAR modeling since it can improve model performance and transparency, as well as reduce the computational cost of model fitting and predictions. Which variable selection methods that perform well in QSAR settings is largely unknown. To address this question we, in a total of 1728 benchmarking experiments, rigorously investigated how eight variable selection methods affect the predictive performance and transparency of random forest models fitted to seven QSAR datasets covering different endpoints, descriptors sets, types of response variables, and number of chemical compounds. The results show that univariate variable selection methods are suboptimal and that the number of variables in the benchmarked datasets can be reduced with about 60 % without significant loss in model performance when using multivariate adaptive regression splines MARS and forward selection. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  7. Development and verification of a high performance multi-group SP3 transport capability in the ARTEMIS core simulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Geemert, Rene

    2008-01-01

    For satisfaction of future global customer needs, dedicated efforts are being coordinated internationally and pursued continuously at AREVA NP. The currently ongoing CONVERGENCE project is committed to the development of the ARCADIA R next generation core simulation software package. ARCADIA R will be put to global use by all AREVA NP business regions, for the entire spectrum of core design processes, licensing computations and safety studies. As part of the currently ongoing trend towards more sophisticated neutronics methodologies, an SP 3 nodal transport concept has been developed for ARTEMIS which is the steady-state and transient core simulation part of ARCADIA R . For enabling a high computational performance, the SP N calculations are accelerated by applying multi-level coarse mesh re-balancing. In the current implementation, SP 3 is about 1.4 times as expensive computationally as SP 1 (diffusion). The developed SP 3 solution concept is foreseen as the future computational workhorse for many-group 3D pin-by-pin full core computations by ARCADIA R . With the entire numerical workload being highly parallelizable through domain decomposition techniques, associated CPU-time requirements that adhere to the efficiency needs in the nuclear industry can be expected to become feasible in the near future. The accuracy enhancement obtainable by using SP 3 instead of SP 1 has been verified by a detailed comparison of ARTEMIS 16-group pin-by-pin SP N results with KAERI's DeCart reference results for the 2D pin-by-pin Purdue UO 2 /MOX benchmark. This article presents the accuracy enhancement verification and quantifies the achieved ARTEMIS-SP 3 computational performance for a number of 2D and 3D multi-group and multi-box (up to pin-by-pin) core computations. (authors)

  8. H.B. Robinson-2 pressure vessel benchmark

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Remec, I.; Kam, F.B.K.

    1998-02-01

    The H. B. Robinson Unit 2 Pressure Vessel Benchmark (HBR-2 benchmark) is described and analyzed in this report. Analysis of the HBR-2 benchmark can be used as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the qualification of the methodology for calculating neutron fluence in pressure vessels, as required by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Regulatory Guide DG-1053, Calculational and Dosimetry Methods for Determining Pressure Vessel Neutron Fluence. Section 1 of this report describes the HBR-2 benchmark and provides all the dimensions, material compositions, and neutron source data necessary for the analysis. The measured quantities, to be compared with the calculated values, are the specific activities at the end of fuel cycle 9. The characteristic feature of the HBR-2 benchmark is that it provides measurements on both sides of the pressure vessel: in the surveillance capsule attached to the thermal shield and in the reactor cavity. In section 2, the analysis of the HBR-2 benchmark is described. Calculations with the computer code DORT, based on the discrete-ordinates method, were performed with three multigroup libraries based on ENDF/B-VI: BUGLE-93, SAILOR-95 and BUGLE-96. The average ratio of the calculated-to-measured specific activities (C/M) for the six dosimeters in the surveillance capsule was 0.90 {+-} 0.04 for all three libraries. The average C/Ms for the cavity dosimeters (without neptunium dosimeter) were 0.89 {+-} 0.10, 0.91 {+-} 0.10, and 0.90 {+-} 0.09 for the BUGLE-93, SAILOR-95 and BUGLE-96 libraries, respectively. It is expected that the agreement of the calculations with the measurements, similar to the agreement obtained in this research, should typically be observed when the discrete-ordinates method and ENDF/B-VI libraries are used for the HBR-2 benchmark analysis.

  9. Parallel computing by Monte Carlo codes MVP/GMVP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagaya, Yasunobu; Nakagawa, Masayuki; Mori, Takamasa

    2001-01-01

    General-purpose Monte Carlo codes MVP/GMVP are well-vectorized and thus enable us to perform high-speed Monte Carlo calculations. In order to achieve more speedups, we parallelized the codes on the different types of parallel computing platforms or by using a standard parallelization library MPI. The platforms used for benchmark calculations are a distributed-memory vector-parallel computer Fujitsu VPP500, a distributed-memory massively parallel computer Intel paragon and a distributed-memory scalar-parallel computer Hitachi SR2201, IBM SP2. As mentioned generally, linear speedup could be obtained for large-scale problems but parallelization efficiency decreased as the batch size per a processing element(PE) was smaller. It was also found that the statistical uncertainty for assembly powers was less than 0.1% by the PWR full-core calculation with more than 10 million histories and it took about 1.5 hours by massively parallel computing. (author)

  10. Performance modeling and analysis of parallel Gaussian elimination on multi-core computers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fadi N. Sibai

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Gaussian elimination is used in many applications and in particular in the solution of systems of linear equations. This paper presents mathematical performance models and analysis of four parallel Gaussian Elimination methods (precisely the Original method and the new Meet in the Middle –MiM– algorithms and their variants with SIMD vectorization on multi-core systems. Analytical performance models of the four methods are formulated and presented followed by evaluations of these models with modern multi-core systems’ operation latencies. Our results reveal that the four methods generally exhibit good performance scaling with increasing matrix size and number of cores. SIMD vectorization only makes a large difference in performance for low number of cores. For a large matrix size (n ⩾ 16 K, the performance difference between the MiM and Original methods falls from 16× with four cores to 4× with 16 K cores. The efficiencies of all four methods are low with 1 K cores or more stressing a major problem of multi-core systems where the network-on-chip and memory latencies are too high in relation to basic arithmetic operations. Thus Gaussian Elimination can greatly benefit from the resources of multi-core systems, but higher performance gains can be achieved if multi-core systems can be designed with lower memory operation, synchronization, and interconnect communication latencies, requirements of utmost importance and challenge in the exascale computing age.

  11. Reactor based plutonium disposition - physics and fuel behaviour benchmark studies of an OECD/NEA experts group

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D'Hondt, P.; Gehin, J.; Na, B.C.; Sartori, E.; Wiesenack, W.

    2001-01-01

    One of the options envisaged for disposing of weapons grade plutonium, declared surplus for national defence in the Russian Federation and Usa, is to burn it in nuclear power reactors. The scientific/technical know-how accumulated in the use of MOX as a fuel for electricity generation is of great relevance for the plutonium disposition programmes. An Expert Group of the OECD/Nea is carrying out a series of benchmarks with the aim of facilitating the use of this know-how for meeting this objective. This paper describes the background that led to establishing the Expert Group, and the present status of results from these benchmarks. The benchmark studies cover a theoretical reactor physics benchmark on a VVER-1000 core loaded with MOX, two experimental benchmarks on MOX lattices and a benchmark concerned with MOX fuel behaviour for both solid and hollow pellets. First conclusions are outlined as well as future work. (author)

  12. Automatic generation of 3D fine mesh geometries for the analysis of the venus-3 shielding benchmark experiment with the Tort code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pescarini, M.; Orsi, R.; Martinelli, T.

    2003-01-01

    In many practical radiation transport applications today the cost for solving refined, large size and complex multi-dimensional problems is not so much computing but is linked to the cumbersome effort required by an expert to prepare a detailed geometrical model, verify and validate that it is correct and represents, to a specified tolerance, the real design or facility. This situation is, in particular, relevant and frequent in reactor core criticality and shielding calculations, with three-dimensional (3D) general purpose radiation transport codes, requiring a very large number of meshes and high performance computers. The need for developing tools that make easier the task to the physicist or engineer, by reducing the time required, by facilitating through effective graphical display the verification of correctness and, finally, that help the interpretation of the results obtained, has clearly emerged. The paper shows the results of efforts in this field through detailed simulations of a complex shielding benchmark experiment. In the context of the activities proposed by the OECD/NEA Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) Task Force on Computing Radiation Dose and Modelling of Radiation-Induced Degradation of Reactor Components (TFRDD), the ENEA-Bologna Nuclear Data Centre contributed with an analysis of the VENUS-3 low-flux neutron shielding benchmark experiment (SCK/CEN-Mol, Belgium). One of the targets of the work was to test the BOT3P system, originally developed at the Nuclear Data Centre in ENEA-Bologna and actually released to OECD/NEA Data Bank for free distribution. BOT3P, ancillary system of the DORT (2D) and TORT (3D) SN codes, permits a flexible automatic generation of spatial mesh grids in Cartesian or cylindrical geometry, through combinatorial geometry algorithms, following a simplified user-friendly approach. This system demonstrated its validity also in core criticality analyses, as for example the Lewis MOX fuel benchmark, permitting to easily

  13. Decoys Selection in Benchmarking Datasets: Overview and Perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Réau, Manon; Langenfeld, Florent; Zagury, Jean-François; Lagarde, Nathalie; Montes, Matthieu

    2018-01-01

    Virtual Screening (VS) is designed to prospectively help identifying potential hits, i.e., compounds capable of interacting with a given target and potentially modulate its activity, out of large compound collections. Among the variety of methodologies, it is crucial to select the protocol that is the most adapted to the query/target system under study and that yields the most reliable output. To this aim, the performance of VS methods is commonly evaluated and compared by computing their ability to retrieve active compounds in benchmarking datasets. The benchmarking datasets contain a subset of known active compounds together with a subset of decoys, i.e., assumed non-active molecules. The composition of both the active and the decoy compounds subsets is critical to limit the biases in the evaluation of the VS methods. In this review, we focus on the selection of decoy compounds that has considerably changed over the years, from randomly selected compounds to highly customized or experimentally validated negative compounds. We first outline the evolution of decoys selection in benchmarking databases as well as current benchmarking databases that tend to minimize the introduction of biases, and secondly, we propose recommendations for the selection and the design of benchmarking datasets. PMID:29416509

  14. Coupling of 3-D core computational codes and a reactor simulation software for the computation of PWR reactivity accidents induced by thermal-hydraulic transients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raymond, P.; Caruge, D.; Paik, H.J.

    1994-01-01

    The French CEA has recently developed a set of new computer codes for reactor physics computations called the Saphir system which includes CRONOS-2, a three-dimensional neutronic code, FLICA-4, a three-dimensional core thermal hydraulic code, and FLICA-S, a primary loops thermal-hydraulic transient computation code, which are coupled and applied to analyze a severe reactivity accident induced by a thermal hydraulic transient: the Steamline Break accident for a pressurized water reactor until soluble boron begins to accumulate in the core. The coupling of these codes has proved to be numerically stable. 15 figs., 7 refs

  15. SONATINA-2V: a computer program for seismic analysis of the two-dimensional vertical slice HTGR core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ikushima, Takeshi

    1982-07-01

    A computer program SONATINA-2V has been developed for predicting the behavior of a two-dimensional vertical slice HTGR core under seismic excitation. SONATINA-2V is a general two-dimensional computer program capable of analyzing the vertical slice HTGR core with the permanent side reflector blocks and its restraint structures. In the analytical model, each block is treated as rigid body and is restrained by dowel pins which restrict relative horizontal movement but allow vertical and rocking motions between upper and lower blocks. Coulomb friction is taken into account between blocks and between dowel pin and hole. A spring dashpot model is used for the collision process between adjacent blocks. The core support structure is represented by a single block. The computer program SONATINA-2V is capable of analyzing the core behavior for an excitation input applied simultaneously to both vertical and horizontal directions. Analytical results obtained from SONATINA-2V are compared with experimental results and are found to be in good agreement. The computer program can thus be used to predict with a good accuracy the behavior of the HTGR core under seismic excitation. In the present report are given, the theoretical formulation of the analytical model, a user's manual to describe the input and output format, and sample problems. (author)

  16. A non-local mixing-length theory able to compute core overshooting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gabriel, M.; Belkacem, K.

    2018-04-01

    Turbulent convection is certainly one of the most important and thorny issues in stellar physics. Our deficient knowledge of this crucial physical process introduces a fairly large uncertainty concerning the internal structure and evolution of stars. A striking example is overshoot at the edge of convective cores. Indeed, nearly all stellar evolutionary codes treat the overshooting zones in a very approximative way that considers both its extent and the profile of the temperature gradient as free parameters. There are only a few sophisticated theories of stellar convection such as Reynolds stress approaches, but they also require the adjustment of a non-negligible number of free parameters. We present here a theory, based on the plume theory as well as on the mean-field equations, but without relying on the usual Taylor's closure hypothesis. It leads us to a set of eight differential equations plus a few algebraic ones. Our theory is essentially a non-mixing length theory. It enables us to compute the temperature gradient in a shrinking convective core and its overshooting zone. The case of an expanding convective core is also discussed, though more briefly. Numerical simulations have quickly improved during recent years and enabling us to foresee that they will probably soon provide a model of convection adapted to the computation of 1D stellar models.

  17. Computer organization and design the hardware/software interface

    CERN Document Server

    Patterson, David A

    2011-01-01

    This Fourth Revised Edition of Computer Organization and Design includes a complete set of updated and new exercises, along with improvements and changes suggested by instructors and students. Focusing on the revolutionary change taking place in industry today--the switch from uniprocessor to multicore microprocessors--this classic textbook has a modern and up-to-date focus on parallelism in all its forms. Examples highlighting multicore and GPU processor designs are supported with performance and benchmarking data. As with previous editions, a MIPS processor is the core used to pres

  18. PULSTRI-1 computer program for mixed core pulse calculation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ravnik, M.; Mele, I.; Dimic, V.

    1990-01-01

    PUISTRI-1 is a computer code designed for calculations of the pulse parameters of TRIGA Mark II reactor with mixed core. The code is provided with data for four types of fuel elements: standard 8.5 and 12 w/o, LEU and FLIP. The pulse parameters, such as maximum power, prompt pulse energy and average fuel temperatures are calculated in adiabatic point kinetics, approximation, modified by taking into account temperature dependence of fuel temperature reactivity coefficient and thermal capacity factor averaged over all elements in the core. Maximal fuel temperature at power peaking location is calculated from total released energy using total power peaking factor and heat capacity of the element at the location of the power peaking. Results of the code were compared to data found in references (mainly General Atomics safety analysis reports) showing good agreement for all main pulse parameters. The most important parameters, average and maximal fuel temperature, are found to be systematically slightly overpredicted (20 C and 50 C, respectively). Other parameters (energy, peak power, width) agree within ± 10 % to the reference values. The code is written in FORTRAN for IBM PC computer. The input is user friendly. running time of IBM PC AT is a few seconds. It is designed for practical applications in pulse experiments as an analytical tool for predicting pulse parameters. (orig.)

  19. Computational Benchmark Calculations Relevant to the Neutronic Design of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gallmeier, F.X.; Glasgow, D.C.; Jerde, E.A.; Johnson, J.O.; Yugo, J.J.

    1999-01-01

    The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) will provide an intense source of low-energy neutrons for experimental use. The low-energy neutrons are produced by the interaction of a high-energy (1.0 GeV) proton beam on a mercury (Hg) target and slowed down in liquid hydrogen or light water moderators. Computer codes and computational techniques are being benchmarked against relevant experimental data to validate and verify the tools being used to predict the performance of the SNS. The LAHET Code System (LCS), which includes LAHET, HTAPE ad HMCNP (a modified version of MCNP version 3b), have been applied to the analysis of experiments that were conducted in the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). In the AGS experiments, foils of various materials were placed around a mercury-filled stainless steel cylinder, which was bombarded with protons at 1.6 GeV. Neutrons created in the mercury target, activated the foils. Activities of the relevant isotopes were accurately measured and compared with calculated predictions. Measurements at BNL were provided in part by collaborating scientists from JAERI as part of the AGS Spallation Target Experiment (ASTE) collaboration. To date, calculations have shown good agreement with measurements

  20. BOLD VENTURE COMPUTATION SYSTEM for nuclear reactor core analysis, Version III

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vondy, D.R.; Fowler, T.B.; Cunningham, G.W. III.

    1981-06-01

    This report is a condensed documentation for VERSION III of the BOLD VENTURE COMPUTATION SYSTEM for nuclear reactor core analysis. An experienced analyst should be able to use this system routinely for solving problems by referring to this document. Individual reports must be referenced for details. This report covers basic input instructions and describes recent extensions to the modules as well as to the interface data file specifications. Some application considerations are discussed and an elaborate sample problem is used as an instruction aid. Instructions for creating the system on IBM computers are also given

  1. BOLD VENTURE COMPUTATION SYSTEM for nuclear reactor core analysis, Version III

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vondy, D.R.; Fowler, T.B.; Cunningham, G.W. III.

    1981-06-01

    This report is a condensed documentation for VERSION III of the BOLD VENTURE COMPUTATION SYSTEM for nuclear reactor core analysis. An experienced analyst should be able to use this system routinely for solving problems by referring to this document. Individual reports must be referenced for details. This report covers basic input instructions and describes recent extensions to the modules as well as to the interface data file specifications. Some application considerations are discussed and an elaborate sample problem is used as an instruction aid. Instructions for creating the system on IBM computers are also given.

  2. Definition of the seventh dynamic AER benchmark-WWER-440 pressure vessel coolant mixing by re-connection of an isolated loop

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kotsarev, A.; Lizorkin, M.; Petrin, R.

    2010-01-01

    The seventh dynamic benchmark is a continuation of the efforts to validate systematically codes for the estimation of the transient behavior of VVER type nuclear power plants. This benchmark is a continuation of the work in the sixth dynamic benchmark. It is proposed to be simulated the transient - re-connection of an isolated circulating loop with low temperature or low boron concentration in a VVER-440 plant. It is supposed to expand the benchmark to other cases when a different number of loops are in operation leading to different symmetric and asymmetric core boundary conditions. The purposes of the proposed benchmark are: 1) Best-estimate simulations of an transient with a coolant flow mixing in the Reactor Pressure Vessel of WWER-440 plant by re-connection of one coolant loop to the several ones on operation, 2) Performing of code-to-code comparisons. The core is at the end of its first cycle with a power of 1196.25 MWt. The basic additional difference of the 7-seventh benchmark is in the detailed description of the downcomer and bottom part of the reactor vessel that allow describing the effects of coolant mixing in the Reactor Pressure Vessel without any additional conservative assumptions. The burn-up and the power distributions at this reactor state have to be calculated by the participants. The thermohydraulic conditions of the core in the beginning of the transient are specified. Participants self-generated best estimate nuclear data is to be used. The main geometrical parameters of the plant and the characteristics of the control and safety systems are also specified. Use generated input data decks developed for a WWER-440 plant and for the applied codes should be used. The behaviour of the plant should be studied applying coupled system codes, which combine a three-dimensional neutron kinetics description of the core with a pseudo or real 3D thermohydraulics system code. (Authors)

  3. Benchmark criticality experiments for fast fission configuration with high enriched nuclear fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sikorin, S.N.; Mandzik, S.G.; Polazau, S.A.; Hryharovich, T.K.; Damarad, Y.V.; Palahina, Y.A.

    2014-01-01

    Benchmark criticality experiments of fast heterogeneous configuration with high enriched uranium (HEU) nuclear fuel were performed using the 'Giacint' critical assembly of the Joint Institute for Power and Nuclear Research - Sosny (JIPNR-Sosny) of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. The critical assembly core comprised fuel assemblies without a casing for the 34.8 mm wrench. Fuel assemblies contain 19 fuel rods of two types. The first type is metal uranium fuel rods with 90% enrichment by U-235; the second one is dioxide uranium fuel rods with 36% enrichment by U-235. The total fuel rods length is 620 mm, and the active fuel length is 500 mm. The outer fuel rods diameter is 7 mm, the wall is 0.2 mm thick, and the fuel material diameter is 6.4 mm. The clad material is stainless steel. The side radial reflector: the inner layer of beryllium, and the outer layer of stainless steel. The top and bottom axial reflectors are of stainless steel. The analysis of the experimental results obtained from these benchmark experiments by developing detailed calculation models and performing simulations for the different experiments is presented. The sensitivity of the obtained results for the material specifications and the modeling details were examined. The analyses used the MCNP and MCU computer programs. This paper presents the experimental and analytical results. (authors)

  4. Efficient Support for Matrix Computations on Heterogeneous Multi-core and Multi-GPU Architectures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dong, Fengguang [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Tomov, Stanimire [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Dongarra, Jack [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

    2011-06-01

    We present a new methodology for utilizing all CPU cores and all GPUs on a heterogeneous multicore and multi-GPU system to support matrix computations e ciently. Our approach is able to achieve the objectives of a high degree of parallelism, minimized synchronization, minimized communication, and load balancing. Our main idea is to treat the heterogeneous system as a distributed-memory machine, and to use a heterogeneous 1-D block cyclic distribution to allocate data to the host system and GPUs to minimize communication. We have designed heterogeneous algorithms with two di erent tile sizes (one for CPU cores and the other for GPUs) to cope with processor heterogeneity. We propose an auto-tuning method to determine the best tile sizes to attain both high performance and load balancing. We have also implemented a new runtime system and applied it to the Cholesky and QR factorizations. Our experiments on a compute node with two Intel Westmere hexa-core CPUs and three Nvidia Fermi GPUs demonstrate good weak scalability, strong scalability, load balance, and e ciency of our approach.

  5. Determination of Benchmarks Stability within Ahmadu Bello ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Heights of six geodetic benchmarks over a total distance of 8.6km at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Nigeria were recomputed and analysed using least squares adjustment technique. The network computations were tied to two fix primary reference pillars situated outside the campus. The two-tail Chi-square ...

  6. Future Computing Platforms for Science in a Power Constrained Era

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abdurachmanov, David; Eulisse, Giulio; Elmer, Peter; Knight, Robert

    2015-01-01

    Power consumption will be a key constraint on the future growth of Distributed High Throughput Computing (DHTC) as used by High Energy Physics (HEP). This makes performance-per-watt a crucial metric for selecting cost-efficient computing solutions. For this paper, we have done a wide survey of current and emerging architectures becoming available on the market including x86-64 variants, ARMv7 32-bit, ARMv8 64-bit, Many-Core and GPU solutions, as well as newer System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions. We compare performance and energy efficiency using an evolving set of standardized HEP-related benchmarks and power measurement techniques we have been developing. We evaluate the potential for use of such computing solutions in the context of DHTC systems, such as the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). (paper)

  7. Gravitational wave extraction in simulations of rotating stellar core collapse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reisswig, C.; Ott, C. D.; Sperhake, U.; Schnetter, E.

    2011-01-01

    We perform simulations of general relativistic rotating stellar core collapse and compute the gravitational waves (GWs) emitted in the core-bounce phase of three representative models via multiple techniques. The simplest technique, the quadrupole formula (QF), estimates the GW content in the spacetime from the mass-quadrupole tensor only. It is strictly valid only in the weak-field and slow-motion approximation. For the first time, we apply GW extraction methods in core collapse that are fully curvature based and valid for strongly radiating and highly relativistic sources. These techniques are not restricted to weak-field and slow-motion assumptions. We employ three extraction methods computing (i) the Newman-Penrose (NP) scalar Ψ 4 , (ii) Regge-Wheeler-Zerilli-Moncrief master functions, and (iii) Cauchy-characteristic extraction (CCE) allowing for the extraction of GWs at future null infinity, where the spacetime is asymptotically flat and the GW content is unambiguously defined. The latter technique is the only one not suffering from residual gauge and finite-radius effects. All curvature-based methods suffer from strong nonlinear drifts. We employ the fixed-frequency integration technique as a high-pass waveform filter. Using the CCE results as a benchmark, we find that finite-radius NP extraction yields results that agree nearly perfectly in phase, but differ in amplitude by ∼1%-7% at core bounce, depending on the model. Regge-Wheeler-Zerilli-Moncrief waveforms, while, in general, agreeing in phase, contain spurious high-frequency noise of comparable amplitudes to those of the relatively weak GWs emitted in core collapse. We also find remarkably good agreement of the waveforms obtained from the QF with those obtained from CCE. The results from QF agree very well in phase and systematically underpredict peak amplitudes by ∼5%-11%, which is comparable to the NP results and is certainly within the uncertainties associated with core collapse physics.

  8. S/sub N/ computational benchmark solutions for slab geometry models of a gas-cooled fast reactor (GCFR) lattice cell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McCoy, D.R.

    1981-01-01

    S/sub N/ computational benchmark solutions are generated for a onegroup and multigroup fuel-void slab lattice cell which is a rough model of a gas-cooled fast reactor (GCFR) lattice cell. The reactivity induced by the extrusion of the fuel material into the voided region is determined for a series of partially extruded lattice cell configurations. A special modified Gauss S/sub N/ ordinate array design is developed in order to obtain eigenvalues with errors less than 0.03% in all of the configurations that are considered. The modified Gauss S/sub N/ ordinate array design has a substantially improved eigenvalue angular convergence behavior when compared to existing S/sub N/ ordinate array designs used in neutron streaming applications. The angular refinement computations are performed in some cases by using a perturbation theory method which enables one to obtain high order S/sub N/ eigenvalue estimates for greatly reduced computational costs

  9. Benchmarking of the computer code and the thirty foot side drop analysis for the Shippingport (RPV/NST package)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bumpus, S.E.; Gerhard, M.A.; Hovingh, J.; Trummer, D.J.; Witte, M.C.

    1989-01-01

    This paper presents the benchmarking of a finite element computer code and the subsequent results from the code simulating the 30 foot side drop impact of the RPV/NST transport package from the decommissioned Shippingport Nuclear Power Station. The activated reactor pressure vessel (RPV), thermal shield, and other reactor external components were encased in concrete contained by the neutron shield tank (NST) and a lifting skirt. The Shippingport RPV/NST package, a Type B Category II package, weighs approximately 900 tons and has 17.5 ft diameter and 40.7 ft. length. For transport of the activated components from Shippingport to the burial site, the Safety Analysis Report for Packaging (SARP) demonstrated that the package can withstand the hypothetical accidents of DOE Order 5480.3 including 10 CFR 71. Mathematical simulations of these accidents can substitute for actual tests if the simulated results satisfy the acceptance criteria. Any such mathematical simulation, including the modeling of the materials, must be benchmarked to experiments that duplicate the loading conditions of the tests. Additional confidence in the simulations is justified if the test specimens are configured similar to the package

  10. Benchmark neutron porosity log calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Little, R.C.; Michael, M.; Verghese, K.; Gardner, R.P.

    1989-01-01

    Calculations have been made for a benchmark neutron porosity log problem with the general purpose Monte Carlo code MCNP and the specific purpose Monte Carlo code McDNL. For accuracy and timing comparison purposes the CRAY XMP and MicroVax II computers have been used with these codes. The CRAY has been used for an analog version of the MCNP code while the MicroVax II has been used for the optimized variance reduction versions of both codes. Results indicate that the two codes give the same results within calculated standard deviations. Comparisons are given and discussed for accuracy (precision) and computation times for the two codes

  11. VERIFIKASI PAKET PROGRAM MVP-II DAN SRAC2006 PADA KASUS TERAS REAKTOR VERA BENCHMARK.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jati Susilo

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Dalam penelitian ini dilakukan verifikasi perhitungan benchmark VERA pada kasus Zero Power Physical Test (ZPPT teras reaktor Watts Bar 1. Reaktor tersebut merupakan jenis PWR kelas 1000 MWe yang didesain oleh Westinghouse, tersusun dari 193 perangkat bahan bakar 17×17 dengan 3 jenis pengkayaan UO2 yaitu 2,1wt%, 2,619wt% dan 3,1wt%. Perhitungan nilai k-eff dan distribusi faktor daya dilakukan pada siklus operasi pertama teras dengan kondisi beginning of cycle (BOC dan hot zero power (HZP. Posisi batang kendali dibedakan menjadi uncontrolled (semua batang kendali berada di luar teras, dan controlled (batang kendali Bank D didalam teras. Paket program komputer yang digunakan dalam perhitungan adalah MVP-II dan SRAC2006 modul CITATION dengan data pustaka tampang lintang ENDF/B-VII.0. Hasil perhitungan menunjukkan bahwa perbedaan nilai k-eff teras pada kondisi controlled dan uncontrolled antara referensi dengan MVP-II (-0,07% dan -0,014% dan SRAC2006 (0,92% dan 0,99% sangat kecil atau masih dibawah 1%. Perbedaan faktor daya maksimum teras pada kondisi controlled dan uncontrolled dengan referensi dengan MVP-II adalah 0,38% dan 1,53%, sedangkan dengan SRAC2006 adalah 1,13% dan -2,45%. Dapat dikatakan bahwa kedua paket program komputer menunjukkan hasil perhitungan yang sesuai dengan nilai referensi. Dalam hal penentuan kekritisan teras, maka hasil perhitungan MVP-II lebih konservatif dibandingkan dengan SRAC2006. Kata kunci : MVP-II, SRAC2006, PWR, VERA   In this research, verification calculation for VERA core physics benchmark on the Zero Power Physical Test (ZPPT of the nuclear reactor Watts Bar 1. The reactor is a 1000 MWe class of PWR designed by Westinghouse, arranged from 193 unit of 17×17 fuel assembly consisting 3 type enrichment of UO2 that are 2.1wt%, 2.619wt% and 3.1wt%. Core power factor distribution and k-eff calculation has been done for the first cycle operation of the core at beginning of cycle (BOC and hot zero power (HZP. In this

  12. Benchmarking ENDF/B-VII.1, JENDL-4.0 and JEFF-3.1.1 with MCNP6

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marck, Steven C. van der

    2012-01-01

    Recent releases of three major world nuclear reaction data libraries, ENDF/B-VII.1, JENDL-4.0, and JEFF-3.1.1, have been tested extensively using benchmark calculations. The calculations were performed with the latest release of the continuous energy Monte Carlo neutronics code MCNP, i.e. MCNP6. Three types of benchmarks were used, viz. criticality safety benchmarks, (fusion) shielding benchmarks, and reference systems for which the effective delayed neutron fraction is reported. For criticality safety, more than 2000 benchmarks from the International Handbook of Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments were used. Benchmarks from all categories were used, ranging from low-enriched uranium, compound fuel, thermal spectrum ones (LEU-COMP-THERM), to mixed uranium-plutonium, metallic fuel, fast spectrum ones (MIX-MET-FAST). For fusion shielding many benchmarks were based on IAEA specifications for the Oktavian experiments (for Al, Co, Cr, Cu, LiF, Mn, Mo, Si, Ti, W, Zr), Fusion Neutronics Source in Japan (for Be, C, N, O, Fe, Pb), and Pulsed Sphere experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (for 6 Li, 7 Li, Be, C, N, O, Mg, Al, Ti, Fe, Pb, D2O, H2O, concrete, polyethylene and teflon). The new functionality in MCNP6 to calculate the effective delayed neutron fraction was tested by comparison with more than thirty measurements in widely varying systems. Among these were measurements in the Tank Critical Assembly (TCA in Japan) and IPEN/MB-01 (Brazil), both with a thermal spectrum, two cores in Masurca (France) and three cores in the Fast Critical Assembly (FCA, Japan), all with fast spectra. The performance of the three libraries, in combination with MCNP6, is shown to be good. The results for the LEU-COMP-THERM category are on average very close to the benchmark value. Also for most other categories the results are satisfactory. Deviations from the benchmark values do occur in certain benchmark series, or in isolated cases within benchmark series. Such

  13. Code assessment and modelling for Design Basis Accident analysis of the European Sodium Fast Reactor design. Part II: Optimised core and representative transients analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lazaro, A., E-mail: aulach@iqn.upv.es [JRC-IET European Commission, Westerduinweg 3, PO BOX 2, 1755 ZG Petten (Netherlands); Schikorr, M. [KIT, Institute for Neutron Physics and Reactor Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (Germany); Mikityuk, K. [PSI, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen (Switzerland); Ammirabile, L. [JRC-IET European Commission, Westerduinweg 3, PO BOX 2, 1755 ZG Petten (Netherlands); Bandini, G. [ENEA, Via Martiri di Monte Sole 4, 40129 Bologna (Italy); Darmet, G.; Schmitt, D. [EDF, 1 Avenue du Général de Gaulle, 92141 Clamart (France); Dufour, Ph.; Tosello, A. [CEA, St. Paul lez Durance, 13108 Cadarache (France); Gallego, E.; Jimenez, G. [UPM, José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid (Spain); Bubelis, E.; Ponomarev, A.; Kruessmann, R.; Struwe, D. [KIT, Institute for Neutron Physics and Reactor Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (Germany); Stempniewicz, M. [NRG, Utrechtseweg 310, P.O. Box-9034, 6800 ES Arnhem (Netherlands)

    2014-10-01

    Highlights: • Benchmarked models have been applied for the analysis of DBA transients of the ESFR design. • Two system codes are able to simulate the behavior of the system beyond sodium boiling. • The optimization of the core design and its influence in the transients’ evolution is described. • The analysis has identified peak values and grace times for the protection system design. - Abstract: The new reactor concepts proposed in the Generation IV International Forum require the development and validation of computational tools able to assess their safety performance. In the first part of this paper the models of the ESFR design developed by several organisations in the framework of the CP-ESFR project were presented and their reliability validated via a benchmarking exercise. This second part of the paper includes the application of those tools for the analysis of design basis accident (DBC) scenarios of the reference design. Further, this paper also introduces the main features of the core optimisation process carried out within the project with the objective to enhance the core safety performance through the reduction of the positive coolant density reactivity effect. The influence of this optimised core design on the reactor safety performance during the previously analysed transients is also discussed. The conclusion provides an overview of the work performed by the partners involved in the project towards the development and enhancement of computational tools specifically tailored to the evaluation of the safety performance of the Generation IV innovative nuclear reactor designs.

  14. Code assessment and modelling for Design Basis Accident analysis of the European Sodium Fast Reactor design. Part II: Optimised core and representative transients analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lazaro, A.; Schikorr, M.; Mikityuk, K.; Ammirabile, L.; Bandini, G.; Darmet, G.; Schmitt, D.; Dufour, Ph.; Tosello, A.; Gallego, E.; Jimenez, G.; Bubelis, E.; Ponomarev, A.; Kruessmann, R.; Struwe, D.; Stempniewicz, M.

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Benchmarked models have been applied for the analysis of DBA transients of the ESFR design. • Two system codes are able to simulate the behavior of the system beyond sodium boiling. • The optimization of the core design and its influence in the transients’ evolution is described. • The analysis has identified peak values and grace times for the protection system design. - Abstract: The new reactor concepts proposed in the Generation IV International Forum require the development and validation of computational tools able to assess their safety performance. In the first part of this paper the models of the ESFR design developed by several organisations in the framework of the CP-ESFR project were presented and their reliability validated via a benchmarking exercise. This second part of the paper includes the application of those tools for the analysis of design basis accident (DBC) scenarios of the reference design. Further, this paper also introduces the main features of the core optimisation process carried out within the project with the objective to enhance the core safety performance through the reduction of the positive coolant density reactivity effect. The influence of this optimised core design on the reactor safety performance during the previously analysed transients is also discussed. The conclusion provides an overview of the work performed by the partners involved in the project towards the development and enhancement of computational tools specifically tailored to the evaluation of the safety performance of the Generation IV innovative nuclear reactor designs

  15. HPL and STREAM Benchmarks on SANAM Supercomputer

    KAUST Repository

    Bin Sulaiman, Riman A.

    2017-01-01

    SANAM supercomputer was jointly built by KACST and FIAS in 2012 ranking second that year in the Green500 list with a power efficiency of 2.3 GFLOPS/W (Rohr et al., 2014). It is a heterogeneous accelerator-based HPC system that has 300 compute nodes. Each node includes two Intel Xeon E5?2650 CPUs, two AMD FirePro S10000 dual GPUs and 128 GiB of main memory. In this work, the seven benchmarks of HPCC were installed and configured to reassess the performance of SANAM, as part of an unpublished master thesis, after it was reassembled in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We present here detailed results of HPL and STREAM benchmarks.

  16. HPL and STREAM Benchmarks on SANAM Supercomputer

    KAUST Repository

    Bin Sulaiman, Riman A.

    2017-03-13

    SANAM supercomputer was jointly built by KACST and FIAS in 2012 ranking second that year in the Green500 list with a power efficiency of 2.3 GFLOPS/W (Rohr et al., 2014). It is a heterogeneous accelerator-based HPC system that has 300 compute nodes. Each node includes two Intel Xeon E5?2650 CPUs, two AMD FirePro S10000 dual GPUs and 128 GiB of main memory. In this work, the seven benchmarks of HPCC were installed and configured to reassess the performance of SANAM, as part of an unpublished master thesis, after it was reassembled in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We present here detailed results of HPL and STREAM benchmarks.

  17. Benchmarking Cloud Storage Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, Xing

    2014-01-01

    With the rise of cloud computing, many cloud storage systems like Dropbox, Google Drive and Mega have been built to provide decentralized and reliable file storage. It is thus of prime importance to know their features, performance, and the best way to make use of them. In this context, we introduce BenchCloud, a tool designed as part of this thesis to conveniently and efficiently benchmark any cloud storage system. First, we provide a study of six commonly-used cloud storage systems to ident...

  18. NRC-BNL Benchmark Program on Evaluation of Methods for Seismic Analysis of Coupled Systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chokshi, N.; DeGrassi, G.; Xu, J.

    1999-01-01

    A NRC-BNL benchmark program for evaluation of state-of-the-art analysis methods and computer programs for seismic analysis of coupled structures with non-classical damping is described. The program includes a series of benchmarking problems designed to investigate various aspects of complexities, applications and limitations associated with methods for analysis of non-classically damped structures. Discussions are provided on the benchmarking process, benchmark structural models, and the evaluation approach, as well as benchmarking ground rules. It is expected that the findings and insights, as well as recommendations from this program will be useful in developing new acceptance criteria and providing guidance for future regulatory activities involving licensing applications of these alternate methods to coupled systems

  19. Benchmark analysis of SPERT-IV reactor with Monte Carlo code MVP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Motalab, M.A.; Mahmood, M.S.; Khan, M.J.H.; Badrun, N.H.; Lyric, Z.I.; Altaf, M.H.

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • MVP was used for SPERT-IV core modeling. • Neutronics analysis of SPERT-IV reactor was performed. • Calculation performed to estimate critical rod height, excess reactivity. • Neutron flux, time integrated neutron flux and Cd-ratio also calculated. • Calculated values agree with experimental data. - Abstract: The benchmark experiment of the SPERT-IV D-12/25 reactor core has been analyzed with the Monte Carlo code MVP using the cross-section libraries based on JENDL-3.3. The MVP simulation was performed for the clean and cold core. The estimated values of K eff at the experimental critical rod height and the core excess reactivity were within 5% with the experimental data. Thermal neutron flux profiles at different vertical and horizontal positions of the core were also estimated. Cadmium Ratio at different point of the core was also estimated. All estimated results have been compared with the experimental results. Generally good agreement has been found between experimentally determined and the calculated results

  20. fissioncore: A desktop-computer simulation of a fission-bomb core

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cameron Reed, B.; Rohe, Klaus

    2014-10-01

    A computer program, fissioncore, has been developed to deterministically simulate the growth of the number of neutrons within an exploding fission-bomb core. The program allows users to explore the dependence of criticality conditions on parameters such as nuclear cross-sections, core radius, number of secondary neutrons liberated per fission, and the distance between nuclei. Simulations clearly illustrate the existence of a critical radius given a particular set of parameter values, as well as how the exponential growth of the neutron population (the condition that characterizes criticality) depends on these parameters. No understanding of neutron diffusion theory is necessary to appreciate the logic of the program or the results. The code is freely available in FORTRAN, C, and Java and is configured so that modifications to accommodate more refined physical conditions are possible.

  1. SONATINA-1: a computer program for seismic response analysis of column in HTGR core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ikushima, Takeshi

    1980-11-01

    An computer program SONATINA-1 for predicting the behavior of a prismatic high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) core under seismic excitation has been developed. In this analytical method, blocks are treated as rigid bodies and are constrained by dowel pins which restrict relative horizontal movement but allow vertical and rocking motions. Coulomb friction between blocks and between dowel holes and pins is also considered. A spring dashpot model is used for the collision process between adjacent blocks and between blocks and boundary walls. Analytical results are compared with experimental results and are found to be in good agreement. The computer program can be used to predict the behavior of the HTGR core under seismic excitation. (author)

  2. Development of the core safety regulation technology for the SMART-P

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cho, Nam Zin; Kim, Do Sam; Lee, Kyeong Taek; Park, Young Ryoung; Lee, Gil Soo; Kim, Jong Woon; Yun, Sung Hwan; Lee, Jae Jun; Lee, Myung Hee [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2003-06-15

    As the SMART-P is different from existing general reactors, new regulation technology is required to understand and assess the SMART-P for its regulatory reviews. One of the these technologies is related to the core design analysis. Because the SMART-P used metallic fuels, this study also collects general metallic nuclear fuel data and SMART-P's metallic fuel data from the materials studied by KAERI. The core design methodologies of KWU, ABB-CE, Westinghouse, Studsvik, Scandpower, US NRC and domestic research centers were investigated. Specially, The Hellios lattice core was studied for hexagonal nuclear fuel assembly calculation. Also, the VVER-1000 benchmark problem was analyzed by the PARCS code which has been developed by U.S. NRC. In this study, a AFEN-based computing code KORDAX os developed for the regulatory review of the SMART-P. KORDAX which is a nodal code using AFEN method dose not use transverse integration and this it can give higher accuracy results. Also, Because KORDAX is useful for hexagonal core and uses a method different with the core design code of the SMART-P developed by KAERI, it is judged that KORDAX can be an independent and reliable regulation verification code. In the next year study, HELIOS will be further studied as a core lattice code, and a hexagonal kinetics code which is based on AFEN method will be developed more systematically.

  3. Benchmark Analysis Of The High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors Using Monte Carlo Technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nguyen Kien Cuong; Huda, M.Q.

    2008-01-01

    Information about several past and present experimental and prototypical facilities based on High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR) concepts have been examined to assess the potential of these facilities for use in this benchmarking effort. Both reactors and critical facilities applicable to pebble-bed type cores have been considered. Two facilities - HTR-PROTEUS of Switzerland and HTR-10 of China and one conceptual design from Germany - HTR-PAP20 - appear to have the greatest potential for use in benchmarking the codes. This study presents the benchmark analysis of these reactors technologies by using MCNP4C2 and MVP/GMVP Codes to support the evaluation and future development of HTGRs. The ultimate objective of this work is to identify and develop new capabilities needed to support Generation IV initiative. (author)

  4. SeSBench - An initiative to benchmark reactive transport models for environmental subsurface processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacques, Diederik

    2017-04-01

    As soil functions are governed by a multitude of interacting hydrological, geochemical and biological processes, simulation tools coupling mathematical models for interacting processes are needed. Coupled reactive transport models are a typical example of such coupled tools mainly focusing on hydrological and geochemical coupling (see e.g. Steefel et al., 2015). Mathematical and numerical complexity for both the tool itself or of the specific conceptual model can increase rapidly. Therefore, numerical verification of such type of models is a prerequisite for guaranteeing reliability and confidence and qualifying simulation tools and approaches for any further model application. In 2011, a first SeSBench -Subsurface Environmental Simulation Benchmarking- workshop was held in Berkeley (USA) followed by four other ones. The objective is to benchmark subsurface environmental simulation models and methods with a current focus on reactive transport processes. The final outcome was a special issue in Computational Geosciences (2015, issue 3 - Reactive transport benchmarks for subsurface environmental simulation) with a collection of 11 benchmarks. Benchmarks, proposed by the participants of the workshops, should be relevant for environmental or geo-engineering applications; the latter were mostly related to radioactive waste disposal issues - excluding benchmarks defined for pure mathematical reasons. Another important feature is the tiered approach within a benchmark with the definition of a single principle problem and different sub problems. The latter typically benchmarked individual or simplified processes (e.g. inert solute transport, simplified geochemical conceptual model) or geometries (e.g. batch or one-dimensional, homogeneous). Finally, three codes should be involved into a benchmark. The SeSBench initiative contributes to confidence building for applying reactive transport codes. Furthermore, it illustrates the use of those type of models for different

  5. Benchmarking in University Toolbox

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katarzyna Kuźmicz

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available In the face of global competition and rising challenges that higher education institutions (HEIs meet, it is imperative to increase innovativeness and efficiency of their management. Benchmarking can be the appropriate tool to search for a point of reference necessary to assess institution’s competitive position and learn from the best in order to improve. The primary purpose of the paper is to present in-depth analysis of benchmarking application in HEIs worldwide. The study involves indicating premises of using benchmarking in HEIs. It also contains detailed examination of types, approaches and scope of benchmarking initiatives. The thorough insight of benchmarking applications enabled developing classification of benchmarking undertakings in HEIs. The paper includes review of the most recent benchmarking projects and relating them to the classification according to the elaborated criteria (geographical range, scope, type of data, subject, support and continuity. The presented examples were chosen in order to exemplify different approaches to benchmarking in higher education setting. The study was performed on the basis of the published reports from benchmarking projects, scientific literature and the experience of the author from the active participation in benchmarking projects. The paper concludes with recommendations for university managers undertaking benchmarking, derived on the basis of the conducted analysis.

  6. A SAS2H/KENO-V Methodology for 3D Full Core depletion analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Milosevic, M.; Greenspan, E.; Vujic, J.; Petrovic, B.

    2003-04-01

    This paper describes the use of a SAS2H/KENO-V methodology for 3D full core depletion analysis and illustrates its capabilities by applying it to burnup analysis of the IRIS core benchmarks. This new SAS2H/KENO-V sequence combines a 3D Monte Carlo full core calculation of node power distribution and a 1D Wigner-Seitz equivalent cell transport method for independent depletion calculation of each of the nodes. This approach reduces by more than an order of magnitude the time required for getting comparable results using the MOCUP code system. The SAS2H/KENO-V results for the asymmetric IRIS core benchmark are in good agreement with the results of the ALPHA/PHOENIX/ANC code system. (author)

  7. Analysis of the OECD main steam line break benchmark using ANC-K/MIDAC code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aoki, Shigeaki; Tahara, Yoshihisa; Suemura, Takayuki; Ogawa, Junto

    2004-01-01

    A three-dimensional (3D) neutronics and thermal-and-hydraulics (T/H) coupling code ANC-K/MIDAC has been developed. It is the combination of the 3D nodal kinetic code ANC-K and the 3D drift flux thermal hydraulic code MIDAC. In order to verify the adequacy of this code, we have performed several international benchmark problems. In this paper, we show the calculation results of ''OECD Main Steam Line Break Benchmark (MSLB benchmark)'', which gives the typical local power peaking problem. And we calculated the return-to-power scenario of the Phase II problem. The comparison of the results shows the very good agreement of important core parameters between the ANC-K/MIDAC and other participant codes. (author)

  8. Comparative analysis of exercise 2 results of the OECD WWER-1000 MSLB benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kolev, N.; Petrov, N.; Royer, E.; Ivanov, B.; Ivanov, K.

    2006-01-01

    In the framework of joint effort between OECD/NEA, US DOE and CEA France a coupled three-dimensional (3D) thermal-hydraulic/neutron kinetics benchmark for WWER-1000 was defined. Phase 2 of this benchmark is labeled W1000CT-2 and consists of calculation of a vessel mixing experiment and main steam line break (MSLB) transients. The reference plant is Kozloduy-6 in Bulgaria. Plant data are available for code validation consisting of one experiment of pump start-up (W1000CT-1) and one experiment of steam generator isolation (W1000CT-2). The validated codes can be used to calculate asymmetric MSLB transients involving similar mixing patterns. This paper summarizes a comparison of the available results for W1000CT-2 Exercise 2 devoted to core-vessel calculation with imposed MSLB vessel boundary conditions. Because of the recent re-calculation of the cross-section libraries, core physics results from PARCS and CRONOS codes could be compared only. The comparison is code-to-code (including BIPR7A/TVS-M lib) and code vs. plant measured data in a steady state close to the MSLB initial state. The results provide a test of the cross-section libraries and show a good agreement of plant measured and computed data. The comparison of full vessel calculations was made from the point of view of vessel mixing, considering mainly the coarse-mesh features of the flow. The FZR and INRNE results from multi-1D calculations with different mixing models are similar, while the FZK calculations with a coarse-3D vessel model show deviations from the others. These deviations seem to be due to an error in the use of a boundary condition after flow reversal (Authors)

  9. Library Benchmarking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wiji Suwarno

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available The term benchmarking has been encountered in the implementation of total quality (TQM or in Indonesian termed holistic quality management because benchmarking is a tool to look for ideas or learn from the library. Benchmarking is a processof measuring and comparing for continuous business process of systematic and continuous measurement, the process of measuring and comparing for continuous business process of an organization to get information that can help these organization improve their performance efforts.

  10. Impact testing and analysis for structural code benchmarking

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Glass, R.E.

    1989-01-01

    Sandia National Laboratories, in cooperation with industry and other national laboratories, has been benchmarking computer codes used to predict the structural, thermal, criticality, and shielding behavior of radioactive materials packages. The first step in the benchmarking of the codes was to develop standard problem sets and to compare the results from several codes and users. This step for structural analysis codes has been completed as described in Structural Code Benchmarking for the Analysis of Impact Response of Nuclear Material Shipping Casks, R.E. Glass, Sandia National Laboratories, 1985. The problem set is shown in Fig. 1. This problem set exercised the ability of the codes to predict the response to end (axisymmetric) and side (plane strain) impacts with both elastic and elastic/plastic materials. The results from these problems showed that there is good agreement in predicting elastic response. Significant differences occurred in predicting strains for the elastic/plastic models. An example of the variation in predicting plastic behavior is given, which shows the hoop strain as a function of time at the impacting end of Model B. These differences in predicting plastic strains demonstrated a need for benchmark data for a cask-like problem

  11. Benchmark tests of JENDL-1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kikuchi, Yasuyuki; Hasegawa, Akira; Takano, Hideki; Kamei, Takanobu; Hojuyama, Takeshi; Sasaki, Makoto; Seki, Yuji; Zukeran, Atsushi; Otake, Iwao.

    1982-02-01

    Various benchmark tests were made on JENDL-1. At the first stage, various core center characteristics were tested for many critical assemblies with one-dimensional model. At the second stage, applicability of JENDL-1 was further tested to more sophisticated problems for MOZART and ZPPR-3 assemblies with two-dimensional model. It was proved that JENDL-1 predicted various quantities of fast reactors satisfactorily as a whole. However, the following problems were pointed out: 1) There exists discrepancy of 0.9% in the k sub(eff)-values between the Pu- and U-cores. 2) The fission rate ratio of 239 Pu to 235 U is underestimated by 3%. 3) The Doppler reactivity coefficients are overestimated by about 10%. 4) The control rod worths are underestimated by 4%. 5) The fission rates of 235 U and 239 Pu are underestimated considerably in the outer core and radial blanket regions. 6) The negative sodium void reactivities are overestimated, when the sodium is removed from the outer core. As a whole, most of problems of JENDL-1 seem to be related with the neutron leakage and the neutron spectrum. It was found through the further study that most of these problems came from too small diffusion coefficients and too large elastic removal cross sections above 100 keV, which might be probably caused by overestimation of the total and elastic scattering cross sections for structural materials in the unresolved resonance region up to several MeV. (author)

  12. A Web Resource for Standardized Benchmark Datasets, Metrics, and Rosetta Protocols for Macromolecular Modeling and Design.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shane Ó Conchúir

    Full Text Available The development and validation of computational macromolecular modeling and design methods depend on suitable benchmark datasets and informative metrics for comparing protocols. In addition, if a method is intended to be adopted broadly in diverse biological applications, there needs to be information on appropriate parameters for each protocol, as well as metrics describing the expected accuracy compared to experimental data. In certain disciplines, there exist established benchmarks and public resources where experts in a particular methodology are encouraged to supply their most efficient implementation of each particular benchmark. We aim to provide such a resource for protocols in macromolecular modeling and design. We present a freely accessible web resource (https://kortemmelab.ucsf.edu/benchmarks to guide the development of protocols for protein modeling and design. The site provides benchmark datasets and metrics to compare the performance of a variety of modeling protocols using different computational sampling methods and energy functions, providing a "best practice" set of parameters for each method. Each benchmark has an associated downloadable benchmark capture archive containing the input files, analysis scripts, and tutorials for running the benchmark. The captures may be run with any suitable modeling method; we supply command lines for running the benchmarks using the Rosetta software suite. We have compiled initial benchmarks for the resource spanning three key areas: prediction of energetic effects of mutations, protein design, and protein structure prediction, each with associated state-of-the-art modeling protocols. With the help of the wider macromolecular modeling community, we hope to expand the variety of benchmarks included on the website and continue to evaluate new iterations of current methods as they become available.

  13. FENDL neutronics benchmark: Specifications for the calculational neutronics and shielding benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sawan, M.E.

    1994-12-01

    During the IAEA Advisory Group Meeting on ''Improved Evaluations and Integral Data Testing for FENDL'' held in Garching near Munich, Germany in the period 12-16 September 1994, the Working Group II on ''Experimental and Calculational Benchmarks on Fusion Neutronics for ITER'' recommended that a calculational benchmark representative of the ITER design should be developed. This report describes the neutronics and shielding calculational benchmark available for scientists interested in performing analysis for this benchmark. (author)

  14. Towards evidence-based computational statistics: lessons from clinical research on the role and design of real-data benchmark studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boulesteix, Anne-Laure; Wilson, Rory; Hapfelmeier, Alexander

    2017-09-09

    The goal of medical research is to develop interventions that are in some sense superior, with respect to patient outcome, to interventions currently in use. Similarly, the goal of research in methodological computational statistics is to develop data analysis tools that are themselves superior to the existing tools. The methodology of the evaluation of medical interventions continues to be discussed extensively in the literature and it is now well accepted that medicine should be at least partly "evidence-based". Although we statisticians are convinced of the importance of unbiased, well-thought-out study designs and evidence-based approaches in the context of clinical research, we tend to ignore these principles when designing our own studies for evaluating statistical methods in the context of our methodological research. In this paper, we draw an analogy between clinical trials and real-data-based benchmarking experiments in methodological statistical science, with datasets playing the role of patients and methods playing the role of medical interventions. Through this analogy, we suggest directions for improvement in the design and interpretation of studies which use real data to evaluate statistical methods, in particular with respect to dataset inclusion criteria and the reduction of various forms of bias. More generally, we discuss the concept of "evidence-based" statistical research, its limitations and its impact on the design and interpretation of real-data-based benchmark experiments. We suggest that benchmark studies-a method of assessment of statistical methods using real-world datasets-might benefit from adopting (some) concepts from evidence-based medicine towards the goal of more evidence-based statistical research.

  15. Impact testing and analysis for structural code benchmarking

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Glass, R.E.

    1989-01-01

    Sandia National Laboratories, in cooperation with industry and other national laboratories, has been benchmarking computer codes (''Structural Code Benchmarking for the Analysis of Impact Response of Nuclear Material Shipping Cask,'' R.E. Glass, Sandia National Laboratories, 1985; ''Sample Problem Manual for Benchmarking of Cask Analysis Codes,'' R.E. Glass, Sandia National Laboratories, 1988; ''Standard Thermal Problem Set for the Evaluation of Heat Transfer Codes Used in the Assessment of Transportation Packages, R.E. Glass, et al., Sandia National Laboratories, 1988) used to predict the structural, thermal, criticality, and shielding behavior of radioactive materials packages. The first step in the benchmarking of the codes was to develop standard problem sets and to compare the results from several codes and users. This step for structural analysis codes has been completed as described in ''Structural Code Benchmarking for the Analysis of Impact Response of Nuclear Material Shipping Casks,'' R.E. Glass, Sandia National Laboratories, 1985. The problem set is shown in Fig. 1. This problem set exercised the ability of the codes to predict the response to end (axisymmetric) and side (plane strain) impacts with both elastic and elastic/plastic materials. The results from these problems showed that there is good agreement in predicting elastic response. Significant differences occurred in predicting strains for the elastic/plastic models. An example of the variation in predicting plastic behavior is given, which shows the hoop strain as a function of time at the impacting end of Model B. These differences in predicting plastic strains demonstrated a need for benchmark data for a cask-like problem. 6 refs., 5 figs

  16. Nanocrystalline material in toroidal cores for current transformer: analytical study and computational simulations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benedito Antonio Luciano

    2005-12-01

    Full Text Available Based on electrical and magnetic properties, such as saturation magnetization, initial permeability, and coercivity, in this work are presented some considerations about the possibilities of applications of nanocrystalline alloys in toroidal cores for current transformers. It is discussed how the magnetic characteristics of the core material affect the performance of the current transformer. From the magnetic characterization and the computational simulations, using the finite element method (FEM, it has been verified that, at the typical CT operation value of flux density, the nanocrystalline alloys properties reinforce the hypothesis that the use of these materials in measurement CT cores can reduce the ratio and phase errors and can also improve its accuracy class.

  17. A three-dimensional computer code for the nonlinear dynamic response of an HTGR core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Subudhi, M.; Lasker, L.; Koplik, B.; Curreri, J.; Goradia, H.

    1979-01-01

    A three-dimensional dynamic code has been developed to determine the nonlinear response of an HTGR core. The HTGR core consists of several thousands of hexagonal core blocks. These are arranged in layers stacked together. Each layer contains many core blocks surrounded on their outer periphery by reflector blocks. The entire assembly is contained within a prestressed concrete reactor vessel. Gaps exist between adjacent blocks in any horizontal plane. Each core block in a given layer is connected to the blocks directly above and below it via three dowell pins. The present analytical study is directed towards an investigation of the nonlinear response of the reactor core blocks in the event of a seismic occurrence. The computer code is developed for a specific mathematical model which represents a vertical arrangement of layers of blocks. This comprises a 'block module' of core elements which would be obtained by cutting a cylindrical portion consisting of seven fuel blocks per layer. It is anticipated that a number of such modules properly arranged could represent the entire core. Hence, the predicted response of this module would exhibit the response characteristics of the core. (orig.)

  18. Benchmarking and Performance Measurement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Town, J. Stephen

    This paper defines benchmarking and its relationship to quality management, describes a project which applied the technique in a library context, and explores the relationship between performance measurement and benchmarking. Numerous benchmarking methods contain similar elements: deciding what to benchmark; identifying partners; gathering…

  19. Nonlinear Resonance Benchmarking Experiment at the CERN Proton Synchrotron

    CERN Document Server

    Hofmann, I; Giovannozzi, Massimo; Martini, M; Métral, Elias

    2003-01-01

    As a first step of a space charge - nonlinear resonance benchmarking experiment over a large number of turns, beam loss and emittance evolution were measured over 1 s on a 1.4 GeV kinetic energy flat-bottom in the presence of a single octupole. By lowering the working point towards the resonance a gradual transition from a loss-free core emittance blow-up to a regime dominated by continuous loss was found. Our 3D simulations with analytical space charge show that trapping on the resonance due to synchrotron oscillation causes the observed core emittance growth as well as halo formation, where the latter is explained as the source of the observed loss.

  20. Benchmarking comparison and validation of MCNP photon interaction data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Colling Bethany

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The objective of the research was to test available photoatomic data libraries for fusion relevant applications, comparing against experimental and computational neutronics benchmarks. Photon flux and heating was compared using the photon interaction data libraries (mcplib 04p, 05t, 84p and 12p. Suitable benchmark experiments (iron and water were selected from the SINBAD database and analysed to compare experimental values with MCNP calculations using mcplib 04p, 84p and 12p. In both the computational and experimental comparisons, the majority of results with the 04p, 84p and 12p photon data libraries were within 1σ of the mean MCNP statistical uncertainty. Larger differences were observed when comparing computational results with the 05t test photon library. The Doppler broadening sampling bug in MCNP-5 is shown to be corrected for fusion relevant problems through use of the 84p photon data library. The recommended libraries for fusion neutronics are 84p (or 04p with MCNP6 and 84p if using MCNP-5.

  1. Benchmarking comparison and validation of MCNP photon interaction data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colling, Bethany; Kodeli, I.; Lilley, S.; Packer, L. W.

    2017-09-01

    The objective of the research was to test available photoatomic data libraries for fusion relevant applications, comparing against experimental and computational neutronics benchmarks. Photon flux and heating was compared using the photon interaction data libraries (mcplib 04p, 05t, 84p and 12p). Suitable benchmark experiments (iron and water) were selected from the SINBAD database and analysed to compare experimental values with MCNP calculations using mcplib 04p, 84p and 12p. In both the computational and experimental comparisons, the majority of results with the 04p, 84p and 12p photon data libraries were within 1σ of the mean MCNP statistical uncertainty. Larger differences were observed when comparing computational results with the 05t test photon library. The Doppler broadening sampling bug in MCNP-5 is shown to be corrected for fusion relevant problems through use of the 84p photon data library. The recommended libraries for fusion neutronics are 84p (or 04p) with MCNP6 and 84p if using MCNP-5.

  2. A BENCHMARK PROGRAM FOR EVALUATION OF METHODS FOR COMPUTING SEISMIC RESPONSE OF COUPLED BUILDING-PIPING/EQUIPMENT WITH NON-CLASSICAL DAMPING

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu, J.; Degrassi, G.; Chokshi, N.

    2001-01-01

    Under the auspices of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) developed a comprehensive program to evaluate state-of-the-art methods and computer programs for seismic analysis of typical coupled nuclear power plant (NPP) systems with nonclassical damping. In this program, four benchmark models of coupled building-piping/equipment systems with different damping characteristics were analyzed for a suite of earthquakes by program participants applying their uniquely developed methods and computer programs. This paper presents the results of their analyses, and their comparison to the benchmark solutions generated by BNL using time domain direct integration methods. The participant's analysis results established using complex modal time history methods showed good comparison with the BNL solutions, while the analyses produced with either complex-mode response spectrum methods or classical normal-mode response spectrum method, in general, produced more conservative results, when averaged over a suite of earthquakes. However, when coupling due to damping is significant, complex-mode response spectrum methods performed better than the classical normal-mode response spectrum method. Furthermore, as part of the program objectives, a parametric assessment is also presented in this paper, aimed at evaluation of the applicability of various analysis methods to problems with different dynamic characteristics unique to coupled NPP systems. It is believed that the findings and insights learned from this program will be useful in developing new acceptance criteria and providing guidance for future regulatory activities involving licensing applications of these alternate methods to coupled systems

  3. Algorithm comparison and benchmarking using a parallel spectra transform shallow water model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Worley, P.H. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States); Foster, I.T.; Toonen, B. [Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)

    1995-04-01

    In recent years, a number of computer vendors have produced supercomputers based on a massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture. These computers have been shown to be competitive in performance with conventional vector supercomputers for some applications. As spectral weather and climate models are heavy users of vector supercomputers, it is interesting to determine how these models perform on MPPS, and which MPPs are best suited to the execution of spectral models. The benchmarking of MPPs is complicated by the fact that different algorithms may be more efficient on different architectures. Hence, a comprehensive benchmarking effort must answer two related questions: which algorithm is most efficient on each computer and how do the most efficient algorithms compare on different computers. In general, these are difficult questions to answer because of the high cost associated with implementing and evaluating a range of different parallel algorithms on each MPP platform.

  4. Benchmarking in the Netherlands

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-01-01

    In two articles an overview is given of the activities in the Dutch industry and energy sector with respect to benchmarking. In benchmarking operational processes of different competitive businesses are compared to improve your own performance. Benchmark covenants for energy efficiency between the Dutch government and industrial sectors contribute to a growth of the number of benchmark surveys in the energy intensive industry in the Netherlands. However, some doubt the effectiveness of the benchmark studies

  5. Piping benchmark problems for the Westinghouse AP600 Standardized Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bezler, P.; DeGrassi, G.; Braverman, J.; Wang, Y.K.

    1997-01-01

    To satisfy the need for verification of the computer programs and modeling techniques that will be used to perform the final piping analyses for the Westinghouse AP600 Standardized Plant, three benchmark problems were developed. The problems are representative piping systems subjected to representative dynamic loads with solutions developed using the methods being proposed for analysis for the AP600 standard design. It will be required that the combined license licensees demonstrate that their solutions to these problems are in agreement with the benchmark problem set

  6. Development of 2-D/1-D fusion method for three-dimensional whole-core heterogeneous neutron transport calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Gil Soo

    2006-02-01

    -D calculation and these two calculations are combined using the results of each other. In this thesis, MOC for two dimensional whole-core calculation will be described and the some results of calculation will be presented. Then, the description of the 2D/1D fusion method and the results of three dimensional calculation will be followed. The partial current-based coarse mesh finite difference (p-CMFD) acceleration method which was used in this work to reduce computation time will be also described. From the results of benchmark problem, the 2D/1D fusion method provides accurate results and good convergence. But in the large scale problem, it requires huge amount of computer memory and long computation time. To step closer to real reactor design application, it would be necessary to reduce the computer memory requirement and computing time further

  7. DABIE: a data banking system of integral experiments for reactor core characteristics computer codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsumoto, Kiyoshi; Naito, Yoshitaka; Ohkubo, Shuji; Aoyanagi, Hideo.

    1987-05-01

    A data banking system of integral experiments for reactor core characteristics computer codes, DABIE, has been developed to lighten the burden on searching so many documents to obtain experiment data required for verification of reactor core characteristics computer code. This data banking system, DABIE, has capabilities of systematic classification, registration and easy retrieval of experiment data. DABIE consists of data bank and supporting programs. Supporting programs are data registration program, data reference program and maintenance program. The system is designed so that user can easily register information of experiment systems including figures as well as geometry data and measured data or obtain those data through TSS terminal interactively. This manual describes the system structure, how-to-use and sample uses of this code system. (author)

  8. Specification for the VERA Depletion Benchmark Suite

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Kang Seog [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

    2015-12-17

    CASL-X-2015-1014-000 iii Consortium for Advanced Simulation of LWRs EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The CASL neutronics simulator MPACT is under development for the neutronics and T-H coupled simulation for the pressurized water reactor. MPACT includes the ORIGEN-API and internal depletion module to perform depletion calculations based upon neutron-material reaction and radioactive decay. It is a challenge to validate the depletion capability because of the insufficient measured data. One of the detoured methods to validate it is to perform a code-to-code comparison for benchmark problems. In this study a depletion benchmark suite has been developed and a detailed guideline has been provided to obtain meaningful computational outcomes which can be used in the validation of the MPACT depletion capability.

  9. Experimental Benchmarking of Fire Modeling Simulations. Final Report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Greiner, Miles; Lopez, Carlos

    2003-01-01

    A series of large-scale fire tests were performed at Sandia National Laboratories to simulate a nuclear waste transport package under severe accident conditions. The test data were used to benchmark and adjust the Container Analysis Fire Environment (CAFE) computer code. CAFE is a computational fluid dynamics fire model that accurately calculates the heat transfer from a large fire to a massive engulfed transport package. CAFE will be used in transport package design studies and risk analyses

  10. Criticality benchmark comparisons leading to cross-section upgrades

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alesso, H.P.; Annese, C.E.; Heinrichs, D.P.; Lloyd, W.R.; Lent, E.M.

    1993-01-01

    For several years criticality benchmark calculations with COG. COG is a point-wise Monte Carlo code developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). It solves the Boltzmann equation for the transport of neutrons and photons. The principle consideration in developing COG was that the resulting calculation would be as accurate as the point-wise cross-sectional data, since no physics computational approximations were used. The objective of this paper is to report on COG results for criticality benchmark experiments in concert with MCNP comparisons which are resulting in corrections an upgrades to the point-wise ENDL cross-section data libraries. Benchmarking discrepancies reported here indicated difficulties in the Evaluated Nuclear Data Livermore (ENDL) cross-sections for U-238 at thermal neutron energy levels. This led to a re-evaluation and selection of the appropriate cross-section values from several cross-section sets available (ENDL, ENDF/B-V). Further cross-section upgrades anticipated

  11. ASTEC-CATHARE2 benchmarks on French PWR 1300MWe reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tregoures, Nicolas; Philippot, Marc; Foucher, Laurent; Guillard, Gaetan; Fleurot, Joelle

    2009-01-01

    The French Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire (IRSN) is performing a level 2 Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA-2) on the French 1300 MWe reactors. This PSA-2 is heavily relying on the ASTEC integral computer code, jointly developed by IRSN and GRS (Germany). In order to assess the reliability and the quality of physical results of the ASTEC V1.3 code as well as the PWR 1300 MWe reference input deck, an important series of benchmarks with the French best-estimate thermal-hydraulic code CATHARE 2 V2.5 has been performed on 14 different severe accident scenarios. The present paper details 2 out of the 14 studied scenarios: a 12 inches cold leg Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) and a 2 tubes Steam Generator Tube Rupture (SGTR). The thermal-hydraulic behavior of the primary and secondary circuits is thoroughly investigated and the ASTEC results of the core degradation phase are presented. Overall, the thermal-hydraulic behavior given by the ASTEC V1.3 is in very good agreement with the CATHARE 2 V2.5 results. (author)

  12. Benchmarking health IT among OECD countries: better data for better policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adler-Milstein, Julia; Ronchi, Elettra; Cohen, Genna R; Winn, Laura A Pannella; Jha, Ashish K

    2014-01-01

    To develop benchmark measures of health information and communication technology (ICT) use to facilitate cross-country comparisons and learning. The effort is led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Approaches to definition and measurement within four ICT domains were compared across seven OECD countries in order to identify functionalities in each domain. These informed a set of functionality-based benchmark measures, which were refined in collaboration with representatives from more than 20 OECD and non-OECD countries. We report on progress to date and remaining work to enable countries to begin to collect benchmark data. The four benchmarking domains include provider-centric electronic record, patient-centric electronic record, health information exchange, and tele-health. There was broad agreement on functionalities in the provider-centric electronic record domain (eg, entry of core patient data, decision support), and less agreement in the other three domains in which country representatives worked to select benchmark functionalities. Many countries are working to implement ICTs to improve healthcare system performance. Although many countries are looking to others as potential models, the lack of consistent terminology and approach has made cross-national comparisons and learning difficult. As countries develop and implement strategies to increase the use of ICTs to promote health goals, there is a historic opportunity to enable cross-country learning. To facilitate this learning and reduce the chances that individual countries flounder, a common understanding of health ICT adoption and use is needed. The OECD-led benchmarking process is a crucial step towards achieving this.

  13. Analysis of the impact of correlated benchmark experiments on the validation of codes for criticality safety analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bock, M.; Stuke, M.; Behler, M.

    2013-01-01

    The validation of a code for criticality safety analysis requires the recalculation of benchmark experiments. The selected benchmark experiments are chosen such that they have properties similar to the application case that has to be assessed. A common source of benchmark experiments is the 'International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments' (ICSBEP Handbook) compiled by the 'International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project' (ICSBEP). In order to take full advantage of the information provided by the individual benchmark descriptions for the application case, the recommended procedure is to perform an uncertainty analysis. The latter is based on the uncertainties of experimental results included in most of the benchmark descriptions. They can be performed by means of the Monte Carlo sampling technique. The consideration of uncertainties is also being introduced in the supplementary sheet of DIN 25478 'Application of computer codes in the assessment of criticality safety'. However, for a correct treatment of uncertainties taking into account the individual uncertainties of the benchmark experiments is insufficient. In addition, correlations between benchmark experiments have to be handled correctly. For example, these correlations can arise due to different cases of a benchmark experiment sharing the same components like fuel pins or fissile solutions. Thus, manufacturing tolerances of these components (e.g. diameter of the fuel pellets) have to be considered in a consistent manner in all cases of the benchmark experiment. At the 2012 meeting of the Expert Group on 'Uncertainty Analysis for Criticality Safety Assessment' (UACSA) of the OECD/NEA a benchmark proposal was outlined that aimed for the determination of the impact on benchmark correlations on the estimation of the computational bias of the neutron multiplication factor (k eff ). The analysis presented here is based on this proposal. (orig.)

  14. Development of an ICSBEP Benchmark Evaluation, Nearly 20 Years of Experience

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Briggs, J. Blair; Bess, John D.

    2011-01-01

    The basic structure of all ICSBEP benchmark evaluations is essentially the same and includes (1) a detailed description of the experiment; (2) an evaluation of the experiment, including an exhaustive effort to quantify the effects of uncertainties on measured quantities; (3) a concise presentation of benchmark-model specifications; (4) sample calculation results; and (5) a summary of experimental references. Computer code input listings and other relevant information are generally preserved in appendixes. Details of an ICSBEP evaluation is presented.

  15. Benchmark Tests on the New IBM RISC System/6000 590 Workstation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harvey J. Wasserman

    1995-01-01

    Full Text Available The results of benchmark tests on the superscalar IBM RISC System/6000 Model 590 are presented. A set of well-characterized Fortran benchmarks spanning a range of computational characteristics was used for the study. The data from the 590 system are compared with those from a single-processor CRAY C90 system as well as with other microprocessor-based systems, such as the Digital Equipment Corporation AXP 3000/500X and the Hewlett-Packard HP/735.

  16. Benchmark calculation programme concerning typical LMFBR structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Donea, J.; Ferrari, G.; Grossetie, J.C.; Terzaghi, A.

    1982-01-01

    This programme, which is part of a comprehensive activity aimed at resolving difficulties encountered in using design procedures based on ASME Code Case N-47, should allow to get confidence in computer codes which are supposed to provide a realistic prediction of the LMFBR component behaviour. The calculations started on static analysis of typical structures made of non linear materials stressed by cyclic loads. The fluid structure interaction analysis is also being considered. Reasons and details of the different benchmark calculations are described, results obtained are commented and future computational exercise indicated

  17. INL Results for Phases I and III of the OECD/NEA MHTGR-350 Benchmark

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gerhard Strydom; Javier Ortensi; Sonat Sen; Hans Hammer

    2013-09-01

    The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) Technology Development Office (TDO) Methods Core Simulation group led the construction of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Modular High Temperature Reactor (MHTGR) 350 MW benchmark for comparing and evaluating prismatic VHTR analysis codes. The benchmark is sponsored by the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), and the project will yield a set of reference steady-state, transient, and lattice depletion problems that can be used by the Department of Energy (DOE), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and vendors to assess their code suits. The Methods group is responsible for defining the benchmark specifications, leading the data collection and comparison activities, and chairing the annual technical workshops. This report summarizes the latest INL results for Phase I (steady state) and Phase III (lattice depletion) of the benchmark. The INSTANT, Pronghorn and RattleSnake codes were used for the standalone core neutronics modeling of Exercise 1, and the results obtained from these codes are compared in Section 4. Exercise 2 of Phase I requires the standalone steady-state thermal fluids modeling of the MHTGR-350 design, and the results for the systems code RELAP5-3D are discussed in Section 5. The coupled neutronics and thermal fluids steady-state solution for Exercise 3 are reported in Section 6, utilizing the newly developed Parallel and Highly Innovative Simulation for INL Code System (PHISICS)/RELAP5-3D code suit. Finally, the lattice depletion models and results obtained for Phase III are compared in Section 7. The MHTGR-350 benchmark proved to be a challenging simulation set of problems to model accurately, and even with the simplifications introduced in the benchmark specification this activity is an important step in the code-to-code verification of modern prismatic VHTR codes. A final OECD/NEA comparison report will compare the Phase I and III

  18. WLUP benchmarks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leszczynski, Francisco

    2002-01-01

    The IAEA-WIMS Library Update Project (WLUP) is on the end stage. The final library will be released on 2002. It is a result of research and development made by more than ten investigators during 10 years. The organization of benchmarks for testing and choosing the best set of data has been coordinated by the author of this paper. It is presented the organization, name conventions, contents and documentation of WLUP benchmarks, and an updated list of the main parameters for all cases. First, the benchmarks objectives and types are given. Then, comparisons of results from different WIMSD libraries are included. Finally it is described the program QVALUE for analysis and plot of results. Some examples are given. The set of benchmarks implemented on this work is a fundamental tool for testing new multigroup libraries. (author)

  19. Development of an automated core model for nuclear reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mosteller, R.D.

    1998-01-01

    This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The objective of this project was to develop an automated package of computer codes that can model the steady-state behavior of nuclear-reactor cores of various designs. As an added benefit, data produced for steady-state analysis also can be used as input to the TRAC transient-analysis code for subsequent safety analysis of the reactor at any point in its operating lifetime. The basic capability to perform steady-state reactor-core analysis already existed in the combination of the HELIOS lattice-physics code and the NESTLE advanced nodal code. In this project, the automated package was completed by (1) obtaining cross-section libraries for HELIOS, (2) validating HELIOS by comparing its predictions to results from critical experiments and from the MCNP Monte Carlo code, (3) validating NESTLE by comparing its predictions to results from numerical benchmarks and to measured data from operating reactors, and (4) developing a linkage code to transform HELIOS output into NESTLE input

  20. A computer code package for Monte Carlo photon-electron transport simulation Comparisons with experimental benchmarks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Popescu, Lucretiu M.

    2000-01-01

    A computer code package (PTSIM) for particle transport Monte Carlo simulation was developed using object oriented techniques of design and programming. A flexible system for simulation of coupled photon, electron transport, facilitating development of efficient simulation applications, was obtained. For photons: Compton and photo-electric effects, pair production and Rayleigh interactions are simulated, while for electrons, a class II condensed history scheme was considered, in which catastrophic interactions (Moeller electron-electron interaction, bremsstrahlung, etc.) are treated in detail and all other interactions with reduced individual effect on electron history are grouped together using continuous slowing down approximation and energy straggling theories. Electron angular straggling is simulated using Moliere theory or a mixed model in which scatters at large angles are treated as distinct events. Comparisons with experimentally benchmarks for electron transmission and bremsstrahlung emissions energy and angular spectra, and for dose calculations are presented

  1. Piping benchmark problems for the ABB/CE System 80+ Standardized Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bezler, P.; DeGrassi, G.; Braverman, J.; Wang, Y.K.

    1994-07-01

    To satisfy the need for verification of the computer programs and modeling techniques that will be used to perform the final piping analyses for the ABB/Combustion Engineering System 80+ Standardized Plant, three benchmark problems were developed. The problems are representative piping systems subjected to representative dynamic loads with solutions developed using the methods being proposed for analysis for the System 80+ standard design. It will be required that the combined license licensees demonstrate that their solution to these problems are in agreement with the benchmark problem set. The first System 80+ piping benchmark is a uniform support motion response spectrum solution for one section of the feedwater piping subjected to safe shutdown seismic loads. The second System 80+ piping benchmark is a time history solution for the feedwater piping subjected to the transient loading induced by a water hammer. The third System 80+ piping benchmark is a time history solution of the pressurizer surge line subjected to the accelerations induced by a main steam line pipe break. The System 80+ reactor is an advanced PWR type

  2. Benchmarking state-of-the-art optical simulation methods for analyzing large nanophotonic structures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gregersen, Niels; de Lasson, Jakob Rosenkrantz; Frandsen, Lars Hagedorn

    2018-01-01

    Five computational methods are benchmarked by computing quality factors and resonance wavelengths inphotonic crystal membrane L5 and L9 line defect cavities. Careful convergence studies reveal that some methods are more suitable than others for analyzing these cavities....

  3. Benchmarking electricity distribution

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Watts, K. [Department of Justice and Attorney-General, QLD (Australia)

    1995-12-31

    Benchmarking has been described as a method of continuous improvement that involves an ongoing and systematic evaluation and incorporation of external products, services and processes recognised as representing best practice. It is a management tool similar to total quality management (TQM) and business process re-engineering (BPR), and is best used as part of a total package. This paper discusses benchmarking models and approaches and suggests a few key performance indicators that could be applied to benchmarking electricity distribution utilities. Some recent benchmarking studies are used as examples and briefly discussed. It is concluded that benchmarking is a strong tool to be added to the range of techniques that can be used by electricity distribution utilities and other organizations in search of continuous improvement, and that there is now a high level of interest in Australia. Benchmarking represents an opportunity for organizations to approach learning from others in a disciplined and highly productive way, which will complement the other micro-economic reforms being implemented in Australia. (author). 26 refs.

  4. Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program Development of a Computer-based Benchmarking and Analytical Tool. Benchmarking and Energy & Water Savings Tool in Dairy Plants (BEST-Dairy)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xu, Tengfang [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Flapper, Joris [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Ke, Jing [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Kramer, Klaas [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Sathaye, Jayant [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

    2012-02-01

    The overall goal of the project is to develop a computer-based benchmarking and energy and water savings tool (BEST-Dairy) for use in the California dairy industry - including four dairy processes - cheese, fluid milk, butter, and milk powder. BEST-Dairy tool developed in this project provides three options for the user to benchmark each of the dairy product included in the tool, with each option differentiated based on specific detail level of process or plant, i.e., 1) plant level; 2) process-group level, and 3) process-step level. For each detail level, the tool accounts for differences in production and other variables affecting energy use in dairy processes. The dairy products include cheese, fluid milk, butter, milk powder, etc. The BEST-Dairy tool can be applied to a wide range of dairy facilities to provide energy and water savings estimates, which are based upon the comparisons with the best available reference cases that were established through reviewing information from international and national samples. We have performed and completed alpha- and beta-testing (field testing) of the BEST-Dairy tool, through which feedback from voluntary users in the U.S. dairy industry was gathered to validate and improve the tool's functionality. BEST-Dairy v1.2 was formally published in May 2011, and has been made available for free downloads from the internet (i.e., http://best-dairy.lbl.gov). A user's manual has been developed and published as the companion documentation for use with the BEST-Dairy tool. In addition, we also carried out technology transfer activities by engaging the dairy industry in the process of tool development and testing, including field testing, technical presentations, and technical assistance throughout the project. To date, users from more than ten countries in addition to those in the U.S. have downloaded the BEST-Dairy from the LBNL website. It is expected that the use of BEST-Dairy tool will advance understanding of energy and

  5. Investigation on the Core Bypass Flow in a Very High Temperature Reactor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hassan, Yassin

    2013-10-22

    Uncertainties associated with the core bypass flow are some of the key issues that directly influence the coolant mass flow distribution and magnitude, and thus the operational core temperature profiles, in the very high-temperature reactor (VHTR). Designers will attempt to configure the core geometry so the core cooling flow rate magnitude and distribution conform to the design values. The objective of this project is to study the bypass flow both experimentally and computationally. Researchers will develop experimental data using state-of-the-art particle image velocimetry in a small test facility. The team will attempt to obtain full field temperature distribution using racks of thermocouples. The experimental data are intended to benchmark computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes by providing detailed information. These experimental data are urgently needed for validation of the CFD codes. The following are the project tasks: • Construct a small-scale bench-top experiment to resemble the bypass flow between the graphite blocks, varying parameters to address their impact on bypass flow. Wall roughness of the graphite block walls, spacing between the blocks, and temperature of the blocks are some of the parameters to be tested. • Perform CFD to evaluate pre- and post-test calculations and turbulence models, including sensitivity studies to achieve high accuracy. • Develop the state-of-the art large eddy simulation (LES) using appropriate subgrid modeling. • Develop models to be used in systems thermal hydraulics codes to account and estimate the bypass flows. These computer programs include, among others, RELAP3D, MELCOR, GAMMA, and GAS-NET. Actual core bypass flow rate may vary considerably from the design value. Although the uncertainty of the bypass flow rate is not known, some sources have stated that the bypass flow rates in the Fort St. Vrain reactor were between 8 and 25 percent of the total reactor mass flow rate. If bypass flow rates are on the

  6. Efficient Backprojection-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar Computation with Many-Core Processors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jongsoo Park

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Tackling computationally challenging problems with high efficiency often requires the combination of algorithmic innovation, advanced architecture, and thorough exploitation of parallelism. We demonstrate this synergy through synthetic aperture radar (SAR via backprojection, an image reconstruction method that can require hundreds of TFLOPS. Computation cost is significantly reduced by our new algorithm of approximate strength reduction; data movement cost is economized by software locality optimizations facilitated by advanced architecture support; parallelism is fully harnessed in various patterns and granularities. We deliver over 35 billion backprojections per second throughput per compute node on an Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2670-based cluster, equipped with Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessors. This corresponds to processing a 3K×3K image within a second using a single node. Our study can be extended to other settings: backprojection is applicable elsewhere including medical imaging, approximate strength reduction is a general code transformation technique, and many-core processors are emerging as a solution to energy-efficient computing.

  7. Monte Carlo code criticality benchmark comparisons for waste packaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alesso, H.P.; Annese, C.E.; Buck, R.M.; Pearson, J.S.; Lloyd, W.R.

    1992-07-01

    COG is a new point-wise Monte Carlo code being developed and tested at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). It solves the Boltzmann equation for the transport of neutrons and photons. The objective of this paper is to report on COG results for criticality benchmark experiments both on a Cray mainframe and on a HP 9000 workstation. COG has been recently ported to workstations to improve its accessibility to a wider community of users. COG has some similarities to a number of other computer codes used in the shielding and criticality community. The recently introduced high performance reduced instruction set (RISC) UNIX workstations provide computational power that approach mainframes at a fraction of the cost. A version of COG is currently being developed for the Hewlett Packard 9000/730 computer with a UNIX operating system. Subsequent porting operations will move COG to SUN, DEC, and IBM workstations. In addition, a CAD system for preparation of the geometry input for COG is being developed. In July 1977, Babcock ampersand Wilcox Co. (B ampersand W) was awarded a contract to conduct a series of critical experiments that simulated close-packed storage of LWR-type fuel. These experiments provided data for benchmarking and validating calculational methods used in predicting K-effective of nuclear fuel storage in close-packed, neutron poisoned arrays. Low enriched UO2 fuel pins in water-moderated lattices in fuel storage represent a challenging criticality calculation for Monte Carlo codes particularly when the fuel pins extend out of the water. COG and KENO calculational results of these criticality benchmark experiments are presented

  8. Benchmarking semantic web technology

    CERN Document Server

    García-Castro, R

    2009-01-01

    This book addresses the problem of benchmarking Semantic Web Technologies; first, from a methodological point of view, proposing a general methodology to follow in benchmarking activities over Semantic Web Technologies and, second, from a practical point of view, presenting two international benchmarking activities that involved benchmarking the interoperability of Semantic Web technologies using RDF(S) as the interchange language in one activity and OWL in the other.The book presents in detail how the different resources needed for these interoperability benchmarking activities were defined:

  9. RUNE benchmarks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Peña, Alfredo

    This report contains the description of a number of benchmarks with the purpose of evaluating flow models for near-shore wind resource estimation. The benchmarks are designed based on the comprehensive database of observations that the RUNE coastal experiment established from onshore lidar...

  10. MCNP neutron benchmarks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hendricks, J.S.; Whalen, D.J.; Cardon, D.A.; Uhle, J.L.

    1991-01-01

    Over 50 neutron benchmark calculations have recently been completed as part of an ongoing program to validate the MCNP Monte Carlo radiation transport code. The new and significant aspects of this work are as follows: These calculations are the first attempt at a validation program for MCNP and the first official benchmarking of version 4 of the code. We believe the chosen set of benchmarks is a comprehensive set that may be useful for benchmarking other radiation transport codes and data libraries. These calculations provide insight into how well neutron transport calculations can be expected to model a wide variety of problems

  11. Current Reactor Physics Benchmark Activities at the Idaho National Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bess, John D.; Marshall, Margaret A.; Gorham, Mackenzie L.; Christensen, Joseph; Turnbull, James C.; Clark, Kim

    2011-01-01

    The International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) (1) and the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) (2) were established to preserve integral reactor physics and criticality experiment data for present and future research. These valuable assets provide the basis for recording, developing, and validating our integral nuclear data, and experimental and computational methods. These projects are managed through the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD-NEA). Staff and students at the Department of Energy - Idaho (DOE-ID) and INL are engaged in the development of benchmarks to support ongoing research activities. These benchmarks include reactors or assemblies that support Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) research, space nuclear Fission Surface Power System (FSPS) design validation, and currently operational facilities in Southeastern Idaho.

  12. Establishment of computer aided technology for operation, maintenance, and core management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iguchi, Masaki; Isomura, Kazutoshi; Okawa, Tsuyoshi; Sakurai, Naoto

    2003-01-01

    In Fugen, the accumulated know-how of skilled operators, maintenance engineers, and core management engineers have been systematized by using the latest computer technology. These computerized systems have enhanced the technology of operating, maintenance and core management. This report describes the development of a reactor feed water control system with fuzzy logic, a refueling support system, and an automatic refueling planning system. Since operation of reactor feedwater control at low power requires a delicate operational technique and the knowledge and experience of operators, the application of a fuzzy algorithm was deemed effective in Fugen. Its good performance comparable to that of experienced operators can be realized. The fuel-handling operation takes proposed plans, fuel management and efficient operation by skilled operators. AI technology was applied to fuel-handling support system using past operation results and experience of skilled operators. This system is as capable of fuel-handling as skilled operators. Planning an adequate fuel loading pattern is time-consuming even for expert core management engineers. The Automatic Refueling Planning System (ARPS) was developed using Genetic Algorithms (GA) and a Simulated Annealing (SA). It has been verified that long-term fuel loading patterns of the Fugen NPS evaluated by ARPS are equivalent to that of an expert core management engineer. (author)

  13. Boiling water reactor turbine trip (TT) benchmark. Volume II: Summary Results of Exercise 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Akdeniz, Bedirhan; Ivanov, Kostadin N.; Olson, Andy M.

    2005-06-01

    The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) completed under US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) sponsorship a PWR main steam line break (MSLB) benchmark against coupled system three-dimensional (3-D) neutron kinetics and thermal-hydraulic codes. Another OECD/NRC coupled-code benchmark was recently completed for a BWR turbine trip (TT) transient and is the object of the present report. Turbine trip transients in a BWR are pressurisation events in which the coupling between core space-dependent neutronic phenomena and system dynamics plays an important role. The data made available from actual experiments carried out at the Peach Bottom 2 plant make the present benchmark particularly valuable. While defining and coordinating the BWR TT benchmark, a systematic approach and level methodology not only allowed for a consistent and comprehensive validation process, but also contributed to the study of key parameters of pressurisation transients. The benchmark consists of three separate exercises, two initial states and five transient scenarios. The BWR TT Benchmark will be published in four volumes as NEA reports. CD-ROMs will also be prepared and will include the four reports and the transient boundary conditions, decay heat values as a function of time, cross-section libraries and supplementary tables and graphs not published in the paper version. BWR TT Benchmark - Volume I: Final Specifications was issued in 2001 [NEA/NSC/DOC(2001)]. The benchmark team [Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in co-operation with Exelon Nuclear and the NEA] has been responsible for coordinating benchmark activities, answering participant questions and assisting them in developing their models, as well as analysing submitted solutions and providing reports summarising the results for each phase. The benchmark team has also been involved in the technical aspects of the benchmark, including sensitivity studies for the different exercises. Volume II summarises the results for Exercise 1 of the

  14. Two new computational methods for universal DNA barcoding: a benchmark using barcode sequences of bacteria, archaea, animals, fungi, and land plants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanabe, Akifumi S; Toju, Hirokazu

    2013-01-01

    Taxonomic identification of biological specimens based on DNA sequence information (a.k.a. DNA barcoding) is becoming increasingly common in biodiversity science. Although several methods have been proposed, many of them are not universally applicable due to the need for prerequisite phylogenetic/machine-learning analyses, the need for huge computational resources, or the lack of a firm theoretical background. Here, we propose two new computational methods of DNA barcoding and show a benchmark for bacterial/archeal 16S, animal COX1, fungal internal transcribed spacer, and three plant chloroplast (rbcL, matK, and trnH-psbA) barcode loci that can be used to compare the performance of existing and new methods. The benchmark was performed under two alternative situations: query sequences were available in the corresponding reference sequence databases in one, but were not available in the other. In the former situation, the commonly used "1-nearest-neighbor" (1-NN) method, which assigns the taxonomic information of the most similar sequences in a reference database (i.e., BLAST-top-hit reference sequence) to a query, displays the highest rate and highest precision of successful taxonomic identification. However, in the latter situation, the 1-NN method produced extremely high rates of misidentification for all the barcode loci examined. In contrast, one of our new methods, the query-centric auto-k-nearest-neighbor (QCauto) method, consistently produced low rates of misidentification for all the loci examined in both situations. These results indicate that the 1-NN method is most suitable if the reference sequences of all potentially observable species are available in databases; otherwise, the QCauto method returns the most reliable identification results. The benchmark results also indicated that the taxon coverage of reference sequences is far from complete for genus or species level identification in all the barcode loci examined. Therefore, we need to accelerate

  15. Towards evidence-based computational statistics: lessons from clinical research on the role and design of real-data benchmark studies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anne-Laure Boulesteix

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The goal of medical research is to develop interventions that are in some sense superior, with respect to patient outcome, to interventions currently in use. Similarly, the goal of research in methodological computational statistics is to develop data analysis tools that are themselves superior to the existing tools. The methodology of the evaluation of medical interventions continues to be discussed extensively in the literature and it is now well accepted that medicine should be at least partly “evidence-based”. Although we statisticians are convinced of the importance of unbiased, well-thought-out study designs and evidence-based approaches in the context of clinical research, we tend to ignore these principles when designing our own studies for evaluating statistical methods in the context of our methodological research. Main message In this paper, we draw an analogy between clinical trials and real-data-based benchmarking experiments in methodological statistical science, with datasets playing the role of patients and methods playing the role of medical interventions. Through this analogy, we suggest directions for improvement in the design and interpretation of studies which use real data to evaluate statistical methods, in particular with respect to dataset inclusion criteria and the reduction of various forms of bias. More generally, we discuss the concept of “evidence-based” statistical research, its limitations and its impact on the design and interpretation of real-data-based benchmark experiments. Conclusion We suggest that benchmark studies—a method of assessment of statistical methods using real-world datasets—might benefit from adopting (some concepts from evidence-based medicine towards the goal of more evidence-based statistical research.

  16. Benchmarking and monitoring framework for interconnected file synchronization and sharing services

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mrówczyński, Piotr; Mościcki, Jakub T.; Lamanna, Massimo

    2018-01-01

    computing and storage infrastructure in the research labs. In this work we present a benchmarking and monitoring framework for file synchronization and sharing services. It allows service providers to monitor the operational status of their services, understand the service behavior under different load...... types and with different network locations of the synchronization clients. The framework is designed as a monitoring and benchmarking tool to provide performance and robustness metrics for interconnected file synchronization and sharing services such as Open Cloud Mesh....

  17. Adaptive Fault Tolerance for Many-Core Based Space-Borne Computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    James, Mark; Springer, Paul; Zima, Hans

    2010-01-01

    This paper describes an approach to providing software fault tolerance for future deep-space robotic NASA missions, which will require a high degree of autonomy supported by an enhanced on-board computational capability. Such systems have become possible as a result of the emerging many-core technology, which is expected to offer 1024-core chips by 2015. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of this new technology, focusing on introspection-based adaptive fault tolerance that takes into account the specific requirements of applications, guided by a fault model. Introspection supports runtime monitoring of the program execution with the goal of identifying, locating, and analyzing errors. Fault tolerance assertions for the introspection system can be provided by the user, domain-specific knowledge, or via the results of static or dynamic program analysis. This work is part of an on-going project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

  18. Fission product release from HTGR fuel under core heatup accident conditions - HTR2008-58160

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Verfondern, K.; Nabielek, H.

    2008-01-01

    Various countries engaged in the development and fabrication of modern fuel for the High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR) have initiated activities of modeling the fuel and fission product release behavior with the aim of predicting the fuel performance under operating and accidental conditions of future HTGRs. Within the IAEA directed Coordinated Research Project CRP6 on 'Advances in HTGR Fuel Technology Development' active since 2002, the 13 participating Member States have agreed upon benchmark studies on fuel performance during normal operation and under accident conditions. While the former has been completed in the meantime, the focus is now on the extension of the national code developments to become applicable to core heatup accident conditions. These activities are supported by the fact that core heatup simulation experiments have been resumed recently providing new, highly valuable data. Work on accident performance will be - similar to the normal operation benchmark - consisting of three essential parts comprising both code verification that establishes the correspondence of code work with the underlying physical, chemical and mathematical laws, and code validation that establishes reasonable agreement with the existing experimental data base, but including also predictive calculations for future heating tests and/or reactor concepts. The paper will describe the cases to be studied and the calculational results obtained with the German computer model FRESCO. Among the benchmark cases in consideration are tests which were most recently conducted in the new heating facility KUEFA. Therefore this study will also re-open the discussion and analysis of both the validity of diffusion models and the transport data of the principal fission product species in the HTGR fuel materials as essential input data for the codes. (authors)

  19. Validations of BWR nuclear design code using ABWR MOX numerical benchmark problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takano, Shou; Sasagawa, Masaru; Yamana, Teppei; Ikehara, Tadashi; Yanagisawa, Naoki

    2017-01-01

    BWR core design code package (the HINES assembly code and the PANACH core simulator), being used for full MOX-ABWR core design, has been benchmarked against the high-fidelity numerical solutions as references, for the purpose of validating its capability of predicting the BWR core design parameters systematically from UO 2 to 100% MOX cores. The reference solutions were created by whole core critical calculations using MCNPs with the precisely modeled ABWR cores both in hot and cold conditions at BOC and EOC of the equilibrium cycle. A Doppler-Broadening Rejection Correction (DCRB) implemented MCNP5-1.4 with ENDF/B-VII.0 was mainly used to evaluate the core design parameters, except for effective delayed neutron fraction (β eff ) and prompt neutron lifetime (l) with MCNP6.1. The discrepancies in the results between the design codes HINES-PANACH and MCNPs for the core design parameters such as the bundle powers, hot pin powers, control rod worth, boron worth, void reactivity, Doppler reactivity, β eff and l, are almost within target accuracy, leading to the conclusion that HINES-PANACH has sufficient fidelity for application to full MOX-ABWR core design. (author)

  20. Benchmark results in radiative transfer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garcia, R.D.M.; Siewert, C.E.

    1986-02-01

    Several aspects of the F N method are reported, and the method is used to solve accurately some benchmark problems in radiative transfer in the field of atmospheric physics. The method was modified to solve cases of pure scattering and an improved process was developed for computing the radiation intensity. An algorithms for computing several quantities used in the F N method was done. An improved scheme to evaluate certain integrals relevant to the method is done, and a two-term recursion relation that has proved useful for the numerical evaluation of matrix elements, basic for the method, is given. The methods used to solve the encountered linear algebric equations are discussed, and the numerical results are evaluated. (M.C.K.) [pt

  1. Computer simulation of Masurca critical and subcritical experiments. Muse-4 benchmark. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2006-01-01

    The efficient and safe management of spent fuel produced during the operation of commercial nuclear power plants is an important issue. In this context, partitioning and transmutation (P and T) of minor actinides and long-lived fission products can play an important role, significantly reducing the burden on geological repositories of nuclear waste and allowing their more effective use. Various systems, including existing reactors, fast reactors and advanced systems have been considered to optimise the transmutation scheme. Recently, many countries have shown interest in accelerator-driven systems (ADS) due to their potential for transmutation of minor actinides. Much R and D work is still required in order to demonstrate their desired capability as a whole system, and the current analysis methods and nuclear data for minor actinide burners are not as well established as those for conventionally-fuelled systems. Recognizing a need for code and data validation in this area, the Nuclear Science Committee of the OECD/NEA has organised various theoretical benchmarks on ADS burners. Many improvements and clarifications concerning nuclear data and calculation methods have been achieved. However, some significant discrepancies for important parameters are not fully understood and still require clarification. Therefore, this international benchmark based on MASURCA experiments, which were carried out under the auspices of the EC 5. Framework Programme, was launched in December 2001 in co-operation with the CEA (France) and CIEMAT (Spain). The benchmark model was oriented to compare simulation predictions based on available codes and nuclear data libraries with experimental data related to TRU transmutation, criticality constants and time evolution of the neutronic flux following source variation, within liquid metal fast subcritical systems. A total of 16 different institutions participated in this first experiment based benchmark, providing 34 solutions. The large number

  2. Development of a set of benchmark problems to verify numerical methods for solving burnup equations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lago, Daniel; Rahnema, Farzad

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • Description transmutation chain benchmark problems. • Problems for validating numerical methods for solving burnup equations. • Analytical solutions for the burnup equations. • Numerical solutions for the burnup equations. - Abstract: A comprehensive set of transmutation chain benchmark problems for numerically validating methods for solving burnup equations was created. These benchmark problems were designed to challenge both traditional and modern numerical methods used to solve the complex set of ordinary differential equations used for tracking the change in nuclide concentrations over time due to nuclear phenomena. Given the development of most burnup solvers is done for the purpose of coupling with an established transport solution method, these problems provide a useful resource in testing and validating the burnup equation solver before coupling for use in a lattice or core depletion code. All the relevant parameters for each benchmark problem are described. Results are also provided in the form of reference solutions generated by the Mathematica tool, as well as additional numerical results from MATLAB.

  3. Kinetic parameters evaluation of PWRs using static cell and core calculation codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jahanbin, Ali; Malmir, Hessam

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► In this study, we have calculated effective delayed neutron fraction and prompt neutron lifetime in PWRs. ► New software has been developed to link the WIMS, BORGES and CITATION codes in Visual C computer programming language. ► This software is used for calculation of the kinetic parameters in a typical VVER-1000 and NOK Beznau reactor. ► The ratios ((β eff ) i )/((β eff ) core ) , which are the important input data for the reactivity accident analysis, are also calculated. - Abstract: In this paper, evaluation of the kinetic parameters (effective delayed neutron fraction and prompt neutron lifetime) in PWRs, using static cell and core calculation codes, is reported. A new software has been developed to link the WIMS, BORGES and CITATION codes in Visual C computer programming language. Using the WIMS cell calculation code, multigroup microscopic cross-sections and number densities of different materials can be generated in a binary file. By the use of BORGES code, these binary-form cross-sections and number densities are converted to a format readable by the CITATION core calculation code, by which the kinetic parameters can be finally obtained. This software is used for calculation of the kinetic parameters in a typical VVER-1000 and NOK Beznau reactor. The ratios ((β eff ) i )/((β eff ) core ) , which are the important input data for the reactivity accident analysis, are also calculated. Benchmarking of the results against the final safety analysis report (FSAR) of the aforementioned reactors shows very good agreements with these published documents.

  4. SMORN-III benchmark test on reactor noise analysis methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shinohara, Yoshikuni; Hirota, Jitsuya

    1984-02-01

    A computational benchmark test was performed in conjunction with the Third Specialists Meeting on Reactor Noise (SMORN-III) which was held in Tokyo, Japan in October 1981. This report summarizes the results of the test as well as the works made for preparation of the test. (author)

  5. Two-dimensional full-core transport theory Benchmarks for the WWER reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Petkov, P.T.

    2002-01-01

    Several two-dimensional full-core real geometry many-group steady-state problems for the WWER-440 and WWER-1000 reactors have been solved by the MARIKO code, based on the method of characteristics. The reference transport theory solutions include assembly-wise and pin-wise power distributions. Homogenized two-group diffusion parameters and discontinuity factors have been calculated by MARIKO for each assembly type both for the whole assembly and for each cell in the smallest sector of symmetry, using the B1 method for calculation of the critical spectrum. Accurate albedo-type boundary conditions have been calculated by MARIKO for the core-reflector and core-absorber boundaries, both for each outer assembly face and for each outer cell face. Comparison with the reference solutions of the two-group nodal diffusion code SPPS-1.6 and the few-group fine-mesh diffusion codes HEX2DA and HEX2DB are presented (Authors)

  6. Interim results of the sixth three-dimensional AER dynamic benchmark problem calculation. Solution of problem with DYN3D and RELAP5-3D codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hadek, J.; Kral, P.; Macek, J.

    2001-01-01

    The paper gives a brief survey of the 6 th three-dimensional AER dynamic benchmark calculation results received with the codes DYN3D and RELAPS-3D at NRI Rez. This benchmark was defined at the 10 th AER Symposium. Its initiating event is a double ended break in the steam line of steam generator No. I in a WWER-440/213 plant at the end of the first fuel cycle and in hot full power conditions. Stationary and burnup calculations as well as tuning of initial state before the transient were performed with the code DYN3D. Transient calculations were made with the system code RELAPS-3D.The KASSETA library was used for the generation of reactor core neutronic parameters. The detailed six loops model of NPP Dukovany was adopted for the 6 th AER dynamic benchmark purposes. The RELAPS-3D full core neutronic model was connected with seven coolant channels thermal-hydraulic model of the core (Authors)

  7. Computer code HYDRO-ACE for analyzing thermo-hydraulic phenomena in the BWR core

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abe, Kiyoharu; Naito, Yoshitaka

    1979-10-01

    A computer code HYDRO-ACE has been developed for analyzing thermo-hydraulic phenomena in the BWR core under forced or natural circulation of cooling water. The code is composed of two main calculation routines for single channels such as riser, separator, and downcommer and multiple channels such as the reactor core with a heated zone. Functionally the code is divided into many subroutines to be connected straightforwardly, and so that the user can choose a given course freely by simply arranging the subroutines. In the program, void fraction is calculated by Maurer's method, two-phase frictional pressure drop by Maltinelli-Nelson's, and critical heat flux ratio by Hench-Levy's. The coolant flow distributions in the JPDR-II core calculated by the code are in good agreement with those measured. (author)

  8. Heat-transfer analysis of the existing HEU and proposed LEU cores of Pakistan research reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khan, L.A.; Nabbi, R.

    1987-02-01

    In connection with conversion of Pakistan Research Reactor (PARR) from the use of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) fuel to the use of Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) fuel, steady-state thermal hydraulic analysis of both existing HEU and proposed LEU cores has been carried out. Keeping in mind the possibility of power upgrading, the performance of proposed LEU core, under 10 MW operating conditions, has also been evaluated. Computer code HEATHYD has been used for this purpose. In order to verify the reliability of the code, IAEA benchmark 2 MW reactor was analyzed. The cooling parameters evaluated include: coolant velocity, critical velocity, pressure drop, temperature distribution in the core, heat fluxes at onset of nucleate boiling, flow instability and burnout and corresponding safety margins. From the results of the study it can be concluded that the conversion of the core to LEU fuel will result in higher safety margins, as compared to existing HEU core, mainly because the increased number of fuel plates in the proposed design will reduce the average heat flux significantly. Anyhow upgrading of the reactor power to 10 MW will need the flow rate to be adjusted between 850 to 900 m 3 /hr, to achieve reasonable safety margins, at least, comparable with the existing HEU core. (orig.)

  9. WIPP Benchmark calculations with the large strain SPECTROM codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Callahan, G.D.; DeVries, K.L.

    1995-08-01

    This report provides calculational results from the updated Lagrangian structural finite-element programs SPECTROM-32 and SPECTROM-333 for the purpose of qualifying these codes to perform analyses of structural situations in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Results are presented for the Second WIPP Benchmark (Benchmark II) Problems and for a simplified heated room problem used in a parallel design calculation study. The Benchmark II problems consist of an isothermal room problem and a heated room problem. The stratigraphy involves 27 distinct geologic layers including ten clay seams of which four are modeled as frictionless sliding interfaces. The analyses of the Benchmark II problems consider a 10-year simulation period. The evaluation of nine structural codes used in the Benchmark II problems shows that inclusion of finite-strain effects is not as significant as observed for the simplified heated room problem, and a variety of finite-strain and small-strain formulations produced similar results. The simplified heated room problem provides stratigraphic complexity equivalent to the Benchmark II problems but neglects sliding along the clay seams. The simplified heated problem does, however, provide a calculational check case where the small strain-formulation produced room closures about 20 percent greater than those obtained using finite-strain formulations. A discussion is given of each of the solved problems, and the computational results are compared with available published results. In general, the results of the two SPECTROM large strain codes compare favorably with results from other codes used to solve the problems

  10. Benchmark selection

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hougaard, Jens Leth; Tvede, Mich

    2002-01-01

    Within a production theoretic framework, this paper considers an axiomatic approach to benchmark selection. It is shown that two simple and weak axioms; efficiency and comprehensive monotonicity characterize a natural family of benchmarks which typically becomes unique. Further axioms are added...... in order to obtain a unique selection...

  11. A Privacy-Preserving Platform for User-Centric Quantitative Benchmarking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herrmann, Dominik; Scheuer, Florian; Feustel, Philipp; Nowey, Thomas; Federrath, Hannes

    We propose a centralised platform for quantitative benchmarking of key performance indicators (KPI) among mutually distrustful organisations. Our platform offers users the opportunity to request an ad-hoc benchmarking for a specific KPI within a peer group of their choice. Architecture and protocol are designed to provide anonymity to its users and to hide the sensitive KPI values from other clients and the central server. To this end, we integrate user-centric peer group formation, exchangeable secure multi-party computation protocols, short-lived ephemeral key pairs as pseudonyms, and attribute certificates. We show by empirical evaluation of a prototype that the performance is acceptable for reasonably sized peer groups.

  12. IC3 Internet and Computing Core Certification Global Standard 4 study guide

    CERN Document Server

    Rusen, Ciprian Adrian

    2015-01-01

    Hands-on IC3 prep, with expert instruction and loads of tools IC3: Internet and Computing Core Certification Global Standard 4 Study Guide is the ideal all-in-one resource for those preparing to take the exam for the internationally-recognized IT computing fundamentals credential. Designed to help candidates pinpoint weak areas while there's still time to brush up, this book provides one hundred percent coverage of the exam objectives for all three modules of the IC3-GS4 exam. Readers will find clear, concise information, hands-on examples, and self-paced exercises that demonstrate how to per

  13. Piping benchmark problems for the General Electric Advanced Boiling Water Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bezler, P.; DeGrassi, G.; Braverman, J.; Wang, Y.K.

    1993-08-01

    To satisfy the need for verification of the computer programs and modeling techniques that will be used to perform the final piping analyses for an advanced boiling water reactor standard design, three benchmark problems were developed. The problems are representative piping systems subjected to representative dynamic loads with solutions developed using the methods being proposed for analysis for the advanced reactor standard design. It will be required that the combined license holders demonstrate that their solutions to these problems are in agreement with the benchmark problem set

  14. Benchmarking school nursing practice: the North West Regional Benchmarking Group

    OpenAIRE

    Littler, Nadine; Mullen, Margaret; Beckett, Helen; Freshney, Alice; Pinder, Lynn

    2016-01-01

    It is essential that the quality of care is reviewed regularly through robust processes such as benchmarking to ensure all outcomes and resources are evidence-based so that children and young people’s needs are met effectively. This article provides an example of the use of benchmarking in school nursing practice. Benchmarking has been defined as a process for finding, adapting and applying best practices (Camp, 1994). This concept was first adopted in the 1970s ‘from industry where it was us...

  15. HyspIRI Low Latency Concept and Benchmarks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mandl, Dan

    2010-01-01

    Topics include HyspIRI low latency data ops concept, HyspIRI data flow, ongoing efforts, experiment with Web Coverage Processing Service (WCPS) approach to injecting new algorithms into SensorWeb, low fidelity HyspIRI IPM testbed, compute cloud testbed, open cloud testbed environment, Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF) and OCC collaboration with Starlight, delay tolerant network (DTN) protocol benchmarking, and EO-1 configuration for preliminary DTN prototype.

  16. CORE SIM: A multi-purpose neutronic tool for research and education

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Demaziere, Christophe

    2011-01-01

    Highlights: → A highly flexible neutronic core simulator was developed. → The tool estimates the static neutron flux, the eigenmodes, and the neutron noise. → The tool was successfully validated via many benchmark cases. → The tool can be used for research and education. → The tool is freely available. - Abstract: This paper deals with the development, validation, and demonstration of an innovative neutronic tool. The novelty of the tool resides in its versatility, since many different systems can be investigated and different kinds of calculations can be performed. More precisely, both critical systems and subcritical systems with an external neutron source can be studied, and static and dynamic cases in the frequency domain (i.e. for stationary fluctuations) can be considered. In addition, the tool has the ability to determine the different eigenfunctions of any nuclear core. For each situation, the static neutron flux, the different eigenmodes and eigenvalues, the first-order neutron noise, and their adjoint functions are estimated, as well as the effective multiplication factor of the system. The main advantages of the tool, which is entirely MatLab based, lie with the robustness of the implemented numerical algorithms, its high portability between different computer platforms and operative systems, and finally its ease of use since no input deck writing is required. The present version of the tool, which is based on two-group diffusion theory, is mostly suited to investigate thermal systems. The definition of both the static and dynamic core configurations directly from the static macroscopic cross-sections and their fluctuations, respectively, makes the tool particularly well suited for research and education. Some of the many benchmark cases used to validate the tool are briefly reported. The static and dynamic capabilities of the tool are also demonstrated for the following configurations: a vibrating control rod, a perturbation traveling upwards

  17. How to benchmark methods for structure-based virtual screening of large compound libraries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christofferson, Andrew J; Huang, Niu

    2012-01-01

    Structure-based virtual screening is a useful computational technique for ligand discovery. To systematically evaluate different docking approaches, it is important to have a consistent benchmarking protocol that is both relevant and unbiased. Here, we describe the designing of a benchmarking data set for docking screen assessment, a standard docking screening process, and the analysis and presentation of the enrichment of annotated ligands among a background decoy database.

  18. Benchmark physics tests in the metallic-fuelled assembly ZPPR-15

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McFarlane, H.F.; Brumbach, S.B.; Carpenter, S.G.; Collins, P.J.

    1987-01-01

    In the last two years a shift in emphasis to inherent safety and economic competitiveness has led to a resurgence in US interest in metallic-alloy fuels for LMRs. Argonne National Laboratory initiated an extensive testing program for metallic-fuelled LMR technology that has included benchmark physics as one component. The tests done in the ZPPR-15 Program produced the first physics results in over 20 years for a metal-composition LMR core

  19. Availability of Neutronics Benchmarks in the ICSBEP and IRPhEP Handbooks for Computational Tools Testing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bess, John D.; Briggs, J. Blair; Ivanova, Tatiana; Hill, Ian; Gulliford, Jim

    2017-02-01

    In the past several decades, numerous experiments have been performed worldwide to support reactor operations, measurements, design, and nuclear safety. Those experiments represent an extensive international investment in infrastructure, expertise, and cost, representing significantly valuable resources of data supporting past, current, and future research activities. Those valuable assets represent the basis for recording, development, and validation of our nuclear methods and integral nuclear data [1]. The loss of these experimental data, which has occurred all too much in the recent years, is tragic. The high cost to repeat many of these measurements can be prohibitive, if not impossible, to surmount. Two international projects were developed, and are under the direction of the Organisation for Co-operation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD NEA) to address the challenges of not just data preservation, but evaluation of the data to determine its merit for modern and future use. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) was established to identify and verify comprehensive critical benchmark data sets; evaluate the data, including quantification of biases and uncertainties; compile the data and calculations in a standardized format; and formally document the effort into a single source of verified benchmark data [2]. Similarly, the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) was established to preserve integral reactor physics experimental data, including separate or special effects data for nuclear energy and technology applications [3]. Annually, contributors from around the world continue to collaborate in the evaluation and review of select benchmark experiments for preservation and dissemination. The extensively peer-reviewed integral benchmark data can then be utilized to support nuclear design and safety analysts to validate the analytical tools, methods, and data needed for next

  20. EA-MC Neutronic Calculations on IAEA ADS Benchmark 3.2

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dahlfors, Marcus [Uppsala Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Radiation Sciences; Kadi, Yacine [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland). Emerging Energy Technologies

    2006-01-15

    The neutronics and the transmutation properties of the IAEA ADS benchmark 3.2 setup, the 'Yalina' experiment or ISTC project B-70, have been studied through an extensive amount of 3-D Monte Carlo calculations at CERN. The simulations were performed with the state-of-the-art computer code package EA-MC, developed at CERN. The calculational approach is outlined and the results are presented in accordance with the guidelines given in the benchmark description. A variety of experimental conditions and parameters are examined; three different fuel rod configurations and three types of neutron sources are applied to the system. Reactivity change effects introduced by removal of fuel rods in both central and peripheral positions are also computed. Irradiation samples located in a total of 8 geometrical positions are examined. Calculations of capture reaction rates in {sup 129}I, {sup 237}Np and {sup 243}Am samples and of fission reaction rates in {sup 235}U, {sup 237}Np and {sup 243}Am samples are presented. Simulated neutron flux densities and energy spectra as well as spectral indices inside experimental channels are also given according to benchmark specifications. Two different nuclear data libraries, JAR-95 and JENDL-3.2, are applied for the calculations.