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Sample records for monte-carlo transport code

  1. The MC21 Monte Carlo Transport Code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sutton TM; Donovan TJ; Trumbull TH; Dobreff PS; Caro E; Griesheimer DP; Tyburski LJ; Carpenter DC; Joo H

    2007-01-01

    MC21 is a new Monte Carlo neutron and photon transport code currently under joint development at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory and the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. MC21 is the Monte Carlo transport kernel of the broader Common Monte Carlo Design Tool (CMCDT), which is also currently under development. The vision for CMCDT is to provide an automated, computer-aided modeling and post-processing environment integrated with a Monte Carlo solver that is optimized for reactor analysis. CMCDT represents a strategy to push the Monte Carlo method beyond its traditional role as a benchmarking tool or ''tool of last resort'' and into a dominant design role. This paper describes various aspects of the code, including the neutron physics and nuclear data treatments, the geometry representation, and the tally and depletion capabilities

  2. Optix: A Monte Carlo scintillation light transport code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Safari, M.J., E-mail: mjsafari@aut.ac.ir [Department of Energy Engineering and Physics, Amir Kabir University of Technology, PO Box 15875-4413, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Afarideh, H. [Department of Energy Engineering and Physics, Amir Kabir University of Technology, PO Box 15875-4413, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Ghal-Eh, N. [School of Physics, Damghan University, PO Box 36716-41167, Damghan (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Davani, F. Abbasi [Nuclear Engineering Department, Shahid Beheshti University, PO Box 1983963113, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

    2014-02-11

    The paper reports on the capabilities of Monte Carlo scintillation light transport code Optix, which is an extended version of previously introduced code Optics. Optix provides the user a variety of both numerical and graphical outputs with a very simple and user-friendly input structure. A benchmarking strategy has been adopted based on the comparison with experimental results, semi-analytical solutions, and other Monte Carlo simulation codes to verify various aspects of the developed code. Besides, some extensive comparisons have been made against the tracking abilities of general-purpose MCNPX and FLUKA codes. The presented benchmark results for the Optix code exhibit promising agreements. -- Highlights: • Monte Carlo simulation of scintillation light transport in 3D geometry. • Evaluation of angular distribution of detected photons. • Benchmark studies to check the accuracy of Monte Carlo simulations.

  3. MORSE Monte Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cramer, S.N.

    1984-01-01

    The MORSE code is a large general-use multigroup Monte Carlo code system. Although no claims can be made regarding its superiority in either theoretical details or Monte Carlo techniques, MORSE has been, since its inception at ORNL in the late 1960s, the most widely used Monte Carlo radiation transport code. The principal reason for this popularity is that MORSE is relatively easy to use, independent of any installation or distribution center, and it can be easily customized to fit almost any specific need. Features of the MORSE code are described

  4. Parallel processing Monte Carlo radiation transport codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McKinney, G.W.

    1994-01-01

    Issues related to distributed-memory multiprocessing as applied to Monte Carlo radiation transport are discussed. Measurements of communication overhead are presented for the radiation transport code MCNP which employs the communication software package PVM, and average efficiency curves are provided for a homogeneous virtual machine

  5. TRIPOLI-4: Monte Carlo transport code functionalities and applications; TRIPOLI-4: code de transport Monte Carlo fonctionnalites et applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Both, J P; Lee, Y K; Mazzolo, A; Peneliau, Y; Petit, O; Roesslinger, B [CEA Saclay, Dir. de l' Energie Nucleaire (DEN), Service d' Etudes de Reacteurs et de Modelisation Avancee, 91 - Gif sur Yvette (France)

    2003-07-01

    Tripoli-4 is a three dimensional calculations code using the Monte Carlo method to simulate the transport of neutrons, photons, electrons and positrons. This code is used in four application fields: the protection studies, the criticality studies, the core studies and the instrumentation studies. Geometry, cross sections, description of sources, principle. (N.C.)

  6. A New Monte Carlo Neutron Transport Code at UNIST

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Hyunsuk; Kong, Chidong; Lee, Deokjung

    2014-01-01

    Monte Carlo neutron transport code named MCS is under development at UNIST for the advanced reactor design and research purpose. This MC code can be used for fixed source calculation and criticality calculation. Continuous energy neutron cross section data and multi-group cross section data can be used for the MC calculation. This paper presents the overview of developed MC code and its calculation results. The real time fixed source calculation ability is also tested in this paper. The calculation results show good agreement with commercial code and experiment. A new Monte Carlo neutron transport code is being developed at UNIST. The MC codes are tested with several benchmark problems: ICSBEP, VENUS-2, and Hoogenboom-Martin benchmark. These benchmarks covers pin geometry to 3-dimensional whole core, and results shows good agreement with reference results

  7. Study on MPI/OpenMP hybrid parallelism for Monte Carlo neutron transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liang Jingang; Xu Qi; Wang Kan; Liu Shiwen

    2013-01-01

    Parallel programming with mixed mode of messages-passing and shared-memory has several advantages when used in Monte Carlo neutron transport code, such as fitting hardware of distributed-shared clusters, economizing memory demand of Monte Carlo transport, improving parallel performance, and so on. MPI/OpenMP hybrid parallelism was implemented based on a one dimension Monte Carlo neutron transport code. Some critical factors affecting the parallel performance were analyzed and solutions were proposed for several problems such as contention access, lock contention and false sharing. After optimization the code was tested finally. It is shown that the hybrid parallel code can reach good performance just as pure MPI parallel program, while it saves a lot of memory usage at the same time. Therefore hybrid parallel is efficient for achieving large-scale parallel of Monte Carlo neutron transport. (authors)

  8. Monte Carlo codes and Monte Carlo simulator program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Higuchi, Kenji; Asai, Kiyoshi; Suganuma, Masayuki.

    1990-03-01

    Four typical Monte Carlo codes KENO-IV, MORSE, MCNP and VIM have been vectorized on VP-100 at Computing Center, JAERI. The problems in vector processing of Monte Carlo codes on vector processors have become clear through the work. As the result, it is recognized that these are difficulties to obtain good performance in vector processing of Monte Carlo codes. A Monte Carlo computing machine, which processes the Monte Carlo codes with high performances is being developed at our Computing Center since 1987. The concept of Monte Carlo computing machine and its performance have been investigated and estimated by using a software simulator. In this report the problems in vectorization of Monte Carlo codes, Monte Carlo pipelines proposed to mitigate these difficulties and the results of the performance estimation of the Monte Carlo computing machine by the simulator are described. (author)

  9. A 3D Monte Carlo code for plasma transport in island divertors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Feng, Y.; Sardei, F.; Kisslinger, J.; Grigull, P.

    1997-01-01

    A fully 3D self-consistent Monte Carlo code EMC3 (edge Monte Carlo 3D) for modelling the plasma transport in island divertors has been developed. In a first step, the code solves a simplified version of the 3D time-independent plasma fluid equations. Coupled to the neutral transport code EIRENE, the EMC3 code has been used to study the particle, energy and neutral transport in W7-AS island divertor configurations. First results are compared with data from different diagnostics (Langmuir probes, H α cameras and thermography). (orig.)

  10. The OpenMC Monte Carlo particle transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Romano, Paul K.; Forget, Benoit

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: ► An open source Monte Carlo particle transport code, OpenMC, has been developed. ► Solid geometry and continuous-energy physics allow high-fidelity simulations. ► Development has focused on high performance and modern I/O techniques. ► OpenMC is capable of scaling up to hundreds of thousands of processors. ► Results on a variety of benchmark problems agree with MCNP5. -- Abstract: A new Monte Carlo code called OpenMC is currently under development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a tool for simulation on high-performance computing platforms. Given that many legacy codes do not scale well on existing and future parallel computer architectures, OpenMC has been developed from scratch with a focus on high performance scalable algorithms as well as modern software design practices. The present work describes the methods used in the OpenMC code and demonstrates the performance and accuracy of the code on a variety of problems.

  11. PyMercury: Interactive Python for the Mercury Monte Carlo Particle Transport Code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iandola, F.N.; O'Brien, M.J.; Procassini, R.J.

    2010-01-01

    Monte Carlo particle transport applications are often written in low-level languages (C/C++) for optimal performance on clusters and supercomputers. However, this development approach often sacrifices straightforward usability and testing in the interest of fast application performance. To improve usability, some high-performance computing applications employ mixed-language programming with high-level and low-level languages. In this study, we consider the benefits of incorporating an interactive Python interface into a Monte Carlo application. With PyMercury, a new Python extension to the Mercury general-purpose Monte Carlo particle transport code, we improve application usability without diminishing performance. In two case studies, we illustrate how PyMercury improves usability and simplifies testing and validation in a Monte Carlo application. In short, PyMercury demonstrates the value of interactive Python for Monte Carlo particle transport applications. In the future, we expect interactive Python to play an increasingly significant role in Monte Carlo usage and testing.

  12. grmonty: A MONTE CARLO CODE FOR RELATIVISTIC RADIATIVE TRANSPORT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dolence, Joshua C.; Gammie, Charles F.; Leung, Po Kin; Moscibrodzka, Monika

    2009-01-01

    We describe a Monte Carlo radiative transport code intended for calculating spectra of hot, optically thin plasmas in full general relativity. The version we describe here is designed to model hot accretion flows in the Kerr metric and therefore incorporates synchrotron emission and absorption, and Compton scattering. The code can be readily generalized, however, to account for other radiative processes and an arbitrary spacetime. We describe a suite of test problems, and demonstrate the expected N -1/2 convergence rate, where N is the number of Monte Carlo samples. Finally, we illustrate the capabilities of the code with a model calculation, a spectrum of the slowly accreting black hole Sgr A* based on data provided by a numerical general relativistic MHD model of the accreting plasma.

  13. A vectorized Monte Carlo code for modeling photon transport in SPECT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, M.F.; Floyd, C.E. Jr.; Jaszczak, R.J.

    1993-01-01

    A vectorized Monte Carlo computer code has been developed for modeling photon transport in single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). The code models photon transport in a uniform attenuating region and photon detection by a gamma camera. It is adapted from a history-based Monte Carlo code in which photon history data are stored in scalar variables and photon histories are computed sequentially. The vectorized code is written in FORTRAN77 and uses an event-based algorithm in which photon history data are stored in arrays and photon history computations are performed within DO loops. The indices of the DO loops range over the number of photon histories, and these loops may take advantage of the vector processing unit of our Stellar GS1000 computer for pipelined computations. Without the use of the vector processor the event-based code is faster than the history-based code because of numerical optimization performed during conversion to the event-based algorithm. When only the detection of unscattered photons is modeled, the event-based code executes 5.1 times faster with the use of the vector processor than without; when the detection of scattered and unscattered photons is modeled the speed increase is a factor of 2.9. Vectorization is a valuable way to increase the performance of Monte Carlo code for modeling photon transport in SPECT

  14. TRIPOLI-4: Monte Carlo transport code functionalities and applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Both, J.P.; Lee, Y.K.; Mazzolo, A.; Peneliau, Y.; Petit, O.; Roesslinger, B.

    2003-01-01

    Tripoli-4 is a three dimensional calculations code using the Monte Carlo method to simulate the transport of neutrons, photons, electrons and positrons. This code is used in four application fields: the protection studies, the criticality studies, the core studies and the instrumentation studies. Geometry, cross sections, description of sources, principle. (N.C.)

  15. Present status of transport code development based on Monte Carlo method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakagawa, Masayuki

    1985-01-01

    The present status of development in Monte Carlo code is briefly reviewed. The main items are the followings; Application fields, Methods used in Monte Carlo code (geometry spectification, nuclear data, estimator and variance reduction technique) and unfinished works, Typical Monte Carlo codes and Merits of continuous energy Monte Carlo code. (author)

  16. Igo - A Monte Carlo Code For Radiotherapy Planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goldstein, M.; Regev, D.

    1999-01-01

    The goal of radiation therapy is to deliver a lethal dose to the tumor, while minimizing the dose to normal tissues and vital organs. To carry out this task, it is critical to calculate correctly the 3-D dose delivered. Monte Carlo transport methods (especially the Adjoint Monte Carlo have the potential to provide more accurate predictions of the 3-D dose the currently used methods. IG0 is a Monte Carlo code derived from the general Monte Carlo Program - MCNP, tailored specifically for calculating the effects of radiation therapy. This paper describes the IG0 transport code, the PIG0 interface and some preliminary results

  17. A computer code package for electron transport Monte Carlo simulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Popescu, Lucretiu M.

    1999-01-01

    A computer code package was developed for solving various electron transport problems by Monte Carlo simulation. It is based on condensed history Monte Carlo algorithm. In order to get reliable results over wide ranges of electron energies and target atomic numbers, specific techniques of electron transport were implemented such as: Moliere multiscatter angular distributions, Blunck-Leisegang multiscatter energy distribution, sampling of electron-electron and Bremsstrahlung individual interactions. Path-length and lateral displacement corrections algorithms and the module for computing collision, radiative and total restricted stopping powers and ranges of electrons are also included. Comparisons of simulation results with experimental measurements are finally presented. (author)

  18. Memory bottlenecks and memory contention in multi-core Monte Carlo transport codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tramm, J.R.; Siegel, A.R.

    2013-01-01

    The simulation of whole nuclear cores through the use of Monte Carlo codes requires an impracticably long time-to-solution. We have extracted a kernel that executes only the most computationally expensive steps of the Monte Carlo particle transport algorithm - the calculation of macroscopic cross sections - in an effort to expose bottlenecks within multi-core, shared memory architectures. (authors)

  19. Progress on RMC: a Monte Carlo neutron transport code for reactor analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Kan; Li, Zeguang; She, Ding; Liu, Yuxuan; Xu, Qi; Shen, Huayun; Yu, Ganglin

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents a new 3-D Monte Carlo neutron transport code named RMC (Reactor Monte Carlo code), specifically intended for reactor physics analysis. This code is being developed by Department of Engineering Physics in Tsinghua University and written in C++ and Fortran 90 language with the latest version of RMC 2.5.0. The RMC code uses the method known as the delta-tracking method to simulate neutron transport, the advantages of which include fast simulation in complex geometries and relatively simple handling of complicated geometrical objects. Some other techniques such as computational-expense oriented method and hash-table method have been developed and implemented in RMC to speedup the calculation. To meet the requirements of reactor analysis, the RMC code has the calculational functions including criticality calculation, burnup calculation and also kinetics simulation. In this paper, comparison calculations of criticality problems, burnup problems and transient problems are carried out using RMC code and other Monte Carlo codes, and the results show that RMC performs quite well in these kinds of problems. Based on MPI, RMC succeeds in parallel computation and represents a high speed-up. This code is still under intensive development and the further work directions are mentioned at the end of this paper. (author)

  20. Parallel processing of Monte Carlo code MCNP for particle transport problem

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Higuchi, Kenji; Kawasaki, Takuji

    1996-06-01

    It is possible to vectorize or parallelize Monte Carlo codes (MC code) for photon and neutron transport problem, making use of independency of the calculation for each particle. Applicability of existing MC code to parallel processing is mentioned. As for parallel computer, we have used both vector-parallel processor and scalar-parallel processor in performance evaluation. We have made (i) vector-parallel processing of MCNP code on Monte Carlo machine Monte-4 with four vector processors, (ii) parallel processing on Paragon XP/S with 256 processors. In this report we describe the methodology and results for parallel processing on two types of parallel or distributed memory computers. In addition, we mention the evaluation of parallel programming environments for parallel computers used in the present work as a part of the work developing STA (Seamless Thinking Aid) Basic Software. (author)

  1. Development of general-purpose particle and heavy ion transport monte carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iwase, Hiroshi; Nakamura, Takashi; Niita, Koji

    2002-01-01

    The high-energy particle transport code NMTC/JAM, which has been developed at JAERI, was improved for the high-energy heavy ion transport calculation by incorporating the JQMD code, the SPAR code and the Shen formula. The new NMTC/JAM named PHITS (Particle and Heavy-Ion Transport code System) is the first general-purpose heavy ion transport Monte Carlo code over the incident energies from several MeV/nucleon to several GeV/nucleon. (author)

  2. Verification of Monte Carlo transport codes by activation experiments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chetvertkova, Vera

    2012-12-18

    With the increasing energies and intensities of heavy-ion accelerator facilities, the problem of an excessive activation of the accelerator components caused by beam losses becomes more and more important. Numerical experiments using Monte Carlo transport codes are performed in order to assess the levels of activation. The heavy-ion versions of the codes were released approximately a decade ago, therefore the verification is needed to be sure that they give reasonable results. Present work is focused on obtaining the experimental data on activation of the targets by heavy-ion beams. Several experiments were performed at GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung. The interaction of nitrogen, argon and uranium beams with aluminum targets, as well as interaction of nitrogen and argon beams with copper targets was studied. After the irradiation of the targets by different ion beams from the SIS18 synchrotron at GSI, the γ-spectroscopy analysis was done: the γ-spectra of the residual activity were measured, the radioactive nuclides were identified, their amount and depth distribution were detected. The obtained experimental results were compared with the results of the Monte Carlo simulations using FLUKA, MARS and SHIELD. The discrepancies and agreements between experiment and simulations are pointed out. The origin of discrepancies is discussed. Obtained results allow for a better verification of the Monte Carlo transport codes, and also provide information for their further development. The necessity of the activation studies for accelerator applications is discussed. The limits of applicability of the heavy-ion beam-loss criteria were studied using the FLUKA code. FLUKA-simulations were done to determine the most preferable from the radiation protection point of view materials for use in accelerator components.

  3. Specialized Monte Carlo codes versus general-purpose Monte Carlo codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moskvin, Vadim; DesRosiers, Colleen; Papiez, Lech; Lu, Xiaoyi

    2002-01-01

    The possibilities of Monte Carlo modeling for dose calculations and optimization treatment are quite limited in radiation oncology applications. The main reason is that the Monte Carlo technique for dose calculations is time consuming while treatment planning may require hundreds of possible cases of dose simulations to be evaluated for dose optimization. The second reason is that general-purpose codes widely used in practice, require an experienced user to customize them for calculations. This paper discusses the concept of Monte Carlo code design that can avoid the main problems that are preventing wide spread use of this simulation technique in medical physics. (authors)

  4. Monte Carlo electron/photon transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mack, J.M.; Morel, J.E.; Hughes, H.G.

    1985-01-01

    A review of nonplasma coupled electron/photon transport using Monte Carlo method is presented. Remarks are mainly restricted to linerarized formalisms at electron energies from 1 keV to 1000 MeV. Applications involving pulse-height estimation, transport in external magnetic fields, and optical Cerenkov production are discussed to underscore the importance of this branch of computational physics. Advances in electron multigroup cross-section generation is reported, and its impact on future code development assessed. Progress toward the transformation of MCNP into a generalized neutral/charged-particle Monte Carlo code is described. 48 refs

  5. Successful vectorization - reactor physics Monte Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martin, W.R.

    1989-01-01

    Most particle transport Monte Carlo codes in use today are based on the ''history-based'' algorithm, wherein one particle history at a time is simulated. Unfortunately, the ''history-based'' approach (present in all Monte Carlo codes until recent years) is inherently scalar and cannot be vectorized. In particular, the history-based algorithm cannot take advantage of vector architectures, which characterize the largest and fastest computers at the current time, vector supercomputers such as the Cray X/MP or IBM 3090/600. However, substantial progress has been made in recent years in developing and implementing a vectorized Monte Carlo algorithm. This algorithm follows portions of many particle histories at the same time and forms the basis for all successful vectorized Monte Carlo codes that are in use today. This paper describes the basic vectorized algorithm along with descriptions of several variations that have been developed by different researchers for specific applications. These applications have been mainly in the areas of neutron transport in nuclear reactor and shielding analysis and photon transport in fusion plasmas. The relative merits of the various approach schemes will be discussed and the present status of known vectorization efforts will be summarized along with available timing results, including results from the successful vectorization of 3-D general geometry, continuous energy Monte Carlo. (orig.)

  6. The vector and parallel processing of MORSE code on Monte Carlo Machine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hasegawa, Yukihiro; Higuchi, Kenji.

    1995-11-01

    Multi-group Monte Carlo Code for particle transport, MORSE is modified for high performance computing on Monte Carlo Machine Monte-4. The method and the results are described. Monte-4 was specially developed to realize high performance computing of Monte Carlo codes for particle transport, which have been difficult to obtain high performance in vector processing on conventional vector processors. Monte-4 has four vector processor units with the special hardware called Monte Carlo pipelines. The vectorization and parallelization of MORSE code and the performance evaluation on Monte-4 are described. (author)

  7. Verification of Monte Carlo transport codes by activation experiments

    OpenAIRE

    Chetvertkova, Vera

    2013-01-01

    With the increasing energies and intensities of heavy-ion accelerator facilities, the problem of an excessive activation of the accelerator components caused by beam losses becomes more and more important. Numerical experiments using Monte Carlo transport codes are performed in order to assess the levels of activation. The heavy-ion versions of the codes were released approximately a decade ago, therefore the verification is needed to be sure that they give reasonable results. Present work is...

  8. Acceleration of a Monte Carlo radiation transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hochstedler, R.D.; Smith, L.M.

    1996-01-01

    Execution time for the Integrated TIGER Series (ITS) Monte Carlo radiation transport code has been reduced by careful re-coding of computationally intensive subroutines. Three test cases for the TIGER (1-D slab geometry), CYLTRAN (2-D cylindrical geometry), and ACCEPT (3-D arbitrary geometry) codes were identified and used to benchmark and profile program execution. Based upon these results, sixteen top time-consuming subroutines were examined and nine of them modified to accelerate computations with equivalent numerical output to the original. The results obtained via this study indicate that speedup factors of 1.90 for the TIGER code, 1.67 for the CYLTRAN code, and 1.11 for the ACCEPT code are achievable. copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics

  9. Automatic modeling for the monte carlo transport TRIPOLI code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Junjun; Zeng Qin; Wu Yican; Wang Guozhong; FDS Team

    2010-01-01

    TRIPOLI, developed by CEA, France, is Monte Carlo particle transport simulation code. It has been widely applied to nuclear physics, shielding design, evaluation of nuclear safety. However, it is time-consuming and error-prone to manually describe the TRIPOLI input file. This paper implemented bi-directional conversion between CAD model and TRIPOLI model. Its feasibility and efficiency have been demonstrated by several benchmarking examples. (authors)

  10. Design of tallying function for general purpose Monte Carlo particle transport code JMCT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shangguan Danhua; Li Gang; Deng Li; Zhang Baoyin

    2013-01-01

    A new postponed accumulation algorithm was proposed. Based on JCOGIN (J combinatorial geometry Monte Carlo transport infrastructure) framework and the postponed accumulation algorithm, the tallying function of the general purpose Monte Carlo neutron-photon transport code JMCT was improved markedly. JMCT gets a higher tallying efficiency than MCNP 4C by 28% for simple geometry model, and JMCT is faster than MCNP 4C by two orders of magnitude for complicated repeated structure model. The available ability of tallying function for JMCT makes firm foundation for reactor analysis and multi-step burnup calculation. (authors)

  11. Monte Carlo codes use in neutron therapy; Application de codes Monte Carlo en neutrontherapie

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Paquis, P.; Mokhtari, F.; Karamanoukian, D. [Hopital Pasteur, 06 - Nice (France); Pignol, J.P. [Hopital du Hasenrain, 68 - Mulhouse (France); Cuendet, P. [CEA Centre d' Etudes de Saclay, 91 - Gif-sur-Yvette (France). Direction des Reacteurs Nucleaires; Fares, G.; Hachem, A. [Faculte des Sciences, 06 - Nice (France); Iborra, N. [Centre Antoine-Lacassagne, 06 - Nice (France)

    1998-04-01

    Monte Carlo calculation codes allow to study accurately all the parameters relevant to radiation effects, like the dose deposition or the type of microscopic interactions, through one by one particle transport simulation. These features are very useful for neutron irradiations, from device development up to dosimetry. This paper illustrates some applications of these codes in Neutron Capture Therapy and Neutron Capture Enhancement of fast neutrons irradiations. (authors)

  12. Guideline of Monte Carlo calculation. Neutron/gamma ray transport simulation by Monte Carlo method

    CERN Document Server

    2002-01-01

    This report condenses basic theories and advanced applications of neutron/gamma ray transport calculations in many fields of nuclear energy research. Chapters 1 through 5 treat historical progress of Monte Carlo methods, general issues of variance reduction technique, cross section libraries used in continuous energy Monte Carlo codes. In chapter 6, the following issues are discussed: fusion benchmark experiments, design of ITER, experiment analyses of fast critical assembly, core analyses of JMTR, simulation of pulsed neutron experiment, core analyses of HTTR, duct streaming calculations, bulk shielding calculations, neutron/gamma ray transport calculations of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Chapters 8 and 9 treat function enhancements of MCNP and MVP codes, and a parallel processing of Monte Carlo calculation, respectively. An important references are attached at the end of this report.

  13. Tripoli-4, a three-dimensional poly-kinetic particle transport Monte-Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Both, J.P.; Lee, Y.K.; Mazzolo, A.; Peneliau, Y.; Petit, O.; Roesslinger, B.; Soldevila, M.

    2003-01-01

    In this updated of the Monte-Carlo transport code Tripoli-4, we list and describe its current main features. The code computes coupled neutron-photon propagation as well as the electron-photon cascade shower. While providing the user with common biasing techniques, it also implements an automatic weighting scheme. Tripoli-4 enables the user to compute the following physical quantities: a flux, a multiplication factor, a current, a reaction rate, a dose equivalent rate as well as deposit of energy and recoil energies. For each interesting physical quantity, a Monte-Carlo simulation offers different types of estimators. Tripoli-4 has support for execution in parallel mode. Special features and applications are also presented

  14. Tripoli-4, a three-dimensional poly-kinetic particle transport Monte-Carlo code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Both, J P; Lee, Y K; Mazzolo, A; Peneliau, Y; Petit, O; Roesslinger, B; Soldevila, M [CEA Saclay, Dir. de l' Energie Nucleaire (DEN/DM2S/SERMA/LEPP), 91 - Gif sur Yvette (France)

    2003-07-01

    In this updated of the Monte-Carlo transport code Tripoli-4, we list and describe its current main features. The code computes coupled neutron-photon propagation as well as the electron-photon cascade shower. While providing the user with common biasing techniques, it also implements an automatic weighting scheme. Tripoli-4 enables the user to compute the following physical quantities: a flux, a multiplication factor, a current, a reaction rate, a dose equivalent rate as well as deposit of energy and recoil energies. For each interesting physical quantity, a Monte-Carlo simulation offers different types of estimators. Tripoli-4 has support for execution in parallel mode. Special features and applications are also presented.

  15. Monte Carlo code development in Los Alamos

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carter, L.L.; Cashwell, E.D.; Everett, C.J.; Forest, C.A.; Schrandt, R.G.; Taylor, W.M.; Thompson, W.L.; Turner, G.D.

    1974-01-01

    The present status of Monte Carlo code development at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory is discussed. A brief summary is given of several of the most important neutron, photon, and electron transport codes. 17 references. (U.S.)

  16. General-purpose Monte Carlo codes for neutron and photon transport calculations. MVP version 3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagaya, Yasunobu

    2017-01-01

    JAEA has developed a general-purpose neutron/photon transport Monte Carlo code MVP. This paper describes the recent development of the MVP code and reviews the basic features and capabilities. In addition, capabilities implemented in Version 3 are also described. (author)

  17. Systems guide to MCNP (Monte Carlo Neutron and Photon Transport Code)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kirk, B.L.; West, J.T.

    1984-06-01

    The subject of this report is the implementation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Monte Carlo Neutron and Photon Transport Code - Version 3 (MCNP) on the different types of computer systems, especially the IBM MVS system. The report supplements the documentation of the RSIC computer code package CCC-200/MCNP. Details of the procedure to follow in executing MCNP on the IBM computers, either in batch mode or interactive mode, are provided

  18. A Monte Carlo burnup code linking MCNP and REBUS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hanan, N.A.; Olson, A.P.; Pond, R.B.; Matos, J.E.

    1998-01-01

    The REBUS-3 burnup code, used in the anl RERTR Program, is a very general code that uses diffusion theory (DIF3D) to obtain the fluxes required for reactor burnup analyses. Diffusion theory works well for most reactors. However, to include the effects of exact geometry and strong absorbers that are difficult to model using diffusion theory, a Monte Carlo method is required. MCNP, a general-purpose, generalized-geometry, time-dependent, Monte Carlo transport code, is the most widely used Monte Carlo code. This paper presents a linking of the MCNP code and the REBUS burnup code to perform these difficult analyses. The linked code will permit the use of the full capabilities of REBUS which include non-equilibrium and equilibrium burnup analyses. Results of burnup analyses using this new linked code are also presented. (author)

  19. A Monte Carlo burnup code linking MCNP and REBUS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hanan, N. A.

    1998-01-01

    The REBUS-3 burnup code, used in the ANL RERTR Program, is a very general code that uses diffusion theory (DIF3D) to obtain the fluxes required for reactor burnup analyses. Diffusion theory works well for most reactors. However, to include the effects of exact geometry and strong absorbers that are difficult to model using diffusion theory, a Monte Carlo method is required. MCNP, a general-purpose, generalized-geometry, time-dependent, Monte Carlo transport code, is the most widely used Monte Carlo code. This paper presents a linking of the MCNP code and the REBUS burnup code to perform these difficult burnup analyses. The linked code will permit the use of the full capabilities of REBUS which include non-equilibrium and equilibrium burnup analyses. Results of burnup analyses using this new linked code are also presented

  20. KAMCCO, a reactor physics Monte Carlo neutron transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arnecke, G.; Borgwaldt, H.; Brandl, V.; Lalovic, M.

    1976-06-01

    KAMCCO is a 3-dimensional reactor Monte Carlo code for fast neutron physics problems. Two options are available for the solution of 1) the inhomogeneous time-dependent neutron transport equation (census time scheme), and 2) the homogeneous static neutron transport equation (generation cycle scheme). The user defines the desired output, e.g. estimates of reaction rates or neutron flux integrated over specified volumes in phase space and time intervals. Such primary quantities can be arbitrarily combined, also ratios of these quantities can be estimated with their errors. The Monte Carlo techniques are mostly analogue (exceptions: Importance sampling for collision processes, ELP/MELP, Russian roulette and splitting). Estimates are obtained from the collision and track length estimators. Elastic scattering takes into account first order anisotropy in the center of mass system. Inelastic scattering is processed via the evaporation model or via the excitation of discrete levels. For the calculation of cross sections, the energy is treated as a continuous variable. They are computed by a) linear interpolation, b) from optionally Doppler broadened single level Breit-Wigner resonances or c) from probability tables (in the region of statistically distributed resonances). (orig.) [de

  1. Srna - Monte Carlo codes for proton transport simulation in combined and voxelized geometries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ilić Radovan D.

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes new Monte Carlo codes for proton transport simulations in complex geometrical forms and in materials of different composition. The SRNA codes were developed for three dimensional (3D dose distribution calculation in proton therapy and dosimetry. The model of these codes is based on the theory of proton multiple scattering and a simple model of compound nucleus decay. The developed package consists of two codes: SRNA-2KG and SRNA-VOX. The first code simulates proton transport in combined geometry that can be described by planes and second order surfaces. The second one uses the voxelized geometry of material zones and is specifically adopted for the application of patient computer tomography data. Transition probabilities for both codes are given by the SRNADAT program. In this paper, we will present the models and algorithms of our programs, as well as the results of the numerical experiments we have carried out applying them, along with the results of proton transport simulation obtained through the PETRA and GEANT programs. The simulation of the proton beam characterization by means of the Multi-Layer Faraday Cup and spatial distribution of positron emitters obtained by our program indicate the imminent application of Monte Carlo techniques in clinical practice.

  2. Improved diffusion coefficients generated from Monte Carlo codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Herman, B. R.; Forget, B.; Smith, K.; Aviles, B. N.

    2013-01-01

    Monte Carlo codes are becoming more widely used for reactor analysis. Some of these applications involve the generation of diffusion theory parameters including macroscopic cross sections and diffusion coefficients. Two approximations used to generate diffusion coefficients are assessed using the Monte Carlo code MC21. The first is the method of homogenization; whether to weight either fine-group transport cross sections or fine-group diffusion coefficients when collapsing to few-group diffusion coefficients. The second is a fundamental approximation made to the energy-dependent P1 equations to derive the energy-dependent diffusion equations. Standard Monte Carlo codes usually generate a flux-weighted transport cross section with no correction to the diffusion approximation. Results indicate that this causes noticeable tilting in reconstructed pin powers in simple test lattices with L2 norm error of 3.6%. This error is reduced significantly to 0.27% when weighting fine-group diffusion coefficients by the flux and applying a correction to the diffusion approximation. Noticeable tilting in reconstructed fluxes and pin powers was reduced when applying these corrections. (authors)

  3. Design of sampling tools for Monte Carlo particle transport code JMCT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shangguan Danhua; Li Gang; Zhang Baoyin; Deng Li

    2012-01-01

    A class of sampling tools for general Monte Carlo particle transport code JMCT is designed. Two ways are provided to sample from distributions. One is the utilization of special sampling methods for special distribution; the other is the utilization of general sampling methods for arbitrary discrete distribution and one-dimensional continuous distribution on a finite interval. Some open source codes are included in the general sampling method for the maximum convenience of users. The sampling results show sampling correctly from distribution which are popular in particle transport can be achieved with these tools, and the user's convenience can be assured. (authors)

  4. Development of Monte Carlo decay gamma-ray transport calculation system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sato, Satoshi [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Naka, Ibaraki (Japan). Naka Fusion Research Establishment; Kawasaki, Nobuo [Fujitsu Ltd., Tokyo (Japan); Kume, Etsuo [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Center for Promotion of Computational Science and Engineering, Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan)

    2001-06-01

    In the DT fusion reactor, it is critical concern to evaluate the decay gamma-ray biological dose rates after the reactor shutdown exactly. In order to evaluate the decay gamma-ray biological dose rates exactly, three dimensional Monte Carlo decay gamma-ray transport calculation system have been developed by connecting the three dimensional Monte Carlo particle transport calculation code and the induced activity calculation code. The developed calculation system consists of the following four functions. (1) The operational neutron flux distribution is calculated by the three dimensional Monte Carlo particle transport calculation code. (2) The induced activities are calculated by the induced activity calculation code. (3) The decay gamma-ray source distribution is obtained from the induced activities. (4) The decay gamma-rays are generated by using the decay gamma-ray source distribution, and the decay gamma-ray transport calculation is conducted by the three dimensional Monte Carlo particle transport calculation code. In order to reduce the calculation time drastically, a biasing system for the decay gamma-ray source distribution has been developed, and the function is also included in the present system. In this paper, the outline and the detail of the system, and the execution example are reported. The evaluation for the effect of the biasing system is also reported. (author)

  5. Antiproton annihilation physics annihilation physics in the Monte Carlo particle transport code particle transport code SHIELD-HIT12A

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Taasti, Vicki Trier; Knudsen, Helge; Holzscheiter, Michael

    2015-01-01

    The Monte Carlo particle transport code SHIELD-HIT12A is designed to simulate therapeutic beams for cancer radiotherapy with fast ions. SHIELD-HIT12A allows creation of antiproton beam kernels for the treatment planning system TRiP98, but first it must be benchmarked against experimental data. An...

  6. Academic Training - The use of Monte Carlo radiation transport codes in radiation physics and dosimetry

    CERN Multimedia

    Françoise Benz

    2006-01-01

    2005-2006 ACADEMIC TRAINING PROGRAMME LECTURE SERIES 27, 28, 29 June 11:00-12:00 - TH Conference Room, bldg. 4 The use of Monte Carlo radiation transport codes in radiation physics and dosimetry F. Salvat Gavalda,Univ. de Barcelona, A. FERRARI, CERN-AB, M. SILARI, CERN-SC Lecture 1. Transport and interaction of electromagnetic radiation F. Salvat Gavalda,Univ. de Barcelona Interaction models and simulation schemes implemented in modern Monte Carlo codes for the simulation of coupled electron-photon transport will be briefly reviewed. Different schemes for simulating electron transport will be discussed. Condensed algorithms, which rely on multiple-scattering theories, are comparatively fast, but less accurate than mixed algorithms, in which hard interactions (with energy loss or angular deflection larger than certain cut-off values) are simulated individually. The reliability, and limitations, of electron-interaction models and multiple-scattering theories will be analyzed. Benchmark comparisons of simu...

  7. Parallel MCNP Monte Carlo transport calculations with MPI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wagner, J.C.; Haghighat, A.

    1996-01-01

    The steady increase in computational performance has made Monte Carlo calculations for large/complex systems possible. However, in order to make these calculations practical, order of magnitude increases in performance are necessary. The Monte Carlo method is inherently parallel (particles are simulated independently) and thus has the potential for near-linear speedup with respect to the number of processors. Further, the ever-increasing accessibility of parallel computers, such as workstation clusters, facilitates the practical use of parallel Monte Carlo. Recognizing the nature of the Monte Carlo method and the trends in available computing, the code developers at Los Alamos National Laboratory implemented the message-passing general-purpose Monte Carlo radiation transport code MCNP (version 4A). The PVM package was chosen by the MCNP code developers because it supports a variety of communication networks, several UNIX platforms, and heterogeneous computer systems. This PVM version of MCNP has been shown to produce speedups that approach the number of processors and thus, is a very useful tool for transport analysis. Due to software incompatibilities on the local IBM SP2, PVM has not been available, and thus it is not possible to take advantage of this useful tool. Hence, it became necessary to implement an alternative message-passing library package into MCNP. Because the message-passing interface (MPI) is supported on the local system, takes advantage of the high-speed communication switches in the SP2, and is considered to be the emerging standard, it was selected

  8. PEREGRINE: An all-particle Monte Carlo code for radiation therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hartmann Siantar, C.L.; Chandler, W.P.; Rathkopf, J.A.; Svatos, M.M.; White, R.M.

    1994-09-01

    The goal of radiation therapy is to deliver a lethal dose to the tumor while minimizing the dose to normal tissues. To carry out this task, it is critical to calculate correctly the distribution of dose delivered. Monte Carlo transport methods have the potential to provide more accurate prediction of dose distributions than currently-used methods. PEREGRINE is a new Monte Carlo transport code developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the specific purpose of modeling the effects of radiation therapy. PEREGRINE transports neutrons, photons, electrons, positrons, and heavy charged-particles, including protons, deuterons, tritons, helium-3, and alpha particles. This paper describes the PEREGRINE transport code and some preliminary results for clinically relevant materials and radiation sources

  9. Development of Monte Carlo-based pebble bed reactor fuel management code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Setiadipura, Topan; Obara, Toru

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • A new Monte Carlo-based fuel management code for OTTO cycle pebble bed reactor was developed. • The double-heterogeneity was modeled using statistical method in MVP-BURN code. • The code can perform analysis of equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase. • Code-to-code comparisons for Once-Through-Then-Out case were investigated. • Ability of the code to accommodate the void cavity was confirmed. - Abstract: A fuel management code for pebble bed reactors (PBRs) based on the Monte Carlo method has been developed in this study. The code, named Monte Carlo burnup analysis code for PBR (MCPBR), enables a simulation of the Once-Through-Then-Out (OTTO) cycle of a PBR from the running-in phase to the equilibrium condition. In MCPBR, a burnup calculation based on a continuous-energy Monte Carlo code, MVP-BURN, is coupled with an additional utility code to be able to simulate the OTTO cycle of PBR. MCPBR has several advantages in modeling PBRs, namely its Monte Carlo neutron transport modeling, its capability of explicitly modeling the double heterogeneity of the PBR core, and its ability to model different axial fuel speeds in the PBR core. Analysis at the equilibrium condition of the simplified PBR was used as the validation test of MCPBR. The calculation results of the code were compared with the results of diffusion-based fuel management PBR codes, namely the VSOP and PEBBED codes. Using JENDL-4.0 nuclide library, MCPBR gave a 4.15% and 3.32% lower k eff value compared to VSOP and PEBBED, respectively. While using JENDL-3.3, MCPBR gave a 2.22% and 3.11% higher k eff value compared to VSOP and PEBBED, respectively. The ability of MCPBR to analyze neutron transport in the top void of the PBR core and its effects was also confirmed

  10. Proton therapy Monte Carlo SRNA-VOX code

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ilić Radovan D.

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The most powerful feature of the Monte Carlo method is the possibility of simulating all individual particle interactions in three dimensions and performing numerical experiments with a preset error. These facts were the motivation behind the development of a general-purpose Monte Carlo SRNA program for proton transport simulation in technical systems described by standard geometrical forms (plane, sphere, cone, cylinder, cube. Some of the possible applications of the SRNA program are: (a a general code for proton transport modeling, (b design of accelerator-driven systems, (c simulation of proton scattering and degrading shapes and composition, (d research on proton detectors; and (e radiation protection at accelerator installations. This wide range of possible applications of the program demands the development of various versions of SRNA-VOX codes for proton transport modeling in voxelized geometries and has, finally, resulted in the ISTAR package for the calculation of deposited energy distribution in patients on the basis of CT data in radiotherapy. All of the said codes are capable of using 3-D proton sources with an arbitrary energy spectrum in an interval of 100 keV to 250 MeV.

  11. AREVA Developments for an Efficient and Reliable use of Monte Carlo codes for Radiation Transport Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chapoutier, Nicolas; Mollier, François; Nolin, Guillaume; Culioli, Matthieu; Mace, Jean-Reynald

    2017-09-01

    In the context of the rising of Monte Carlo transport calculations for any kind of application, AREVA recently improved its suite of engineering tools in order to produce efficient Monte Carlo workflow. Monte Carlo codes, such as MCNP or TRIPOLI, are recognized as reference codes to deal with a large range of radiation transport problems. However the inherent drawbacks of theses codes - laboring input file creation and long computation time - contrast with the maturity of the treatment of the physical phenomena. The goals of the recent AREVA developments were to reach similar efficiency as other mature engineering sciences such as finite elements analyses (e.g. structural or fluid dynamics). Among the main objectives, the creation of a graphical user interface offering CAD tools for geometry creation and other graphical features dedicated to the radiation field (source definition, tally definition) has been reached. The computations times are drastically reduced compared to few years ago thanks to the use of massive parallel runs, and above all, the implementation of hybrid variance reduction technics. From now engineering teams are capable to deliver much more prompt support to any nuclear projects dealing with reactors or fuel cycle facilities from conceptual phase to decommissioning.

  12. Monte Carlo Transport for Electron Thermal Transport

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chenhall, Jeffrey; Cao, Duc; Moses, Gregory

    2015-11-01

    The iSNB (implicit Schurtz Nicolai Busquet multigroup electron thermal transport method of Cao et al. is adapted into a Monte Carlo transport method in order to better model the effects of non-local behavior. The end goal is a hybrid transport-diffusion method that combines Monte Carlo Transport with a discrete diffusion Monte Carlo (DDMC). The hybrid method will combine the efficiency of a diffusion method in short mean free path regions with the accuracy of a transport method in long mean free path regions. The Monte Carlo nature of the approach allows the algorithm to be massively parallelized. Work to date on the method will be presented. This work was supported by Sandia National Laboratory - Albuquerque and the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics.

  13. Transport methods: general. 1. The Analytical Monte Carlo Method for Radiation Transport Calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martin, William R.; Brown, Forrest B.

    2001-01-01

    We present an alternative Monte Carlo method for solving the coupled equations of radiation transport and material energy. This method is based on incorporating the analytical solution to the material energy equation directly into the Monte Carlo simulation for the radiation intensity. This method, which we call the Analytical Monte Carlo (AMC) method, differs from the well known Implicit Monte Carlo (IMC) method of Fleck and Cummings because there is no discretization of the material energy equation since it is solved as a by-product of the Monte Carlo simulation of the transport equation. Our method also differs from the method recently proposed by Ahrens and Larsen since they use Monte Carlo to solve both equations, while we are solving only the radiation transport equation with Monte Carlo, albeit with effective sources and cross sections to represent the emission sources. Our method bears some similarity to a method developed and implemented by Carter and Forest nearly three decades ago, but there are substantive differences. We have implemented our method in a simple zero-dimensional Monte Carlo code to test the feasibility of the method, and the preliminary results are very promising, justifying further extension to more realistic geometries. (authors)

  14. Premar-2: a Monte Carlo code for radiative transport simulation in atmospheric environments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cupini, E.

    1999-01-01

    The peculiarities of the PREMAR-2 code, aimed at radiation transport Monte Carlo simulation in atmospheric environments in the infrared-ultraviolet frequency range, are described. With respect to the previously developed PREMAR code, besides plane multilayers, spherical multilayers and finite sequences of vertical layers, each one with its own atmospheric behaviour, are foreseen in the new code, together with the refraction phenomenon, so that long range, highly slanted paths can now be more faithfully taken into account. A zenithal angular dependence of the albedo coefficient has moreover been introduced. Lidar systems, with spatially independent source and telescope, are allowed again to be simulated, and, in this latest version of the code, sensitivity analyses to be performed. According to this last feasibility, consequences on radiation transport of small perturbations in physical components of the atmospheric environment may be analyze and the related effects on searched results estimated. The availability of a library of physical data (reaction coefficients, phase functions and refraction indexes) is required by the code, providing the essential features of the environment of interest needed of the Monte Carlo simulation. Variance reducing techniques have been enhanced in the Premar-2 code, by introducing, for instance, a local forced collision technique, especially apt to be used in Lidar system simulations. Encouraging comparisons between code and experimental results carried out at the Brasimone Centre of ENEA, have so far been obtained, even if further checks of the code are to be performed [it

  15. Penelope-2006: a code system for Monte Carlo simulation of electron and photon transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2006-01-01

    The computer code system PENELOPE (version 2006) performs Monte Carlo simulation of coupled electron-photon transport in arbitrary materials for a wide energy range, from a few hundred eV to about 1 GeV. Photon transport is simulated by means of the standard, detailed simulation scheme. Electron and positron histories are generated on the basis of a mixed procedure, which combines detailed simulation of hard events with condensed simulation of soft interactions. A geometry package called PENGEOM permits the generation of random electron-photon showers in material systems consisting of homogeneous bodies limited by quadric surfaces, i.e. planes, spheres, cylinders, etc. This report is intended not only to serve as a manual of the PENELOPE code system, but also to provide the user with the necessary information to understand the details of the Monte Carlo algorithm. These proceedings contain the corresponding manual and teaching notes of the PENELOPE-2006 workshop and training course, held on 4-7 July 2006 in Barcelona, Spain. (author)

  16. Monte Carlo codes use in neutron therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paquis, P.; Mokhtari, F.; Karamanoukian, D.; Pignol, J.P.; Cuendet, P.; Iborra, N.

    1998-01-01

    Monte Carlo calculation codes allow to study accurately all the parameters relevant to radiation effects, like the dose deposition or the type of microscopic interactions, through one by one particle transport simulation. These features are very useful for neutron irradiations, from device development up to dosimetry. This paper illustrates some applications of these codes in Neutron Capture Therapy and Neutron Capture Enhancement of fast neutrons irradiations. (authors)

  17. Weighted-delta-tracking for Monte Carlo particle transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morgan, L.W.G.; Kotlyar, D.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • This paper presents an alteration to the Monte Carlo Woodcock tracking technique. • The alteration improves computational efficiency within regions of high absorbers. • The rejection technique is replaced by a statistical weighting mechanism. • The modified Woodcock method is shown to be faster than standard Woodcock tracking. • The modified Woodcock method achieves a lower variance, given a specified accuracy. - Abstract: Monte Carlo particle transport (MCPT) codes are incredibly powerful and versatile tools to simulate particle behavior in a multitude of scenarios, such as core/criticality studies, radiation protection, shielding, medicine and fusion research to name just a small subset applications. However, MCPT codes can be very computationally expensive to run when the model geometry contains large attenuation depths and/or contains many components. This paper proposes a simple modification to the Woodcock tracking method used by some Monte Carlo particle transport codes. The Woodcock method utilizes the rejection method for sampling virtual collisions as a method to remove collision distance sampling at material boundaries. However, it suffers from poor computational efficiency when the sample acceptance rate is low. The proposed method removes rejection sampling from the Woodcock method in favor of a statistical weighting scheme, which improves the computational efficiency of a Monte Carlo particle tracking code. It is shown that the modified Woodcock method is less computationally expensive than standard ray-tracing and rejection-based Woodcock tracking methods and achieves a lower variance, given a specified accuracy

  18. Practical Application of Monte Carlo Code in RTP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohamad Hairie Rabir; Julia Abdul Karim; Muhammad Rawi Mohamed Zin; Na'im Syauqi Hamzah; Mark Dennis Anak Usang; Abi Muttaqin Jalal Bayar; Muhammad Khairul Ariff Mustafa

    2015-01-01

    Monte Carlo neutron transport codes are widely used in various reactor physics applications in RTP and other related nuclear and radiation research in Nuklear Malaysia. The main advantage of the method is the capability to model geometry and interaction physics without major approximations. The disadvantage is that the modelling of complicated systems is very computing-intensive, which restricts the applications to some extent. The importance of Monte Carlo calculation is likely to increase in the future, along with the development in computer capacities and parallel calculation. This paper presents several calculation activities, its achievements and challenges in using MCNP code for neutronics analysis, nuclide inventory and source term calculation, shielding and dose evaluation. (author)

  19. A portable, parallel, object-oriented Monte Carlo neutron transport code in C++

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, S.R.; Cummings, J.C.; Nolen, S.D.

    1997-01-01

    We have developed a multi-group Monte Carlo neutron transport code using C++ and the Parallel Object-Oriented Methods and Applications (POOMA) class library. This transport code, called MC++, currently computes k and α-eigenvalues and is portable to and runs parallel on a wide variety of platforms, including MPPs, clustered SMPs, and individual workstations. It contains appropriate classes and abstractions for particle transport and, through the use of POOMA, for portable parallelism. Current capabilities of MC++ are discussed, along with physics and performance results on a variety of hardware, including all Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) hardware. Current parallel performance indicates the ability to compute α-eigenvalues in seconds to minutes rather than hours to days. Future plans and the implementation of a general transport physics framework are also discussed

  20. AREVA Developments for an Efficient and Reliable use of Monte Carlo codes for Radiation Transport Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chapoutier Nicolas

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In the context of the rising of Monte Carlo transport calculations for any kind of application, AREVA recently improved its suite of engineering tools in order to produce efficient Monte Carlo workflow. Monte Carlo codes, such as MCNP or TRIPOLI, are recognized as reference codes to deal with a large range of radiation transport problems. However the inherent drawbacks of theses codes - laboring input file creation and long computation time - contrast with the maturity of the treatment of the physical phenomena. The goals of the recent AREVA developments were to reach similar efficiency as other mature engineering sciences such as finite elements analyses (e.g. structural or fluid dynamics. Among the main objectives, the creation of a graphical user interface offering CAD tools for geometry creation and other graphical features dedicated to the radiation field (source definition, tally definition has been reached. The computations times are drastically reduced compared to few years ago thanks to the use of massive parallel runs, and above all, the implementation of hybrid variance reduction technics. From now engineering teams are capable to deliver much more prompt support to any nuclear projects dealing with reactors or fuel cycle facilities from conceptual phase to decommissioning.

  1. Application of OMEGA Monte Carlo codes for radiation therapy treatment planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ayyangar, Komanduri M.; Jiang, Steve B.

    1998-01-01

    The accuracy of conventional dose algorithms for radiosurgery treatment planning is limited, due to the inadequate consideration of the lateral radiation transport and the difficulty of acquiring accurate dosimetric data for very small beams. In the present paper, some initial work on the application of Monte Carlo method in radiation treatment planning in general, and in radiosurgery treatment planning in particular, has been presented. Two OMEGA Monte Carlo codes, BEAM and DOSXYZ, are used. The BEAM code is used to simulate the transport of particles in the linac treatment head and radiosurgery collimator. A phase space file is obtained from the BEAM simulation for each collimator size. The DOSXYZ code is used to calculate the dose distribution in the patient's body reconstructed from CT slices using the phase space file as input. The accuracy of OMEGA Monte Carlo simulation for radiosurgery dose calculation is verified by comparing the calculated and measured basic dosimetric data for several radiosurgery beams and a 4 x 4 cm 2 conventional beam. The dose distributions for three clinical cases are calculated using OMEGA codes as the dose engine for an in-house developed radiosurgery treatment planning system. The verification using basic dosimetric data and the dose calculation for clinical cases demonstrate the feasibility of applying OMEGA Monte Carlo code system to radiosurgery treatment planning. (author)

  2. Development and validation of ALEPH Monte Carlo burn-up code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stankovskiy, A.; Van den Eynde, G.; Vidmar, T.

    2011-01-01

    The Monte-Carlo burn-up code ALEPH is being developed in SCK-CEN since 2004. Belonging to the category of shells coupling Monte Carlo transport (MCNP or MCNPX) and 'deterministic' depletion codes (ORIGEN-2.2), ALEPH possess some unique features that distinguish it from other codes. The most important feature is full data consistency between steady-state Monte Carlo and time-dependent depletion calculations. Recent improvements of ALEPH concern full implementation of general-purpose nuclear data libraries (JEFF-3.1.1, ENDF/B-VII, JENDL-3.3). The upgraded version of the code is capable to treat isomeric branching ratios, neutron induced fission product yields, spontaneous fission yields and energy release per fission recorded in ENDF-formatted data files. The alternative algorithm for time evolution of nuclide concentrations is added. A predictor-corrector mechanism and the calculation of nuclear heating are available as well. The validation of the code on REBUS experimental programme results has been performed. The upgraded version of ALEPH has shown better agreement with measured data than other codes, including previous version of ALEPH. (authors)

  3. Considerations of MCNP Monte Carlo code to be used as a radiotherapy treatment planning tool.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juste, B; Miro, R; Gallardo, S; Verdu, G; Santos, A

    2005-01-01

    The present work has simulated the photon and electron transport in a Theratron 780® (MDS Nordion)60Co radiotherapy unit, using the Monte Carlo transport code, MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle). This project explains mainly the different methodologies carried out to speedup calculations in order to apply this code efficiently in radiotherapy treatment planning.

  4. TOPIC: a debugging code for torus geometry input data of Monte Carlo transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iida, Hiromasa; Kawasaki, Hiromitsu.

    1979-06-01

    TOPIC has been developed for debugging geometry input data of the Monte Carlo transport code. the code has the following features: (1) It debugs the geometry input data of not only MORSE-GG but also MORSE-I capable of treating torus geometry. (2) Its calculation results are shown in figures drawn by Plotter or COM, and the regions not defined or doubly defined are easily detected. (3) It finds a multitude of input data errors in a single run. (4) The input data required in this code are few, so that it is readily usable in a time sharing system of FACOM 230-60/75 computer. Example TOPIC calculations in design study of tokamak fusion reactors (JXFR, INTOR-J) are presented. (author)

  5. Implementation, capabilities, and benchmarking of Shift, a massively parallel Monte Carlo radiation transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pandya, Tara M.; Johnson, Seth R.; Evans, Thomas M.; Davidson, Gregory G.; Hamilton, Steven P.; Godfrey, Andrew T.

    2015-01-01

    This paper discusses the implementation, capabilities, and validation of Shift, a massively parallel Monte Carlo radiation transport package developed and maintained at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It has been developed to scale well from laptop to small computing clusters to advanced supercomputers. Special features of Shift include hybrid capabilities for variance reduction such as CADIS and FW-CADIS, and advanced parallel decomposition and tally methods optimized for scalability on supercomputing architectures. Shift has been validated and verified against various reactor physics benchmarks and compares well to other state-of-the-art Monte Carlo radiation transport codes such as MCNP5, CE KENO-VI, and OpenMC. Some specific benchmarks used for verification and validation include the CASL VERA criticality test suite and several Westinghouse AP1000 ® problems. These benchmark and scaling studies show promising results

  6. TART 2000: A Coupled Neutron-Photon, 3-D, Combinatorial Geometry, Time Dependent, Monte Carlo Transport Code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cullen, D.E

    2000-01-01

    TART2000 is a coupled neutron-photon, 3 Dimensional, combinatorial geometry, time dependent Monte Carlo radiation transport code. This code can run on any modern computer. It is a complete system to assist you with input Preparation, running Monte Carlo calculations, and analysis of output results. TART2000 is also incredibly FAST; if you have used similar codes, you will be amazed at how fast this code is compared to other similar codes. Use of the entire system can save you a great deal of time and energy. TART2000 is distributed on CD. This CD contains on-line documentation for all codes included in the system, the codes configured to run on a variety of computers, and many example problems that you can use to familiarize yourself with the system. TART2000 completely supersedes all older versions of TART, and it is strongly recommended that users only use the most recent version of TART2000 and its data files

  7. TART 2000 A Coupled Neutron-Photon, 3-D, Combinatorial Geometry, Time Dependent, Monte Carlo Transport Code

    CERN Document Server

    Cullen, D

    2000-01-01

    TART2000 is a coupled neutron-photon, 3 Dimensional, combinatorial geometry, time dependent Monte Carlo radiation transport code. This code can run on any modern computer. It is a complete system to assist you with input Preparation, running Monte Carlo calculations, and analysis of output results. TART2000 is also incredibly FAST; if you have used similar codes, you will be amazed at how fast this code is compared to other similar codes. Use of the entire system can save you a great deal of time and energy. TART2000 is distributed on CD. This CD contains on-line documentation for all codes included in the system, the codes configured to run on a variety of computers, and many example problems that you can use to familiarize yourself with the system. TART2000 completely supersedes all older versions of TART, and it is strongly recommended that users only use the most recent version of TART2000 and its data files.

  8. MCNP: a general Monte Carlo code for neutron and photon transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1979-11-01

    The general-purpose Monte Carlo code MCNP ca be used for neutron, photon, or coupled neutron-photon transport, including the capability to calculate eigenvalues for critical systems. The code treats an arbitrary three-dimensional configuration of materials in geometric cells bounded by first- and second-degree surfaces and some special fourth-degree surfaces (elliptical tori). Pointwise cross-section data are used. For neutrons, all reactions given in a particular cross-section evaluation are accounted for. Thermal neutrons are described by both the free-gas and S(α,β) models. For photons, the code takes account of incoherent and coherent scattering, the possibility of fluorescent emission following photoelectric absorption, and absorption in pair production with local emission of annihilation radiation. MCNP includes an elaborate, interactive plotting capability that allows the user to view his input geometry to help check for setup errors. Standard features which are available to improve computational efficiency include geometry splitting and Russian roulette, weight cutoff with Russian roulette, correlated sampling, analog capture or capture by weight reduction, the exponential transformation, energy splitting, forced collisions in designated cells, flux estimates at point or ring detectors, deterministically transporting pseudo-particles to designated regions, track-length estimators, source biasing, and several parameter cutoffs. Extensive summary information is provided to help the user better understand the physics and Monte Carlo simulation of his problem. The standard, user-defined output of MCNP includes two-way current as a function of direction across any set of surfaces or surface segments in the problem. Flux across any set of surfaces or surface segments is available. 58 figures, 28 tables

  9. Srna-Monte Carlo codes for proton transport simulation in combined and voxelized geometries

    CERN Document Server

    Ilic, R D; Stankovic, S J

    2002-01-01

    This paper describes new Monte Carlo codes for proton transport simulations in complex geometrical forms and in materials of different composition. The SRNA codes were developed for three dimensional (3D) dose distribution calculation in proton therapy and dosimetry. The model of these codes is based on the theory of proton multiple scattering and a simple model of compound nucleus decay. The developed package consists of two codes: SRNA-2KG and SRNA-VOX. The first code simulates proton transport in combined geometry that can be described by planes and second order surfaces. The second one uses the voxelized geometry of material zones and is specifically adopted for the application of patient computer tomography data. Transition probabilities for both codes are given by the SRNADAT program. In this paper, we will present the models and algorithms of our programs, as well as the results of the numerical experiments we have carried out applying them, along with the results of proton transport simulation obtaine...

  10. Monte Carlo burnup codes acceleration using the correlated sampling method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dieudonne, C.

    2013-01-01

    For several years, Monte Carlo burnup/depletion codes have appeared, which couple Monte Carlo codes to simulate the neutron transport to deterministic methods, which handle the medium depletion due to the neutron flux. Solving Boltzmann and Bateman equations in such a way allows to track fine 3-dimensional effects and to get rid of multi-group hypotheses done by deterministic solvers. The counterpart is the prohibitive calculation time due to the Monte Carlo solver called at each time step. In this document we present an original methodology to avoid the repetitive and time-expensive Monte Carlo simulations, and to replace them by perturbation calculations: indeed the different burnup steps may be seen as perturbations of the isotopic concentration of an initial Monte Carlo simulation. In a first time we will present this method, and provide details on the perturbative technique used, namely the correlated sampling. In a second time we develop a theoretical model to study the features of the correlated sampling method to understand its effects on depletion calculations. In a third time the implementation of this method in the TRIPOLI-4 code will be discussed, as well as the precise calculation scheme used to bring important speed-up of the depletion calculation. We will begin to validate and optimize the perturbed depletion scheme with the calculation of a REP-like fuel cell depletion. Then this technique will be used to calculate the depletion of a REP-like assembly, studied at beginning of its cycle. After having validated the method with a reference calculation we will show that it can speed-up by nearly an order of magnitude standard Monte-Carlo depletion codes. (author) [fr

  11. SPQR: a Monte Carlo reactor kinetics code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cramer, S.N.; Dodds, H.L.

    1980-02-01

    The SPQR Monte Carlo code has been developed to analyze fast reactor core accident problems where conventional methods are considered inadequate. The code is based on the adiabatic approximation of the quasi-static method. This initial version contains no automatic material motion or feedback. An existing Monte Carlo code is used to calculate the shape functions and the integral quantities needed in the kinetics module. Several sample problems have been devised and analyzed. Due to the large statistical uncertainty associated with the calculation of reactivity in accident simulations, the results, especially at later times, differ greatly from deterministic methods. It was also found that in large uncoupled systems, the Monte Carlo method has difficulty in handling asymmetric perturbations

  12. A user's manual for the three-dimensional Monte Carlo transport code SPARTAN

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bending, R.C.; Heffer, P.J.H.

    1975-09-01

    SPARTAN is a general-purpose Monte Carlo particle transport code intended for neutron or gamma transport problems in reactor physics, health physics, shielding, and safety studies. The code used a very general geometry system enabling a complex layout to be described and allows the user to obtain physics data from a number of different types of source library. Special tracking and scoring techniques are used to improve the quality of the results obtained. To enable users to run SPARTAN, brief descriptions of the facilities available in the code are given and full details of data input and job control language, as well as examples of complete calculations, are included. It is anticipated that changes may be made to SPARTAN from time to time, particularly in those parts of the code which deal with physics data processing. The load module is identified by a version number and implementation date, and updates of sections of this manual will be issued when significant changes are made to the code. (author)

  13. Coded aperture optimization using Monte Carlo simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martineau, A.; Rocchisani, J.M.; Moretti, J.L.

    2010-01-01

    Coded apertures using Uniformly Redundant Arrays (URA) have been unsuccessfully evaluated for two-dimensional and three-dimensional imaging in Nuclear Medicine. The images reconstructed from coded projections contain artifacts and suffer from poor spatial resolution in the longitudinal direction. We introduce a Maximum-Likelihood Expectation-Maximization (MLEM) algorithm for three-dimensional coded aperture imaging which uses a projection matrix calculated by Monte Carlo simulations. The aim of the algorithm is to reduce artifacts and improve the three-dimensional spatial resolution in the reconstructed images. Firstly, we present the validation of GATE (Geant4 Application for Emission Tomography) for Monte Carlo simulations of a coded mask installed on a clinical gamma camera. The coded mask modelling was validated by comparison between experimental and simulated data in terms of energy spectra, sensitivity and spatial resolution. In the second part of the study, we use the validated model to calculate the projection matrix with Monte Carlo simulations. A three-dimensional thyroid phantom study was performed to compare the performance of the three-dimensional MLEM reconstruction with conventional correlation method. The results indicate that the artifacts are reduced and three-dimensional spatial resolution is improved with the Monte Carlo-based MLEM reconstruction.

  14. Accelerating execution of the integrated TIGER series Monte Carlo radiation transport codes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, L. M.; Hochstedler, R. D.

    1997-02-01

    Execution of the integrated TIGER series (ITS) of coupled electron/photon Monte Carlo radiation transport codes has been accelerated by modifying the FORTRAN source code for more efficient computation. Each member code of ITS was benchmarked and profiled with a specific test case that directed the acceleration effort toward the most computationally intensive subroutines. Techniques for accelerating these subroutines included replacing linear search algorithms with binary versions, replacing the pseudo-random number generator, reducing program memory allocation, and proofing the input files for geometrical redundancies. All techniques produced identical or statistically similar results to the original code. Final benchmark timing of the accelerated code resulted in speed-up factors of 2.00 for TIGER (the one-dimensional slab geometry code), 1.74 for CYLTRAN (the two-dimensional cylindrical geometry code), and 1.90 for ACCEPT (the arbitrary three-dimensional geometry code).

  15. Accelerating execution of the integrated TIGER series Monte Carlo radiation transport codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, L.M.; Hochstedler, R.D.

    1997-01-01

    Execution of the integrated TIGER series (ITS) of coupled electron/photon Monte Carlo radiation transport codes has been accelerated by modifying the FORTRAN source code for more efficient computation. Each member code of ITS was benchmarked and profiled with a specific test case that directed the acceleration effort toward the most computationally intensive subroutines. Techniques for accelerating these subroutines included replacing linear search algorithms with binary versions, replacing the pseudo-random number generator, reducing program memory allocation, and proofing the input files for geometrical redundancies. All techniques produced identical or statistically similar results to the original code. Final benchmark timing of the accelerated code resulted in speed-up factors of 2.00 for TIGER (the one-dimensional slab geometry code), 1.74 for CYLTRAN (the two-dimensional cylindrical geometry code), and 1.90 for ACCEPT (the arbitrary three-dimensional geometry code)

  16. BALTORO a general purpose code for coupling discrete ordinates and Monte-Carlo radiation transport calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zazula, J.M.

    1983-01-01

    The general purpose code BALTORO was written for coupling the three-dimensional Monte-Carlo /MC/ with the one-dimensional Discrete Ordinates /DO/ radiation transport calculations. The quantity of a radiation-induced /neutrons or gamma-rays/ nuclear effect or the score from a radiation-yielding nuclear effect can be analysed in this way. (author)

  17. SERPENT Monte Carlo reactor physics code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leppaenen, J.

    2010-01-01

    SERPENT is a three-dimensional continuous-energy Monte Carlo reactor physics burnup calculation code, developed at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland since 2004. The code is specialized in lattice physics applications, but the universe-based geometry description allows transport simulation to be carried out in complicated three-dimensional geometries as well. The suggested applications of SERPENT include generation of homogenized multi-group constants for deterministic reactor simulator calculations, fuel cycle studies involving detailed assembly-level burnup calculations, validation of deterministic lattice transport codes, research reactor applications, educational purposes and demonstration of reactor physics phenomena. The Serpent code has been publicly distributed by the OECD/NEA Data Bank since May 2009 and RSICC in the U. S. since March 2010. The code is being used in some 35 organizations in 20 countries around the world. This paper presents an overview of the methods and capabilities of the Serpent code, with examples in the modelling of WWER-440 reactor physics. (Author)

  18. Feasibility Study of Core Design with a Monte Carlo Code for APR1400 Initial core

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Jinsun; Chang, Do Ik; Seong, Kibong [KEPCO NF, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2014-10-15

    The Monte Carlo calculation becomes more popular and useful nowadays due to the rapid progress in computing power and parallel calculation techniques. There have been many attempts to analyze a commercial core by Monte Carlo transport code using the enhanced computer capability, recently. In this paper, Monte Carlo calculation of APR1400 initial core has been performed and the results are compared with the calculation results of conventional deterministic code to find out the feasibility of core design using Monte Carlo code. SERPENT, a 3D continuous-energy Monte Carlo reactor physics burnup calculation code is used for this purpose and the KARMA-ASTRA code system, which is used for a deterministic code of comparison. The preliminary investigation for the feasibility of commercial core design with Monte Carlo code was performed in this study. Simplified core geometry modeling was performed for the reactor core surroundings and reactor coolant model is based on two region model. The reactivity difference at HZP ARO condition between Monte Carlo code and the deterministic code is consistent with each other and the reactivity difference during the depletion could be reduced by adopting the realistic moderator temperature. The reactivity difference calculated at HFP, BOC, ARO equilibrium condition was 180 ±9 pcm, with axial moderator temperature of a deterministic code. The computing time will be a significant burden at this time for the application of Monte Carlo code to the commercial core design even with the application of parallel computing because numerous core simulations are required for actual loading pattern search. One of the remedy will be a combination of Monte Carlo code and the deterministic code to generate the physics data. The comparison of physics parameters with sophisticated moderator temperature modeling and depletion will be performed for a further study.

  19. MC++: A parallel, portable, Monte Carlo neutron transport code in C++

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, S.R.; Cummings, J.C.; Nolen, S.D.

    1997-01-01

    MC++ is an implicit multi-group Monte Carlo neutron transport code written in C++ and based on the Parallel Object-Oriented Methods and Applications (POOMA) class library. MC++ runs in parallel on and is portable to a wide variety of platforms, including MPPs, SMPs, and clusters of UNIX workstations. MC++ is being developed to provide transport capabilities to the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). It is also intended to form the basis of the first transport physics framework (TPF), which is a C++ class library containing appropriate abstractions, objects, and methods for the particle transport problem. The transport problem is briefly described, as well as the current status and algorithms in MC++ for solving the transport equation. The alpha version of the POOMA class library is also discussed, along with the implementation of the transport solution algorithms using POOMA. Finally, a simple test problem is defined and performance and physics results from this problem are discussed on a variety of platforms

  20. Parallelization of a Monte Carlo particle transport simulation code

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hadjidoukas, P.; Bousis, C.; Emfietzoglou, D.

    2010-05-01

    We have developed a high performance version of the Monte Carlo particle transport simulation code MC4. The original application code, developed in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) for Microsoft Excel, was first rewritten in the C programming language for improving code portability. Several pseudo-random number generators have been also integrated and studied. The new MC4 version was then parallelized for shared and distributed-memory multiprocessor systems using the Message Passing Interface. Two parallel pseudo-random number generator libraries (SPRNG and DCMT) have been seamlessly integrated. The performance speedup of parallel MC4 has been studied on a variety of parallel computing architectures including an Intel Xeon server with 4 dual-core processors, a Sun cluster consisting of 16 nodes of 2 dual-core AMD Opteron processors and a 200 dual-processor HP cluster. For large problem size, which is limited only by the physical memory of the multiprocessor server, the speedup results are almost linear on all systems. We have validated the parallel implementation against the serial VBA and C implementations using the same random number generator. Our experimental results on the transport and energy loss of electrons in a water medium show that the serial and parallel codes are equivalent in accuracy. The present improvements allow for studying of higher particle energies with the use of more accurate physical models, and improve statistics as more particles tracks can be simulated in low response time.

  1. Monte Carlo radiation transport: A revolution in science

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hendricks, J.

    1993-01-01

    When Enrico Fermi, Stan Ulam, Nicholas Metropolis, John von Neuman, and Robert Richtmyer invented the Monte Carlo method fifty years ago, little could they imagine the far-flung consequences, the international applications, and the revolution in science epitomized by their abstract mathematical method. The Monte Carlo method is used in a wide variety of fields to solve exact computational models approximately by statistical sampling. It is an alternative to traditional physics modeling methods which solve approximate computational models exactly by deterministic methods. Modern computers and improved methods, such as variance reduction, have enhanced the method to the point of enabling a true predictive capability in areas such as radiation or particle transport. This predictive capability has contributed to a radical change in the way science is done: design and understanding come from computations built upon experiments rather than being limited to experiments, and the computer codes doing the computations have become the repository for physics knowledge. The MCNP Monte Carlo computer code effort at Los Alamos is an example of this revolution. Physicians unfamiliar with physics details can design cancer treatments using physics buried in the MCNP computer code. Hazardous environments and hypothetical accidents can be explored. Many other fields, from underground oil well exploration to aerospace, from physics research to energy production, from safety to bulk materials processing, benefit from MCNP, the Monte Carlo method, and the revolution in science

  2. Electron transport in radiotherapy using local-to-global Monte Carlo

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Svatos, M.M.; Chandler, W.P.; Siantar, C.L.H.; Rathkopf, J.A.; Ballinger, C.T.

    1994-09-01

    Local-to-Global (L-G) Monte Carlo methods are a way to make three-dimensional electron transport both fast and accurate relative to other Monte Carlo methods. This is achieved by breaking the simulation into two stages: a local calculation done over small geometries having the size and shape of the ''steps'' to be taken through the mesh; and a global calculation which relies on a stepping code that samples the stored results of the local calculation. The increase in speed results from taking fewer steps in the global calculation than required by ordinary Monte Carlo codes and by speeding up the calculation per step. The potential for accuracy comes from the ability to use long runs of detailed codes to compile probability distribution functions (PDFs) in the local calculation. Specific examples of successful Local-to-Global algorithms are given

  3. (U) Introduction to Monte Carlo Methods

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hungerford, Aimee L. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2017-03-20

    Monte Carlo methods are very valuable for representing solutions to particle transport problems. Here we describe a “cook book” approach to handling the terms in a transport equation using Monte Carlo methods. Focus is on the mechanics of a numerical Monte Carlo code, rather than the mathematical foundations of the method.

  4. The use of Monte Carlo radiation transport codes in radiation physics and dosimetry

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva; Ferrari, Alfredo; Silari, Marco

    2006-01-01

    Transport and interaction of electromagnetic radiation Interaction models and simulation schemes implemented in modern Monte Carlo codes for the simulation of coupled electron-photon transport will be briefly reviewed. In these codes, photon transport is simulated by using the detailed scheme, i.e., interaction by interaction. Detailed simulation is easy to implement, and the reliability of the results is only limited by the accuracy of the adopted cross sections. Simulations of electron and positron transport are more difficult, because these particles undergo a large number of interactions in the course of their slowing down. Different schemes for simulating electron transport will be discussed. Condensed algorithms, which rely on multiple-scattering theories, are comparatively fast, but less accurate than mixed algorithms, in which hard interactions (with energy loss or angular deflection larger than certain cut-off values) are simulated individually. The reliability, and limitations, of electron-interacti...

  5. A flexible coupling scheme for Monte Carlo and thermal-hydraulics codes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hoogenboom, J. Eduard, E-mail: J.E.Hoogenboom@tudelft.nl [Delft University of Technology (Netherlands); Ivanov, Aleksandar; Sanchez, Victor, E-mail: Aleksandar.Ivanov@kit.edu, E-mail: Victor.Sanchez@kit.edu [Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Neutron Physics and Reactor Technology, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (Germany); Diop, Cheikh, E-mail: Cheikh.Diop@cea.fr [CEA/DEN/DANS/DM2S/SERMA, Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Gif-sur-Yvette (France)

    2011-07-01

    A coupling scheme between a Monte Carlo code and a thermal-hydraulics code is being developed within the European NURISP project for comprehensive and validated reactor analysis. The scheme is flexible as it allows different Monte Carlo codes and different thermal-hydraulics codes to be used. At present the MCNP and TRIPOLI4 Monte Carlo codes can be used and the FLICA4 and SubChanFlow thermal-hydraulics codes. For all these codes only an original executable is necessary. A Python script drives the iterations between Monte Carlo and thermal-hydraulics calculations. It also calls a conversion program to merge a master input file for the Monte Carlo code with the appropriate temperature and coolant density data from the thermal-hydraulics calculation. Likewise it calls another conversion program to merge a master input file for the thermal-hydraulics code with the power distribution data from the Monte Carlo calculation. Special attention is given to the neutron cross section data for the various required temperatures in the Monte Carlo calculation. Results are shown for an infinite lattice of PWR fuel pin cells and a 3 x 3 fuel BWR pin cell cluster. Various possibilities for further improvement and optimization of the coupling system are discussed. (author)

  6. A flexible coupling scheme for Monte Carlo and thermal-hydraulics codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoogenboom, J. Eduard; Ivanov, Aleksandar; Sanchez, Victor; Diop, Cheikh

    2011-01-01

    A coupling scheme between a Monte Carlo code and a thermal-hydraulics code is being developed within the European NURISP project for comprehensive and validated reactor analysis. The scheme is flexible as it allows different Monte Carlo codes and different thermal-hydraulics codes to be used. At present the MCNP and TRIPOLI4 Monte Carlo codes can be used and the FLICA4 and SubChanFlow thermal-hydraulics codes. For all these codes only an original executable is necessary. A Python script drives the iterations between Monte Carlo and thermal-hydraulics calculations. It also calls a conversion program to merge a master input file for the Monte Carlo code with the appropriate temperature and coolant density data from the thermal-hydraulics calculation. Likewise it calls another conversion program to merge a master input file for the thermal-hydraulics code with the power distribution data from the Monte Carlo calculation. Special attention is given to the neutron cross section data for the various required temperatures in the Monte Carlo calculation. Results are shown for an infinite lattice of PWR fuel pin cells and a 3 x 3 fuel BWR pin cell cluster. Various possibilities for further improvement and optimization of the coupling system are discussed. (author)

  7. Burnup calculations using Monte Carlo method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ghosh, Biplab; Degweker, S.B.

    2009-01-01

    In the recent years, interest in burnup calculations using Monte Carlo methods has gained momentum. Previous burn up codes have used multigroup transport theory based calculations followed by diffusion theory based core calculations for the neutronic portion of codes. The transport theory methods invariably make approximations with regard to treatment of the energy and angle variables involved in scattering, besides approximations related to geometry simplification. Cell homogenisation to produce diffusion, theory parameters adds to these approximations. Moreover, while diffusion theory works for most reactors, it does not produce accurate results in systems that have strong gradients, strong absorbers or large voids. Also, diffusion theory codes are geometry limited (rectangular, hexagonal, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates). Monte Carlo methods are ideal to solve very heterogeneous reactors and/or lattices/assemblies in which considerable burnable poisons are used. The key feature of this approach is that Monte Carlo methods permit essentially 'exact' modeling of all geometrical detail, without resort to ene and spatial homogenization of neutron cross sections. Monte Carlo method would also be better for in Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS) which could have strong gradients due to the external source and a sub-critical assembly. To meet the demand for an accurate burnup code, we have developed a Monte Carlo burnup calculation code system in which Monte Carlo neutron transport code is coupled with a versatile code (McBurn) for calculating the buildup and decay of nuclides in nuclear materials. McBurn is developed from scratch by the authors. In this article we will discuss our effort in developing the continuous energy Monte Carlo burn-up code, McBurn. McBurn is intended for entire reactor core as well as for unit cells and assemblies. Generally, McBurn can do burnup of any geometrical system which can be handled by the underlying Monte Carlo transport code

  8. Comparison of calculations of a reflected reactor with diffusion, SN and Monte Carlo codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McGregor, B.

    1975-01-01

    A diffusion theory code, POW, was compared with a Monte Carlo transport theory code, KENO, for the calculation of a small C/ 235 U cylindrical core with a graphite reflector. The calculated multiplication factors were in good agreement but differences were noted in region-averaged group fluxes. A one-dimensional spherical geometry was devised to approximate cylindrical geometry. Differences similar to those already observed were noted when the region-averaged fluxes from a diffusion theory (POW) calculation were compared with an SN transport theory (ANAUSN) calculation for the spherical model. Calculations made with SN and Monte Carlo transport codes were in good agreement. It was concluded that observed flux differences were attributable to the POW code, and were not inconsistent with inherent diffusion theory approximations. (author)

  9. Vectorized Monte Carlo

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brown, F.B.

    1981-01-01

    Examination of the global algorithms and local kernels of conventional general-purpose Monte Carlo codes shows that multigroup Monte Carlo methods have sufficient structure to permit efficient vectorization. A structured multigroup Monte Carlo algorithm for vector computers is developed in which many particle events are treated at once on a cell-by-cell basis. Vectorization of kernels for tracking and variance reduction is described, and a new method for discrete sampling is developed to facilitate the vectorization of collision analysis. To demonstrate the potential of the new method, a vectorized Monte Carlo code for multigroup radiation transport analysis was developed. This code incorporates many features of conventional general-purpose production codes, including general geometry, splitting and Russian roulette, survival biasing, variance estimation via batching, a number of cutoffs, and generalized tallies of collision, tracklength, and surface crossing estimators with response functions. Predictions of vectorized performance characteristics for the CYBER-205 were made using emulated coding and a dynamic model of vector instruction timing. Computation rates were examined for a variety of test problems to determine sensitivities to batch size and vector lengths. Significant speedups are predicted for even a few hundred particles per batch, and asymptotic speedups by about 40 over equivalent Amdahl 470V/8 scalar codes arepredicted for a few thousand particles per batch. The principal conclusion is that vectorization of a general-purpose multigroup Monte Carlo code is well worth the significant effort required for stylized coding and major algorithmic changes

  10. Parallelization of MCNP Monte Carlo neutron and photon transport code in parallel virtual machine and message passing interface

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deng Li; Xie Zhongsheng

    1999-01-01

    The coupled neutron and photon transport Monte Carlo code MCNP (version 3B) has been parallelized in parallel virtual machine (PVM) and message passing interface (MPI) by modifying a previous serial code. The new code has been verified by solving sample problems. The speedup increases linearly with the number of processors and the average efficiency is up to 99% for 12-processor. (author)

  11. ITS Version 3.0: The Integrated TIGER Series of coupled electron/photon Monte Carlo transport codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Halbleib, J.A.; Kensek, R.P.; Valdez, G.D.; Mehlhorn, T.A.; Seltzer, S.M.; Berger, M.J.

    1993-01-01

    ITS is a powerful and user-friendly software package permitting state-of-the-art Monte Carlo solution of linear time-independent coupled electron/photon radiation transport problems, with or without the presence of macroscopic electric and magnetic fields. It combines operational simplicity and physical accuracy in order to provide experimentalists and theorists alike with a method for the routine but rigorous solution of sophisticated radiation transport problems. Flexibility of construction permits tailoring of the codes to specific applications and extension of code capabilities to more complex applications through simple update procedures

  12. ITS Version 3.0: The Integrated TIGER Series of coupled electron/photon Monte Carlo transport codes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Halbleib, J.A.; Kensek, R.P.; Valdez, G.D.; Mehlhorn, T.A. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Seltzer, S.M.; Berger, M.J. [National Inst. of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (United States). Ionizing Radiation Div.

    1993-06-01

    ITS is a powerful and user-friendly software package permitting state-of-the-art Monte Carlo solution of linear time-independent coupled electron/photon radiation transport problems, with or without the presence of macroscopic electric and magnetic fields. It combines operational simplicity and physical accuracy in order to provide experimentalists and theorists alike with a method for the routine but rigorous solution of sophisticated radiation transport problems. Flexibility of construction permits tailoring of the codes to specific applications and extension of code capabilities to more complex applications through simple update procedures.

  13. Load balancing in highly parallel processing of Monte Carlo code for particle transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Higuchi, Kenji; Takemiya, Hiroshi; Kawasaki, Takuji

    1998-01-01

    In parallel processing of Monte Carlo (MC) codes for neutron, photon and electron transport problems, particle histories are assigned to processors making use of independency of the calculation for each particle. Although we can easily parallelize main part of a MC code by this method, it is necessary and practically difficult to optimize the code concerning load balancing in order to attain high speedup ratio in highly parallel processing. In fact, the speedup ratio in the case of 128 processors remains in nearly one hundred times when using the test bed for the performance evaluation. Through the parallel processing of the MCNP code, which is widely used in the nuclear field, it is shown that it is difficult to attain high performance by static load balancing in especially neutron transport problems, and a load balancing method, which dynamically changes the number of assigned particles minimizing the sum of the computational and communication costs, overcomes the difficulty, resulting in nearly fifteen percentage of reduction for execution time. (author)

  14. SPHERE: a spherical-geometry multimaterial electron/photon Monte Carlo transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Halbleib, J.A. Sr.

    1977-06-01

    SPHERE provides experimenters and theorists with a method for the routine solution of coupled electron/photon transport through multimaterial configurations possessing spherical symmetry. Emphasis is placed upon operational simplicity without sacrificing the rigor of the model. SPHERE combines condensed-history electron Monte Carlo with conventional single-scattering photon Monte Carlo in order to describe the transport of all generations of particles from several MeV down to 1.0 and 10.0 keV for electrons and photons, respectively. The model is more accurate at the higher energies, with a less rigorous description of the particle cascade at energies where the shell structure of the transport media becomes important. Flexibility of construction permits the user to tailor the model to specific applications and to extend the capabilities of the model to more sophisticated applications through relatively simple update procedures. 8 figs., 3 tables

  15. Exploring Monte Carlo methods

    CERN Document Server

    Dunn, William L

    2012-01-01

    Exploring Monte Carlo Methods is a basic text that describes the numerical methods that have come to be known as "Monte Carlo." The book treats the subject generically through the first eight chapters and, thus, should be of use to anyone who wants to learn to use Monte Carlo. The next two chapters focus on applications in nuclear engineering, which are illustrative of uses in other fields. Five appendices are included, which provide useful information on probability distributions, general-purpose Monte Carlo codes for radiation transport, and other matters. The famous "Buffon's needle proble

  16. Packing simulation code to calculate distribution function of hard spheres by Monte Carlo method : MCRDF

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murata, Isao; Mori, Takamasa; Nakagawa, Masayuki; Shirai, Hiroshi.

    1996-03-01

    High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) employ spherical fuels named coated fuel particles (CFPs) consisting of a microsphere of low enriched UO 2 with coating layers in order to prevent FP release. There exist many spherical fuels distributed randomly in the cores. Therefore, the nuclear design of HTGRs is generally performed on the basis of the multigroup approximation using a diffusion code, S N transport code or group-wise Monte Carlo code. This report summarizes a Monte Carlo hard sphere packing simulation code to simulate the packing of equal hard spheres and evaluate the necessary probability distribution of them, which is used for the application of the new Monte Carlo calculation method developed to treat randomly distributed spherical fuels with the continuous energy Monte Carlo method. By using this code, obtained are the various statistical values, namely Radial Distribution Function (RDF), Nearest Neighbor Distribution (NND), 2-dimensional RDF and so on, for random packing as well as ordered close packing of FCC and BCC. (author)

  17. A Monte Carlo Green's function method for three-dimensional neutron transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gamino, R.G.; Brown, F.B.; Mendelson, M.R.

    1992-01-01

    This paper describes a Monte Carlo transport kernel capability, which has recently been incorporated into the RACER continuous-energy Monte Carlo code. The kernels represent a Green's function method for neutron transport from a fixed-source volume out to a particular volume of interest. This method is very powerful transport technique. Also, since kernels are evaluated numerically by Monte Carlo, the problem geometry can be arbitrarily complex, yet exact. This method is intended for problems where an ex-core neutron response must be determined for a variety of reactor conditions. Two examples are ex-core neutron detector response and vessel critical weld fast flux. The response is expressed in terms of neutron transport kernels weighted by a core fission source distribution. In these types of calculations, the response must be computed for hundreds of source distributions, but the kernels only need to be calculated once. The advance described in this paper is that the kernels are generated with a highly accurate three-dimensional Monte Carlo transport calculation instead of an approximate method such as line-of-sight attenuation theory or a synthesized three-dimensional discrete ordinates solution

  18. Accuracy estimation for intermediate and low energy neutron transport calculation with Monte Carlo code MCNP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kotegawa, Hiroshi; Sasamoto, Nobuo; Tanaka, Shun-ichi

    1987-02-01

    Both ''measured radioactive inventory due to neutron activation in the shield concrete of JPDR'' and ''measured intermediate and low energy neutron spectra penetrating through a graphite sphere'' are analyzed using a continuous energy model Monte Carlo code MCNP so as to estimate calculational accuracy of the code for neutron transport in thermal and epithermal energy regions. Analyses reveal that MCNP calculates thermal neutron spectra fairly accurately, while it apparently over-estimates epithermal neutron spectra (of approximate 1/E distribution) as compared with the measurements. (author)

  19. Vectorization and multitasking with a Monte-Carlo code for neutron transport problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chauvet, Y.

    1985-04-01

    This paper summarizes two improvements of a Monte Carlo code by resorting to vectorization and multitasking techniques. After a short presentation of the physical problem to solve and a description of the main difficulties to produce an efficient coding, this paper introduces the vectorization principles employed and briefly describes how the vectorized algorithm works. Next, measured performances on CRAY 1S, CYBER 205 and CRAY X-MP are compared. The second part of this paper is devoted to multitasking technique. Starting from the standard multitasking tools available with FORTRAN on CRAY X-MP/4, a multitasked algorithm and its measured speed-ups are presented. In conclusion we prove that vector and parallel computers are a great opportunity for such Monte Carlo algorithms

  20. ITS - The integrated TIGER series of coupled electron/photon Monte Carlo transport codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Halbleib, J.A.; Mehlhorn, T.A.

    1985-01-01

    The TIGER series of time-independent coupled electron/photon Monte Carlo transport codes is a group of multimaterial, multidimensional codes designed to provide a state-of-the-art description of the production and transport of the electron/photon cascade. The codes follow both electrons and photons from 1.0 GeV down to 1.0 keV, and the user has the option of combining the collisional transport with transport in macroscopic electric and magnetic fields of arbitrary spatial dependence. Source particles can be either electrons or photons. The most important output data are (a) charge and energy deposition profiles, (b) integral and differential escape coefficients for both electrons and photons, (c) differential electron and photon flux, and (d) pulse-height distributions for selected regions of the problem geometry. The base codes of the series differ from one another primarily in their dimensionality and geometric modeling. They include (a) a one-dimensional multilayer code, (b) a code that describes the transport in two-dimensional axisymmetric cylindrical material geometries with a fully three-dimensional description of particle trajectories, and (c) a general three-dimensional transport code which employs a combinatorial geometry scheme. These base codes were designed primarily for describing radiation transport for those situations in which the detailed atomic structure of the transport medium is not important. For some applications, it is desirable to have a more detailed model of the low energy transport. The system includes three additional codes that contain a more elaborate ionization/relaxation model than the base codes. Finally, the system includes two codes that combine the collisional transport of the multidimensional base codes with transport in macroscopic electric and magnetic fields of arbitrary spatial dependence

  1. Domain Decomposition strategy for pin-wise full-core Monte Carlo depletion calculation with the reactor Monte Carlo Code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liang, Jingang; Wang, Kan; Qiu, Yishu [Dept. of Engineering Physics, LiuQing Building, Tsinghua University, Beijing (China); Chai, Xiao Ming; Qiang, Sheng Long [Science and Technology on Reactor System Design Technology Laboratory, Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu (China)

    2016-06-15

    Because of prohibitive data storage requirements in large-scale simulations, the memory problem is an obstacle for Monte Carlo (MC) codes in accomplishing pin-wise three-dimensional (3D) full-core calculations, particularly for whole-core depletion analyses. Various kinds of data are evaluated and quantificational total memory requirements are analyzed based on the Reactor Monte Carlo (RMC) code, showing that tally data, material data, and isotope densities in depletion are three major parts of memory storage. The domain decomposition method is investigated as a means of saving memory, by dividing spatial geometry into domains that are simulated separately by parallel processors. For the validity of particle tracking during transport simulations, particles need to be communicated between domains. In consideration of efficiency, an asynchronous particle communication algorithm is designed and implemented. Furthermore, we couple the domain decomposition method with MC burnup process, under a strategy of utilizing consistent domain partition in both transport and depletion modules. A numerical test of 3D full-core burnup calculations is carried out, indicating that the RMC code, with the domain decomposition method, is capable of pin-wise full-core burnup calculations with millions of depletion regions.

  2. Usage of burnt fuel isotopic compositions from engineering codes in Monte-Carlo code calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aleshin, Sergey S.; Gorodkov, Sergey S.; Shcherenko, Anna I.

    2015-01-01

    A burn-up calculation of VVER's cores by Monte-Carlo code is complex process and requires large computational costs. This fact makes Monte-Carlo codes usage complicated for project and operating calculations. Previously prepared isotopic compositions are proposed to use for the Monte-Carlo code (MCU) calculations of different states of VVER's core with burnt fuel. Isotopic compositions are proposed to calculate by an approximation method. The approximation method is based on usage of a spectral functionality and reference isotopic compositions, that are calculated by engineering codes (TVS-M, PERMAK-A). The multiplication factors and power distributions of FA and VVER with infinite height are calculated in this work by the Monte-Carlo code MCU using earlier prepared isotopic compositions. The MCU calculation data were compared with the data which were obtained by engineering codes.

  3. VIM: a continuous energy Monte Carlo code at ANL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blomquist, R.N.; Lell, R.M.; Gelbard, E.M.

    1980-01-01

    The continuous-energy Monte Carlo neutron transport code VIM and its auxiliaries are briefly described. The ENDF/B cross section data processing procedure is summarized and its benchmarking against MC 2 -2 is reviewed. Several representative applications at ANL are described, including fast critical assembly benchmark calculations and STF and TREAT Upgrade benchmark calculations. 2 figures

  4. Evaluation of Monte Carlo electron-Transport algorithms in the integrated Tiger series codes for stochastic-media simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Franke, B.C.; Kensek, R.P.; Prinja, A.K.

    2013-01-01

    Stochastic-media simulations require numerous boundary crossings. We consider two Monte Carlo electron transport approaches and evaluate accuracy with numerous material boundaries. In the condensed-history method, approximations are made based on infinite-medium solutions for multiple scattering over some track length. Typically, further approximations are employed for material-boundary crossings where infinite-medium solutions become invalid. We have previously explored an alternative 'condensed transport' formulation, a Generalized Boltzmann-Fokker-Planck (GBFP) method, which requires no special boundary treatment but instead uses approximations to the electron-scattering cross sections. Some limited capabilities for analog transport and a GBFP method have been implemented in the Integrated Tiger Series (ITS) codes. Improvements have been made to the condensed history algorithm. The performance of the ITS condensed-history and condensed-transport algorithms are assessed for material-boundary crossings. These assessments are made both by introducing artificial material boundaries and by comparison to analog Monte Carlo simulations. (authors)

  5. Monte Carlo Codes Invited Session

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trama, J.C.; Malvagi, F.; Brown, F.

    2013-01-01

    This document lists 22 Monte Carlo codes used in radiation transport applications throughout the world. For each code the names of the organization and country and/or place are given. We have the following computer codes. 1) ARCHER, USA, RPI; 2) COG11, USA, LLNL; 3) DIANE, France, CEA/DAM Bruyeres; 4) FLUKA, Italy and CERN, INFN and CERN; 5) GEANT4, International GEANT4 collaboration; 6) KENO and MONACO (SCALE), USA, ORNL; 7) MC21, USA, KAPL and Bettis; 8) MCATK, USA, LANL; 9) MCCARD, South Korea, Seoul National University; 10) MCNP6, USA, LANL; 11) MCU, Russia, Kurchatov Institute; 12) MONK and MCBEND, United Kingdom, AMEC; 13) MORET5, France, IRSN Fontenay-aux-Roses; 14) MVP2, Japan, JAEA; 15) OPENMC, USA, MIT; 16) PENELOPE, Spain, Barcelona University; 17) PHITS, Japan, JAEA; 18) PRIZMA, Russia, VNIITF; 19) RMC, China, Tsinghua University; 20) SERPENT, Finland, VTT; 21) SUPERMONTECARLO, China, CAS INEST FDS Team Hefei; and 22) TRIPOLI-4, France, CEA Saclay

  6. MCNP: a general Monte Carlo code for neutron and photon transport. Version 3A. Revision 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Briesmeister, J.F.

    1986-09-01

    This manual is a practical guide for the use of our general-purpose Monte Carlo code MCNP. The first chapter is a primer for the novice user. The second chapter describes the mathematics, data, physics, and Monte Carlo simulation found in MCNP. This discussion is not meant to be exhaustive - details of the particular techniques and of the Monte Carlo method itself will have to be found elsewhere. The third chapter shows the user how to prepare input for the code. The fourth chapter contains several examples, and the fifth chapter explains the output. The appendices show how to use MCNP on particular computer systems at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and also give details about some of the code internals that those who wish to modify the code may find useful. 57 refs

  7. Monte-Carlo Impurity transport simulations in the edge of the DIII-D tokamak using the MCI code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Evans, T.E.; Mahdavi, M.A.; Sager, G.T.; West, W.P.; Fenstermacher, M.E.; Meyer, W.H.; Porter, G.D.

    1995-07-01

    A Monte-Carlo Impurity (MCI) transport code is used to follow trace impurities through multiple ionization states in realistic 2-D tokamak geometries. The MCI code is used to study impurity transport along the open magnetic field lines of the Scrape-off Layer (SOL) and to understand how impurities get into the core from the SOL. An MCI study concentrating on the entrainment of carbon impurities ions by deuterium background plasma into the DIII-D divertor is discussed. MCI simulation results are compared to experimental DIII-D carbon measurements

  8. Monte-Carlo Impurity transport simulations in the edge of the DIII-D tokamak using the MCI code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Evans, T.E.; Sager, G.T.; Mahdavi, M.A.; Porter, G.D.; Fenstermacher, M.E.; Meyer, W.H.

    1995-01-01

    A Monte-Carlo Impurity (MCI) transport code is used to follow trace impurities through multiple ionization states in realistic 2-D tokamak geometries. The MCI code is used to study impurity transport along the open magnetic field lines of the Scrape-off Layer (SOL) and to understand how impurities get into the core from the SOL. An MCI study concentrating on the entrainment of carbon impurities ions by deuterium background plasma into the DII-D divertor is discussed. MCI simulation results are compared to experimental DII-D carbon measurements. 2 refs

  9. Measured performances on vectorization and multitasking with a Monte Carlo code for neutron transport problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chauvet, Y.

    1985-01-01

    This paper summarized two improvements of a real production code by using vectorization and multitasking techniques. After a short description of Monte Carlo algorithms employed in neutron transport problems, the authors briefly describe the work done in order to get a vector code. Vectorization principles are presented and measured performances on the CRAY 1S, CYBER 205 and CRAY X-MP compared in terms of vector lengths. The second part of this work is an adaptation to multitasking on the CRAY X-MP using exclusively standard multitasking tools available with FORTRAN under the COS 1.13 system. Two examples are presented. The goal of the first one is to measure the overhead inherent to multitasking when tasks become too small and to define a granularity threshold, that is to say a minimum size for a task. With the second example they propose a method that is very X-MP oriented in order to get the best speedup factor on such a computer. In conclusion they prove that Monte Carlo algorithms are very well suited to future vector and parallel computers

  10. Randomly dispersed particle fuel model in the PSG Monte Carlo neutron transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leppaenen, J.

    2007-01-01

    High-temperature gas-cooled reactor fuels are composed of thousands of microscopic fuel particles, randomly dispersed in a graphite matrix. The modelling of such geometry is complicated, especially using continuous-energy Monte Carlo codes, which are unable to apply any deterministic corrections in the calculation. This paper presents the geometry routine developed for modelling randomly dispersed particle fuels using the PSG Monte Carlo reactor physics code. The model is based on the delta-tracking method, and it takes into account the spatial self-shielding effects and the random dispersion of the fuel particles. The calculation routine is validated by comparing the results to reference MCNP4C calculations using uranium and plutonium based fuels. (authors)

  11. Combinatorial geometry domain decomposition strategies for Monte Carlo simulations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li, G.; Zhang, B.; Deng, L.; Mo, Z.; Liu, Z.; Shangguan, D.; Ma, Y.; Li, S.; Hu, Z. [Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing, 100094 (China)

    2013-07-01

    Analysis and modeling of nuclear reactors can lead to memory overload for a single core processor when it comes to refined modeling. A method to solve this problem is called 'domain decomposition'. In the current work, domain decomposition algorithms for a combinatorial geometry Monte Carlo transport code are developed on the JCOGIN (J Combinatorial Geometry Monte Carlo transport INfrastructure). Tree-based decomposition and asynchronous communication of particle information between domains are described in the paper. Combination of domain decomposition and domain replication (particle parallelism) is demonstrated and compared with that of MERCURY code. A full-core reactor model is simulated to verify the domain decomposition algorithms using the Monte Carlo particle transport code JMCT (J Monte Carlo Transport Code), which has being developed on the JCOGIN infrastructure. Besides, influences of the domain decomposition algorithms to tally variances are discussed. (authors)

  12. Combinatorial geometry domain decomposition strategies for Monte Carlo simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, G.; Zhang, B.; Deng, L.; Mo, Z.; Liu, Z.; Shangguan, D.; Ma, Y.; Li, S.; Hu, Z.

    2013-01-01

    Analysis and modeling of nuclear reactors can lead to memory overload for a single core processor when it comes to refined modeling. A method to solve this problem is called 'domain decomposition'. In the current work, domain decomposition algorithms for a combinatorial geometry Monte Carlo transport code are developed on the JCOGIN (J Combinatorial Geometry Monte Carlo transport INfrastructure). Tree-based decomposition and asynchronous communication of particle information between domains are described in the paper. Combination of domain decomposition and domain replication (particle parallelism) is demonstrated and compared with that of MERCURY code. A full-core reactor model is simulated to verify the domain decomposition algorithms using the Monte Carlo particle transport code JMCT (J Monte Carlo Transport Code), which has being developed on the JCOGIN infrastructure. Besides, influences of the domain decomposition algorithms to tally variances are discussed. (authors)

  13. Monte Carlo simulation of nuclear energy study (II). Annual report on Nuclear Code Evaluation Committee

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2001-01-01

    In the report, research results discussed in 1999 fiscal year at Nuclear Code Evaluation Committee of Nuclear Code Research Committee were summarized. Present status of Monte Carlo simulation on nuclear energy study was described. Especially, besides of criticality, shielding and core analyses, present status of applications to risk and radiation damage analyses, high energy transport and nuclear theory calculations of Monte Carlo Method was described. The 18 papers are indexed individually. (J.P.N.)

  14. MVP/GMVP version 3. General purpose Monte Carlo codes for neutron and photon transport calculations based on continuous energy and multigroup methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagaya, Yasunobu; Okumura, Keisuke; Sakurai, Takeshi; Mori, Takamasa

    2017-03-01

    In order to realize fast and accurate Monte Carlo simulation of neutron and photon transport problems, two Monte Carlo codes MVP (continuous-energy method) and GMVP (multigroup method) have been developed at Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The codes have adopted a vectorized algorithm and have been developed for vector-type supercomputers. They also support parallel processing with a standard parallelization library MPI and thus a speed-up of Monte Carlo calculations can be achieved on general computing platforms. The first and second versions of the codes were released in 1994 and 2005, respectively. They have been extensively improved and new capabilities have been implemented. The major improvements and new capabilities are as follows: (1) perturbation calculation for effective multiplication factor, (2) exact resonant elastic scattering model, (3) calculation of reactor kinetics parameters, (4) photo-nuclear model, (5) simulation of delayed neutrons, (6) generation of group constants. This report describes the physical model, geometry description method used in the codes, new capabilities and input instructions. (author)

  15. Comparative Criticality Analysis of Two Monte Carlo Codes on Centrifugal Atomizer: MCNPS and SCALE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kang, H-S; Jang, M-S; Kim, S-R; Park, J-M; Kim, K-N

    2015-01-01

    There are two well-known Monte Carlo codes for criticality analysis, MCNP5 and SCALE. MCNP5 is a general-purpose Monte Carlo N-Particle code that can be used for neutron, photon, electron or coupled neutron / photon / electron transport, including the capability to calculate eigenvalues for critical system as a main analysis code. SCALE provides a comprehensive, verified and validated, user-friendly tool set for criticality safety, reactor physics, radiation shielding, radioactive source term characterization, and sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. SCALE was conceived and funded by US NRC to perform standardized computer analysis for licensing evaluation and is used widely in the world. We performed a validation test of MCNP5 and a comparative analysis of Monte Carlo codes, MCNP5 and SCALE, in terms of the critical analysis of centrifugal atomizer. In the criticality analysis using MCNP5 code, we obtained the statistically reliable results by using a large number of source histories per cycle and performing of uncertainty analysis

  16. Comparative Criticality Analysis of Two Monte Carlo Codes on Centrifugal Atomizer: MCNPS and SCALE

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kang, H-S; Jang, M-S; Kim, S-R [NESS, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Park, J-M; Kim, K-N [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2015-10-15

    There are two well-known Monte Carlo codes for criticality analysis, MCNP5 and SCALE. MCNP5 is a general-purpose Monte Carlo N-Particle code that can be used for neutron, photon, electron or coupled neutron / photon / electron transport, including the capability to calculate eigenvalues for critical system as a main analysis code. SCALE provides a comprehensive, verified and validated, user-friendly tool set for criticality safety, reactor physics, radiation shielding, radioactive source term characterization, and sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. SCALE was conceived and funded by US NRC to perform standardized computer analysis for licensing evaluation and is used widely in the world. We performed a validation test of MCNP5 and a comparative analysis of Monte Carlo codes, MCNP5 and SCALE, in terms of the critical analysis of centrifugal atomizer. In the criticality analysis using MCNP5 code, we obtained the statistically reliable results by using a large number of source histories per cycle and performing of uncertainty analysis.

  17. Methodology of Continuous-Energy Adjoint Monte Carlo for Neutron, Photon, and Coupled Neutron-Photon Transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoogenboom, J. Eduard

    2003-01-01

    Adjoint Monte Carlo may be a useful alternative to regular Monte Carlo calculations in cases where a small detector inhibits an efficient Monte Carlo calculation as only very few particle histories will cross the detector. However, in general purpose Monte Carlo codes, normally only the multigroup form of adjoint Monte Carlo is implemented. In this article the general methodology for continuous-energy adjoint Monte Carlo neutron transport is reviewed and extended for photon and coupled neutron-photon transport. In the latter cases the discrete photons generated by annihilation or by neutron capture or inelastic scattering prevent a direct application of the general methodology. Two successive reaction events must be combined in the selection process to accommodate the adjoint analog of a reaction resulting in a photon with a discrete energy. Numerical examples illustrate the application of the theory for some simplified problems

  18. Monte Carlo code for neutron radiography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Milczarek, Jacek J.; Trzcinski, Andrzej; El-Ghany El Abd, Abd; Czachor, Andrzej

    2005-01-01

    The concise Monte Carlo code, MSX, for simulation of neutron radiography images of non-uniform objects is presented. The possibility of modeling the images of objects with continuous spatial distribution of specific isotopes is included. The code can be used for assessment of the scattered neutron component in neutron radiograms

  19. Monte Carlo code for neutron radiography

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Milczarek, Jacek J. [Institute of Atomic Energy, Swierk, 05-400 Otwock (Poland)]. E-mail: jjmilcz@cyf.gov.pl; Trzcinski, Andrzej [Institute for Nuclear Studies, Swierk, 05-400 Otwock (Poland); El-Ghany El Abd, Abd [Institute of Atomic Energy, Swierk, 05-400 Otwock (Poland); Nuclear Research Center, PC 13759, Cairo (Egypt); Czachor, Andrzej [Institute of Atomic Energy, Swierk, 05-400 Otwock (Poland)

    2005-04-21

    The concise Monte Carlo code, MSX, for simulation of neutron radiography images of non-uniform objects is presented. The possibility of modeling the images of objects with continuous spatial distribution of specific isotopes is included. The code can be used for assessment of the scattered neutron component in neutron radiograms.

  20. Organization of cross-section data in the Monte Carlo code SPARTAN

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bending, R.C.

    1974-01-01

    The Monte Carlo code SPARTAN is a general-purpose code intended for neutron or gamma transport calculations. The code is designed to accept physics data from a number of external libraries (which may be used singly or in combination) and to use this data with as little alteration as possible. Data obtained from one or several libraries is placed in an interface file on magnetic tape or disk, using a general hierarchical structure which allows particular data items to be assessed in a straightforward way. The interface file, with or without additional data from cards, is regarded as a data source for the main Monte Carlo calculation. A summary of the functional forms, sampling distributions, and particle interaction laws which are available at present, and some of the mathematical methods used are described. 5 references. (U.S.)

  1. Solution of charged particle transport equation by Monte-Carlo method in the BRANDZ code system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Artamonov, S.N.; Androsenko, P.A.; Androsenko, A.A.

    1992-01-01

    Consideration is given to the issues of Monte-Carlo employment for the solution of charged particle transport equation and its implementation in the BRANDZ code system under the conditions of real 3D geometry and all the data available on radiation-to-matter interaction in multicomponent and multilayer targets. For the solution of implantation problem the results of BRANDZ data comparison with the experiments and calculations by other codes in complexes systems are presented. The results of direct nuclear pumping process simulation for laser-active media by a proton beam are also included. 4 refs.; 7 figs

  2. A Monte Carlo method using octree structure in photon and electron transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ogawa, K.; Maeda, S.

    1995-01-01

    Most of the early Monte Carlo calculations in medical physics were used to calculate absorbed dose distributions, and detector responses and efficiencies. Recently, data acquisition in Single Photon Emission CT (SPECT) has been simulated by a Monte Carlo method to evaluate scatter photons generated in a human body and a collimator. Monte Carlo simulations in SPECT data acquisition are generally based on the transport of photons only because the photons being simulated are low energy, and therefore the bremsstrahlung productions by the electrons generated are negligible. Since the transport calculation of photons without electrons is much simpler than that with electrons, it is possible to accomplish the high-speed simulation in a simple object with one medium. Here, object description is important in performing the photon and/or electron transport using a Monte Carlo method efficiently. The authors propose a new description method using an octree representation of an object. Thus even if the boundaries of each medium are represented accurately, high-speed calculation of photon transport can be accomplished because the number of voxels is much fewer than that of the voxel-based approach which represents an object by a union of the voxels of the same size. This Monte Carlo code using the octree representation of an object first establishes the simulation geometry by reading octree string, which is produced by forming an octree structure from a set of serial sections for the object before the simulation; then it transports photons in the geometry. Using the code, if the user just prepares a set of serial sections for the object in which he or she wants to simulate photon trajectories, he or she can perform the simulation automatically using the suboptimal geometry simplified by the octree representation without forming the optimal geometry by handwriting

  3. Burnup code for fuel assembly by Monte Carlo code. MKENO-BURN

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Naito, Yoshitaka; Suyama, Kenya; Masukawa, Fumihiro; Matsumoto, Kiyoshi; Kurosawa, Masayoshi; Kaneko, Toshiyuki.

    1996-12-01

    The evaluation of neutron spectrum is so important for burnup calculation of the heterogeneous geometry like recent BWR fuel assembly. MKENO-BURN is a multi dimensional burnup code that based on the three dimensional monte carlo neutron transport code 'MULTI-KENO' and the routine for the burnup calculation of the one dimensional burnup code 'UNITBURN'. MKENO-BURN analyzes the burnup problem of arbitrary regions after evaluating the neutron spectrum and making one group cross section in three dimensional geometry with MULTI-KENO. It enables us to do three dimensional burnup calculation. This report consists of general description of MKENO-BURN and the input data. (author)

  4. Burnup code for fuel assembly by Monte Carlo code. MKENO-BURN

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Naito, Yoshitaka; Suyama, Kenya; Masukawa, Fumihiro; Matsumoto, Kiyoshi; Kurosawa, Masayoshi [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment; Kaneko, Toshiyuki

    1996-12-01

    The evaluation of neutron spectrum is so important for burnup calculation of the heterogeneous geometry like recent BWR fuel assembly. MKENO-BURN is a multi dimensional burnup code that based on the three dimensional monte carlo neutron transport code `MULTI-KENO` and the routine for the burnup calculation of the one dimensional burnup code `UNITBURN`. MKENO-BURN analyzes the burnup problem of arbitrary regions after evaluating the neutron spectrum and making one group cross section in three dimensional geometry with MULTI-KENO. It enables us to do three dimensional burnup calculation. This report consists of general description of MKENO-BURN and the input data. (author)

  5. Review of the Monte Carlo and deterministic codes in radiation protection and dosimetry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tagziria, H

    2000-02-01

    Modelling a physical system can be carried out either stochastically or deterministically. An example of the former method is the Monte Carlo technique, in which statistically approximate methods are applied to exact models. No transport equation is solved as individual particles are simulated and some specific aspect (tally) of their average behaviour is recorded. The average behaviour of the physical system is then inferred using the central limit theorem. In contrast, deterministic codes use mathematically exact methods that are applied to approximate models to solve the transport equation for the average particle behaviour. The physical system is subdivided in boxes in the phase-space system and particles are followed from one box to the next. The smaller the boxes the better the approximations become. Although the Monte Carlo method has been used for centuries, its more recent manifestation has really emerged from the Manhattan project of the Word War II. Its invention is thought to be mainly due to Metropolis, Ulah (through his interest in poker), Fermi, von Neuman andRichtmeyer. Over the last 20 years or so, the Monte Carlo technique has become a powerful tool in radiation transport. This is due to users taking full advantage of richer cross section data, more powerful computers and Monte Carlo techniques for radiation transport, with high quality physics and better known source spectra. This method is a common sense approach to radiation transport and its success and popularity is quite often also due to necessity, because measurements are not always possible or affordable. In the Monte Carlo method, which is inherently realistic because nature is statistical, a more detailed physics is made possible by isolation of events while rather elaborate geometries can be modelled. Provided that the physics is correct, a simulation is exactly analogous to an experimenter counting particles. In contrast to the deterministic approach, however, a disadvantage of the

  6. METHES: A Monte Carlo collision code for the simulation of electron transport in low temperature plasmas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rabie, M.; Franck, C. M.

    2016-06-01

    We present a freely available MATLAB code for the simulation of electron transport in arbitrary gas mixtures in the presence of uniform electric fields. For steady-state electron transport, the program provides the transport coefficients, reaction rates and the electron energy distribution function. The program uses established Monte Carlo techniques and is compatible with the electron scattering cross section files from the open-access Plasma Data Exchange Project LXCat. The code is written in object-oriented design, allowing the tracing and visualization of the spatiotemporal evolution of electron swarms and the temporal development of the mean energy and the electron number due to attachment and/or ionization processes. We benchmark our code with well-known model gases as well as the real gases argon, N2, O2, CF4, SF6 and mixtures of N2 and O2.

  7. DEEP code to calculate dose equivalents in human phantom for external photon exposure by Monte Carlo method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamaguchi, Yasuhiro

    1991-01-01

    The present report describes a computer code DEEP which calculates the organ dose equivalents and the effective dose equivalent for external photon exposure by the Monte Carlo method. MORSE-CG, Monte Carlo radiation transport code, is incorporated into the DEEP code to simulate photon transport phenomena in and around a human body. The code treats an anthropomorphic phantom represented by mathematical formulae and user has a choice for the phantom sex: male, female and unisex. The phantom can wear personal dosimeters on it and user can specify their location and dimension. This document includes instruction and sample problem for the code as well as the general description of dose calculation, human phantom and computer code. (author)

  8. Verification of the shift Monte Carlo code with the C5G7 reactor benchmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sly, N. C.; Mervin, B. T.; Mosher, S. W.; Evans, T. M.; Wagner, J. C.; Maldonado, G. I.

    2012-01-01

    Shift is a new hybrid Monte Carlo/deterministic radiation transport code being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. At its current stage of development, Shift includes a parallel Monte Carlo capability for simulating eigenvalue and fixed-source multigroup transport problems. This paper focuses on recent efforts to verify Shift's Monte Carlo component using the two-dimensional and three-dimensional C5G7 NEA benchmark problems. Comparisons were made between the benchmark eigenvalues and those output by the Shift code. In addition, mesh-based scalar flux tally results generated by Shift were compared to those obtained using MCNP5 on an identical model and tally grid. The Shift-generated eigenvalues were within three standard deviations of the benchmark and MCNP5-1.60 values in all cases. The flux tallies generated by Shift were found to be in very good agreement with those from MCNP. (authors)

  9. Overview and applications of the Monte Carlo radiation transport kit at LLNL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sale, K. E.

    1999-01-01

    Modern Monte Carlo radiation transport codes can be applied to model most applications of radiation, from optical to TeV photons, from thermal neutrons to heavy ions. Simulations can include any desired level of detail in three-dimensional geometries using the right level of detail in the reaction physics. The technology areas to which we have applied these codes include medical applications, defense, safety and security programs, nuclear safeguards and industrial and research system design and control. The main reason such applications are interesting is that by using these tools substantial savings of time and effort (i.e. money) can be realized. In addition it is possible to separate out and investigate computationally effects which can not be isolated and studied in experiments. In model calculations, just as in real life, one must take care in order to get the correct answer to the right question. Advancing computing technology allows extensions of Monte Carlo applications in two directions. First, as computers become more powerful more problems can be accurately modeled. Second, as computing power becomes cheaper Monte Carlo methods become accessible more widely. An overview of the set of Monte Carlo radiation transport tools in use a LLNL will be presented along with a few examples of applications and future directions

  10. Review of the Monte Carlo and deterministic codes in radiation protection and dosimetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tagziria, H.

    2000-02-01

    Modelling a physical system can be carried out either stochastically or deterministically. An example of the former method is the Monte Carlo technique, in which statistically approximate methods are applied to exact models. No transport equation is solved as individual particles are simulated and some specific aspect (tally) of their average behaviour is recorded. The average behaviour of the physical system is then inferred using the central limit theorem. In contrast, deterministic codes use mathematically exact methods that are applied to approximate models to solve the transport equation for the average particle behaviour. The physical system is subdivided in boxes in the phase-space system and particles are followed from one box to the next. The smaller the boxes the better the approximations become. Although the Monte Carlo method has been used for centuries, its more recent manifestation has really emerged from the Manhattan project of the Word War II. Its invention is thought to be mainly due to Metropolis, Ulah (through his interest in poker), Fermi, von Neuman and Richtmeyer. Over the last 20 years or so, the Monte Carlo technique has become a powerful tool in radiation transport. This is due to users taking full advantage of richer cross section data, more powerful computers and Monte Carlo techniques for radiation transport, with high quality physics and better known source spectra. This method is a common sense approach to radiation transport and its success and popularity is quite often also due to necessity, because measurements are not always possible or affordable. In the Monte Carlo method, which is inherently realistic because nature is statistical, a more detailed physics is made possible by isolation of events while rather elaborate geometries can be modelled. Provided that the physics is correct, a simulation is exactly analogous to an experimenter counting particles. In contrast to the deterministic approach, however, a disadvantage of the

  11. Measured performances on vectorization and multitasking with a Monte Carlo code for neutron transport problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chauvet, Y.

    1985-01-01

    This paper summarized two improvements of a real production code by using vectorization and multitasking techniques. After a short description of Monte Carlo algorithms employed in our neutron transport problems, we briefly describe the work we have done in order to get a vector code. Vectorization principles will be presented and measured performances on the CRAY 1S, CYBER 205 and CRAY X-MP compared in terms of vector lengths. The second part of this work is an adaptation to multitasking on the CRAY X-MP using exclusively standard multitasking tools available with FORTRAN under the COS 1.13 system. Two examples will be presented. The goal of the first one is to measure the overhead inherent to multitasking when tasks become too small and to define a granularity threshold, that is to say a minimum size for a task. With the second example we propose a method that is very X-MP oriented in order to get the best speedup factor on such a computer. In conclusion we prove that Monte Carlo algorithms are very well suited to future vector and parallel computers. (orig.)

  12. Study on random number generator in Monte Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oya, Kentaro; Kitada, Takanori; Tanaka, Shinichi

    2011-01-01

    The Monte Carlo code uses a sequence of pseudo-random numbers with a random number generator (RNG) to simulate particle histories. A pseudo-random number has its own period depending on its generation method and the period is desired to be long enough not to exceed the period during one Monte Carlo calculation to ensure the correctness especially for a standard deviation of results. The linear congruential generator (LCG) is widely used as Monte Carlo RNG and the period of LCG is not so long by considering the increasing rate of simulation histories in a Monte Carlo calculation according to the remarkable enhancement of computer performance. Recently, many kinds of RNG have been developed and some of their features are better than those of LCG. In this study, we investigate the appropriate RNG in a Monte Carlo code as an alternative to LCG especially for the case of enormous histories. It is found that xorshift has desirable features compared with LCG, and xorshift has a larger period, a comparable speed to generate random numbers, a better randomness, and good applicability to parallel calculation. (author)

  13. Monte Carlo 2000 Conference : Advanced Monte Carlo for Radiation Physics, Particle Transport Simulation and Applications

    CERN Document Server

    Baräo, Fernando; Nakagawa, Masayuki; Távora, Luis; Vaz, Pedro

    2001-01-01

    This book focusses on the state of the art of Monte Carlo methods in radiation physics and particle transport simulation and applications, the latter involving in particular, the use and development of electron--gamma, neutron--gamma and hadronic codes. Besides the basic theory and the methods employed, special attention is paid to algorithm development for modeling, and the analysis of experiments and measurements in a variety of fields ranging from particle to medical physics.

  14. Statistics of Monte Carlo methods used in radiation transport calculation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Datta, D.

    2009-01-01

    Radiation transport calculation can be carried out by using either deterministic or statistical methods. Radiation transport calculation based on statistical methods is basic theme of the Monte Carlo methods. The aim of this lecture is to describe the fundamental statistics required to build the foundations of Monte Carlo technique for radiation transport calculation. Lecture note is organized in the following way. Section (1) will describe the introduction of Basic Monte Carlo and its classification towards the respective field. Section (2) will describe the random sampling methods, a key component of Monte Carlo radiation transport calculation, Section (3) will provide the statistical uncertainty of Monte Carlo estimates, Section (4) will describe in brief the importance of variance reduction techniques while sampling particles such as photon, or neutron in the process of radiation transport

  15. Effects of physics change in Monte Carlo code on electron pencil beam dose distributions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toutaoui, Abdelkader; Khelassi-Toutaoui, Nadia; Brahimi, Zakia; Chami, Ahmed Chafik

    2012-01-01

    Pencil beam algorithms used in computerized electron beam dose planning are usually described using the small angle multiple scattering theory. Alternatively, the pencil beams can be generated by Monte Carlo simulation of electron transport. In a previous work, the 4th version of the Electron Gamma Shower (EGS) Monte Carlo code was used to obtain dose distributions from monoenergetic electron pencil beam, with incident energy between 1 MeV and 50 MeV, interacting at the surface of a large cylindrical homogeneous water phantom. In 2000, a new version of this Monte Carlo code has been made available by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), which includes various improvements in its electron-transport algorithms. In the present work, we were interested to see if the new physics in this version produces pencil beam dose distributions very different from those calculated with oldest one. The purpose of this study is to quantify as well as to understand these differences. We have compared a series of pencil beam dose distributions scored in cylindrical geometry, for electron energies between 1 MeV and 50 MeV calculated with two versions of the Electron Gamma Shower Monte Carlo Code. Data calculated and compared include isodose distributions, radial dose distributions and fractions of energy deposition. Our results for radial dose distributions show agreement within 10% between doses calculated by the two codes for voxels closer to the pencil beam central axis, while the differences are up to 30% for longer distances. For fractions of energy deposition, the results of the EGS4 are in good agreement (within 2%) with those calculated by EGSnrc at shallow depths for all energies, whereas a slightly worse agreement (15%) is observed at deeper distances. These differences may be mainly attributed to the different multiple scattering for electron transport adopted in these two codes and the inclusion of spin effect, which produces an increase of the effective range of

  16. PBMC: Pre-conditioned Backward Monte Carlo code for radiative transport in planetary atmospheres

    Science.gov (United States)

    García Muñoz, A.; Mills, F. P.

    2017-08-01

    PBMC (Pre-Conditioned Backward Monte Carlo) solves the vector Radiative Transport Equation (vRTE) and can be applied to planetary atmospheres irradiated from above. The code builds the solution by simulating the photon trajectories from the detector towards the radiation source, i.e. in the reverse order of the actual photon displacements. In accounting for the polarization in the sampling of photon propagation directions and pre-conditioning the scattering matrix with information from the scattering matrices of prior (in the BMC integration order) photon collisions, PBMC avoids the unstable and biased solutions of classical BMC algorithms for conservative, optically-thick, strongly-polarizing media such as Rayleigh atmospheres.

  17. New features of the mercury Monte Carlo particle transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Procassini, Richard; Brantley, Patrick; Dawson, Shawn

    2010-01-01

    Several new capabilities have been added to the Mercury Monte Carlo transport code over the past four years. The most important algorithmic enhancement is a general, extensible infrastructure to support source, tally and variance reduction actions. For each action, the user defines a phase space, as well as any number of responses that are applied to a specified event. Tallies are accumulated into a correlated, multi-dimensional. Cartesian-product result phase space. Our approach employs a common user interface to specify the data sets and distributions that define the phase, response and result for each action. Modifications to the particle trackers include the use of facet halos (instead of extrapolative fuzz) for robust tracking, and material interface reconstruction for use in shape overlaid meshes. Support for expected-value criticality eigenvalue calculations has also been implemented. Computer science enhancements include an in-line Python interface for user customization of problem setup and output. (author)

  18. The application of Monte Carlo method to electron and photon beams transport; Zastosowanie metody Monte Carlo do analizy transportu elektronow i fotonow

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zychor, I. [Soltan Inst. for Nuclear Studies, Otwock-Swierk (Poland)

    1994-12-31

    The application of a Monte Carlo method to study a transport in matter of electron and photon beams is presented, especially for electrons with energies up to 18 MeV. The SHOWME Monte Carlo code, a modified version of GEANT3 code, was used on the CONVEX C3210 computer at Swierk. It was assumed that an electron beam is mono directional and monoenergetic. Arbitrary user-defined, complex geometries made of any element or material can be used in calculation. All principal phenomena occurring when electron beam penetrates the matter are taken into account. The use of calculation for a therapeutic electron beam collimation is presented. (author). 20 refs, 29 figs.

  19. Microwave transport in EBT distribution manifolds using Monte Carlo ray-tracing techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lillie, R.A.; White, T.L.; Gabriel, T.A.; Alsmiller, R.G. Jr.

    1983-01-01

    Ray tracing Monte Carlo calculations have been carried out using an existing Monte Carlo radiation transport code to obtain estimates of the microsave power exiting the torus coupling links in EPT microwave manifolds. The microwave power loss and polarization at surface reflections were accounted for by treating the microwaves as plane waves reflecting off plane surfaces. Agreement on the order of 10% was obtained between the measured and calculated output power distribution for an existing EBT-S toroidal manifold. A cost effective iterative procedure utilizing the Monte Carlo history data was implemented to predict design changes which could produce increased manifold efficiency and improved output power uniformity

  20. Vectorization of phase space Monte Carlo code in FACOM vector processor VP-200

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miura, Kenichi

    1986-01-01

    This paper describes the vectorization techniques for Monte Carlo codes in Fujitsu's Vector Processor System. The phase space Monte Carlo code FOWL is selected as a benchmark, and scalar and vector performances are compared. The vectorized kernel Monte Carlo routine which contains heavily nested IF tests runs up to 7.9 times faster in vector mode than in scalar mode. The overall performance improvement of the vectorized FOWL code over the original scalar code reaches 3.3. The results of this study strongly indicate that supercomputer can be a powerful tool for Monte Carlo simulations in high energy physics. (Auth.)

  1. Monte Carlo method for neutron transport problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asaoka, Takumi

    1977-01-01

    Some methods for decreasing variances in Monte Carlo neutron transport calculations are presented together with the results of sample calculations. A general purpose neutron transport Monte Carlo code ''MORSE'' was used for the purpose. The first method discussed in this report is the method of statistical estimation. As an example of this method, the application of the coarse-mesh rebalance acceleration method to the criticality calculation of a cylindrical fast reactor is presented. Effective multiplication factor and its standard deviation are presented as a function of the number of histories and comparisons are made between the coarse-mesh rebalance method and the standard method. Five-group neutron fluxes at core center are also compared with the result of S4 calculation. The second method is the method of correlated sampling. This method was applied to the perturbation calculation of control rod worths in a fast critical assembly (FCA-V-3) Two methods of sampling (similar flight paths and identical flight paths) are tested and compared with experimental results. For every cases the experimental value lies within the standard deviation of the Monte Carlo calculations. The third method is the importance sampling. In this report a biased selection of particle flight directions discussed. This method was applied to the flux calculation in a spherical fast neutron system surrounded by a 10.16 cm iron reflector. Result-direction biasing, path-length stretching, and no biasing are compared with S8 calculation. (Aoki, K.)

  2. Space applications of the MITS electron-photon Monte Carlo transport code system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kensek, R.P.; Lorence, L.J.; Halbleib, J.A.; Morel, J.E.

    1996-01-01

    The MITS multigroup/continuous-energy electron-photon Monte Carlo transport code system has matured to the point that it is capable of addressing more realistic three-dimensional adjoint applications. It is first employed to efficiently predict point doses as a function of source energy for simple three-dimensional experimental geometries exposed to simulated uniform isotropic planar sources of monoenergetic electrons up to 4.0 MeV. Results are in very good agreement with experimental data. It is then used to efficiently simulate dose to a detector in a subsystem of a GPS satellite due to its natural electron environment, employing a relatively complex model of the satellite. The capability for survivability analysis of space systems is demonstrated, and results are obtained with and without variance reduction

  3. Vectorization of Monte Carlo particle transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burns, P.J.; Christon, M.; Schweitzer, R.; Lubeck, O.M.; Wasserman, H.J.; Simmons, M.L.; Pryor, D.V.

    1989-01-01

    This paper reports that fully vectorized versions of the Los Alamos National Laboratory benchmark code Gamteb, a Monte Carlo photon transport algorithm, were developed for the Cyber 205/ETA-10 and Cray X-MP/Y-MP architectures. Single-processor performance measurements of the vector and scalar implementations were modeled in a modified Amdahl's Law that accounts for additional data motion in the vector code. The performance and implementation strategy of the vector codes are related to architectural features of each machine. Speedups between fifteen and eighteen for Cyber 205/ETA-10 architectures, and about nine for CRAY X-MP/Y-MP architectures are observed. The best single processor execution time for the problem was 0.33 seconds on the ETA-10G, and 0.42 seconds on the CRAY Y-MP

  4. Recent developments of JAEA's Monte Carlo Code MVP for reactor physics applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagaya, Y.; Okumura, K.; Mori, T.

    2013-01-01

    MVP is a general-purpose continuous-energy Monte Carlo code for neutron and photon transport calculations that has been developed since the late 1980's at Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA, formerly JAERI). The MVP code is designed for nuclear reactor applications such as reactor core design/analysis, criticality safety and reactor shielding. This paper describes the MVP code and present its latest developments. Among the new capabilities of MVP we find: -) the perturbation method has been implemented for the change in k(eff); -) the eigenvalue calculations can be performed with an explicit treatment of delayed neutrons in which their fission spectra are taken into account; -) the capability of tallying the scattering matrix (group-to-group scattering cross sections); -) the implementation of an exact model for resonance elastic scattering; and -) a Monte Carlo perturbation technique is used to calculate reactor kinetics parameters

  5. Verification of three dimensional triangular prismatic discrete ordinates transport code ENSEMBLE-TRIZ by comparison with Monte Carlo code GMVP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Homma, Y.; Moriwaki, H.; Ikeda, K.; Ohdi, S.

    2013-01-01

    This paper deals with the verification of the 3 dimensional triangular prismatic discrete ordinates transport calculation code ENSEMBLE-TRIZ by comparison with the multi-group Monte Carlo calculation code GMVP in a large fast breeder reactor. The reactor is a 750 MWe electric power sodium cooled reactor. Nuclear characteristics are calculated at the beginning of cycle of an initial core and at the beginning and the end of cycle of an equilibrium core. According to the calculations, the differences between the two methodologies are smaller than 0.0002 Δk in the multiplication factor, relatively about 1% in the control rod reactivity, and 1% in the sodium void reactivity. (authors)

  6. Monte Carlo method for neutron transport calculations in graphics processing units (GPUs)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pellegrino, Esteban

    2011-01-01

    Monte Carlo simulation is well suited for solving the Boltzmann neutron transport equation in an inhomogeneous media for complicated geometries. However, routine applications require the computation time to be reduced to hours and even minutes in a desktop PC. The interest in adopting Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for Monte Carlo acceleration is rapidly growing. This is due to the massive parallelism provided by the latest GPU technologies which is the most promising solution to the challenge of performing full-size reactor core analysis on a routine basis. In this study, Monte Carlo codes for a fixed-source neutron transport problem were developed for GPU environments in order to evaluate issues associated with computational speedup using GPUs. Results obtained in this work suggest that a speedup of several orders of magnitude is possible using the state-of-the-art GPU technologies. (author) [es

  7. Extensions of the MCNP5 and TRIPOLI4 Monte Carlo Codes for Transient Reactor Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoogenboom, J. Eduard; Sjenitzer, Bart L.

    2014-06-01

    To simulate reactor transients for safety analysis with the Monte Carlo method the generation and decay of delayed neutron precursors is implemented in the MCNP5 and TRIPOLI4 general purpose Monte Carlo codes. Important new variance reduction techniques like forced decay of precursors in each time interval and the branchless collision method are included to obtain reasonable statistics for the power production per time interval. For simulation of practical reactor transients also the feedback effect from the thermal-hydraulics must be included. This requires coupling of the Monte Carlo code with a thermal-hydraulics (TH) code, providing the temperature distribution in the reactor, which affects the neutron transport via the cross section data. The TH code also provides the coolant density distribution in the reactor, directly influencing the neutron transport. Different techniques for this coupling are discussed. As a demonstration a 3x3 mini fuel assembly with a moving control rod is considered for MCNP5 and a mini core existing of 3x3 PWR fuel assemblies with control rods and burnable poisons for TRIPOLI4. Results are shown for reactor transients due to control rod movement or withdrawal. The TRIPOLI4 transient calculation is started at low power and includes thermal-hydraulic feedback. The power rises about 10 decades and finally stabilises the reactor power at a much higher level than initial. The examples demonstrate that the modified Monte Carlo codes are capable of performing correct transient calculations, taking into account all geometrical and cross section detail.

  8. Extensions of the MCNP5 and TRIPOLI4 Monte Carlo codes for transient reactor analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoogenboom, J.E.

    2013-01-01

    To simulate reactor transients for safety analysis with the Monte Carlo method the generation and decay of delayed neutron precursors is implemented in the MCNP5 and TRIPOLI4 general purpose Monte Carlo codes. Important new variance reduction techniques like forced decay of precursors in each time interval and the branch-less collision method are included to obtain reasonable statistics for the power production per time interval. For simulation of practical reactor transients also the feedback effect from the thermal-hydraulics must be included. This requires the coupling of the Monte Carlo code with a thermal-hydraulics (TH) code, providing the temperature distribution in the reactor, which affects the neutron transport via the cross section data. The TH code also provides the coolant density distribution in the reactor, directly influencing the neutron transport. Different techniques for this coupling are discussed. As a demonstration a 3*3 mini fuel assembly with a moving control rod is considered for MCNP5 and a mini core existing of 3*3 PWR fuel assemblies with control rods and burnable poisons for TRIPOLI4. Results are shown for reactor transients due to control rod movement or withdrawal. The TRIPOLI4 transient calculation is started at low power and includes thermal-hydraulic feedback. The power rises about 10 decades and finally stabilises the reactor power at a much higher level than initial. The examples demonstrate that the modified Monte Carlo codes are capable of performing correct transient calculations, taking into account all geometrical and cross section detail. (authors)

  9. MVP/GMVP Version 3. General purpose Monte Carlo codes for neutron and photon transport calculations based on continuous energy and multigroup methods (Translated document)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagaya, Yasunobu; Okumura, Keisuke; Sakurai, Takeshi; Mori, Takamasa

    2017-03-01

    In order to realize fast and accurate Monte Carlo simulation of neutron and photon transport problems, two Monte Carlo codes MVP (continuous-energy method) and GMVP (multigroup method) have been developed at Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The codes have adopted a vectorized algorithm and have been developed for vector-type supercomputers. They also support parallel processing with a standard parallelization library MPI and thus a speed-up of Monte Carlo calculations can be achieved on general computing platforms. The first and second versions of the codes were released in 1994 and 2005, respectively. They have been extensively improved and new capabilities have been implemented. The major improvements and new capabilities are as follows: (1) perturbation calculation for effective multiplication factor, (2) exact resonant elastic scattering model, (3) calculation of reactor kinetics parameters, (4) photo-nuclear model, (5) simulation of delayed neutrons, (6) generation of group constants. This report describes the physical model, geometry description method used in the codes, new capabilities and input instructions. (author)

  10. Development of fast and accurate Monte Carlo code MVP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mori, Takamasa

    2001-01-01

    The development work of fast and accurate Monte Carlo code MVP has started at JAERI in late 80s. From the beginning, the code was designed to utilize vector supercomputers and achieved higher computation speed by a factor of 10 or more compared with conventional codes. In 1994, the first version of MVP was released together with cross section libraries based on JENDL-3.1 and JENDL-3.2. In 1996, minor revision was made by adding several functions such as treatments of ENDF-B6 file 6 data, time dependent problem, and so on. Since 1996, several works have been carried out for the next version of MVP. The main works are (1) the development of continuous energy Monte Carlo burn-up calculation code MVP-BURN, (2) the development of a system to generate cross section libraries at arbitrary temperature, and (3) the study on error estimations and their biases in Monte Carlo eigenvalue calculations. This paper summarizes the main features of MVP, results of recent studies and future plans for MVP. (author)

  11. Modified Monte Carlo procedure for particle transport problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matthes, W.

    1978-01-01

    The simulation of photon transport in the atmosphere with the Monte Carlo method forms part of the EURASEP-programme. The specifications for the problems posed for a solution were such, that the direct application of the analogue Monte Carlo method was not feasible. For this reason the standard Monte Carlo procedure was modified in the sense that additional properly weighted branchings at each collision and transport process in a photon history were introduced. This modified Monte Carlo procedure leads to a clear and logical separation of the essential parts of a problem and offers a large flexibility for variance reducing techniques. More complex problems, as foreseen in the EURASEP-programme (e.g. clouds in the atmosphere, rough ocean-surface and chlorophyl-distribution in the ocean) can be handled by recoding some subroutines. This collision- and transport-splitting procedure can of course be performed differently in different space- and energy regions. It is applied here only for a homogeneous problem

  12. Discrete Diffusion Monte Carlo for Electron Thermal Transport

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chenhall, Jeffrey; Cao, Duc; Wollaeger, Ryan; Moses, Gregory

    2014-10-01

    The iSNB (implicit Schurtz Nicolai Busquet electron thermal transport method of Cao et al. is adapted to a Discrete Diffusion Monte Carlo (DDMC) solution method for eventual inclusion in a hybrid IMC-DDMC (Implicit Monte Carlo) method. The hybrid method will combine the efficiency of a diffusion method in short mean free path regions with the accuracy of a transport method in long mean free path regions. The Monte Carlo nature of the approach allows the algorithm to be massively parallelized. Work to date on the iSNB-DDMC method will be presented. This work was supported by Sandia National Laboratory - Albuquerque.

  13. Exponential convergence on a continuous Monte Carlo transport problem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Booth, T.E.

    1997-01-01

    For more than a decade, it has been known that exponential convergence on discrete transport problems was possible using adaptive Monte Carlo techniques. An adaptive Monte Carlo method that empirically produces exponential convergence on a simple continuous transport problem is described

  14. Investigation of pattern recognition techniques for the indentification of splitting surfaces in Monte Carlo particle transport calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Macdonald, J.L.

    1975-08-01

    Statistical and deterministic pattern recognition systems are designed to classify the state space of a Monte Carlo transport problem into importance regions. The surfaces separating the regions can be used for particle splitting and Russian roulette in state space in order to reduce the variance of the Monte Carlo tally. Computer experiments are performed to evaluate the performance of the technique using one and two dimensional Monte Carlo problems. Additional experiments are performed to determine the sensitivity of the technique to various pattern recognition and Monte Carlo problem dependent parameters. A system for applying the technique to a general purpose Monte Carlo code is described. An estimate of the computer time required by the technique is made in order to determine its effectiveness as a variance reduction device. It is recommended that the technique be further investigated in a general purpose Monte Carlo code. (auth)

  15. Review of Hybrid (Deterministic/Monte Carlo) Radiation Transport Methods, Codes, and Applications at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wagner, John C.; Peplow, Douglas E.; Mosher, Scott W.; Evans, Thomas M.

    2010-01-01

    This paper provides a review of the hybrid (Monte Carlo/deterministic) radiation transport methods and codes used at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and examples of their application for increasing the efficiency of real-world, fixed-source Monte Carlo analyses. The two principal hybrid methods are (1) Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling (CADIS) for optimization of a localized detector (tally) region (e.g., flux, dose, or reaction rate at a particular location) and (2) Forward Weighted CADIS (FW-CADIS) for optimizing distributions (e.g., mesh tallies over all or part of the problem space) or multiple localized detector regions (e.g., simultaneous optimization of two or more localized tally regions). The two methods have been implemented and automated in both the MAVRIC sequence of SCALE 6 and ADVANTG, a code that works with the MCNP code. As implemented, the methods utilize the results of approximate, fast-running 3-D discrete ordinates transport calculations (with the Denovo code) to generate consistent space- and energy-dependent source and transport (weight windows) biasing parameters. These methods and codes have been applied to many relevant and challenging problems, including calculations of PWR ex-core thermal detector response, dose rates throughout an entire PWR facility, site boundary dose from arrays of commercial spent fuel storage casks, radiation fields for criticality accident alarm system placement, and detector response for special nuclear material detection scenarios and nuclear well-logging tools. Substantial computational speed-ups, generally O(10 2-4 ), have been realized for all applications to date. This paper provides a brief review of the methods, their implementation, results of their application, and current development activities, as well as a considerable list of references for readers seeking more information about the methods and/or their applications.

  16. Review of Hybrid (Deterministic/Monte Carlo) Radiation Transport Methods, Codes, and Applications at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wagner, John C.; Peplow, Douglas E.; Mosher, Scott W.; Evans, Thomas M.

    2010-01-01

    This paper provides a review of the hybrid (Monte Carlo/deterministic) radiation transport methods and codes used at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and examples of their application for increasing the efficiency of real-world, fixed-source Monte Carlo analyses. The two principal hybrid methods are (1) Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling (CADIS) for optimization of a localized detector (tally) region (e.g., flux, dose, or reaction rate at a particular location) and (2) Forward Weighted CADIS (FW-CADIS) for optimizing distributions (e.g., mesh tallies over all or part of the problem space) or multiple localized detector regions (e.g., simultaneous optimization of two or more localized tally regions). The two methods have been implemented and automated in both the MAVRIC sequence of SCALE 6 and ADVANTG, a code that works with the MCNP code. As implemented, the methods utilize the results of approximate, fast-running 3-D discrete ordinates transport calculations (with the Denovo code) to generate consistent space- and energy-dependent source and transport (weight windows) biasing parameters. These methods and codes have been applied to many relevant and challenging problems, including calculations of PWR ex-core thermal detector response, dose rates throughout an entire PWR facility, site boundary dose from arrays of commercial spent fuel storage casks, radiation fields for criticality accident alarm system placement, and detector response for special nuclear material detection scenarios and nuclear well-logging tools. Substantial computational speed-ups, generally O(102-4), have been realized for all applications to date. This paper provides a brief review of the methods, their implementation, results of their application, and current development activities, as well as a considerable list of references for readers seeking more information about the methods and/or their applications.

  17. Review of hybrid (deterministic/Monte Carlo) radiation transport methods, codes, and applications at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wagner, J.C.; Peplow, D.E.; Mosher, S.W.; Evans, T.M.

    2010-01-01

    This paper provides a review of the hybrid (Monte Carlo/deterministic) radiation transport methods and codes used at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and examples of their application for increasing the efficiency of real-world, fixed-source Monte Carlo analyses. The two principal hybrid methods are (1) Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling (CADIS) for optimization of a localized detector (tally) region (e.g., flux, dose, or reaction rate at a particular location) and (2) Forward Weighted CADIS (FW-CADIS) for optimizing distributions (e.g., mesh tallies over all or part of the problem space) or multiple localized detector regions (e.g., simultaneous optimization of two or more localized tally regions). The two methods have been implemented and automated in both the MAVRIC sequence of SCALE 6 and ADVANTG, a code that works with the MCNP code. As implemented, the methods utilize the results of approximate, fast-running 3-D discrete ordinates transport calculations (with the Denovo code) to generate consistent space- and energy-dependent source and transport (weight windows) biasing parameters. These methods and codes have been applied to many relevant and challenging problems, including calculations of PWR ex-core thermal detector response, dose rates throughout an entire PWR facility, site boundary dose from arrays of commercial spent fuel storage casks, radiation fields for criticality accident alarm system placement, and detector response for special nuclear material detection scenarios and nuclear well-logging tools. Substantial computational speed-ups, generally O(10 2-4 ), have been realized for all applications to date. This paper provides a brief review of the methods, their implementation, results of their application, and current development activities, as well as a considerable list of references for readers seeking more information about the methods and/or their applications. (author)

  18. Summary - COG: A new point-wise Monte Carlo code for burnup credit analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alesso, H.P.

    1989-01-01

    COG, a new point-wise Monte Carlo code being developed and tested at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for the Cray-1, solves the Boltzmann equation for the transport of neutrons, photons, and (in future versions) other particles. Techniques included in the code for modifying the random walk of particles make COG most suitable for solving deep-penetration (shielding) problems and a wide variety of criticality problems. COG is similar to a number of other computer codes used in the shielding community. Each code is a little different in its geometry input and its random-walk modification options. COG is a Monte Carlo code specifically designed for the CRAY (in 1986) to be as precise as the current state of physics knowledge. It has been extensively benchmarked and used as a shielding code at LLNL since 1986, and has recently been extended to accomplish criticality calculations. It will make an excellent tool for future shipping cask studies

  19. Aurora T: a Monte Carlo code for transportation of neutral atoms in a toroidal plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bignami, A.; Chiorrini, R.

    1982-01-01

    This paper contains a short description of Aurora code. This code have been developed at Princeton with Monte Carlo method for calculating neutral gas in cylindrical plasma. In this work subroutines such one can take in account toroidal geometry are developed

  20. Modifications to the Monte Carlo neutronics code MONK

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hutton, J.L.

    1979-09-01

    The Monte Carlo neutronics code MONK has been widely used for criticality calculations, and is one of the standard methods for assessing the safety of transport flasks and fuel storage facilities in the UK. Recently, attempts have been made to extend the range of applications of this calculational technique. In particular studies have been carried out using Monte Carlo to analyse reactor physics experiments. In these applications various shortcomings of the standard version MONK5 became apparent. The basic data library was found to be inadequate and additional estimates of parameters (eg power distribution) not normally included in criticality studies were required. These features which required improvement, primarily in the context of using the code for reactor physics calculations, are enumerated. To facilitate the use of the code as a reactor physics calculational tool a series of modifications have been carried out. The code has been modified so that the user can use group data tabulations of the cross sections instead of the present 'point' data values. The code can now interface with a number of reactor physics group data preparation schemes but in particular it can use WIMS-E interfaces as a source of group data. Details of the changes are outlined and a new version of MONK incorporating these modifications has been created. This version is called MONK5W. This paper provides a guide to the use of this version. The data input is described along with other details required to use this code on the Harwell IBM 3033. To aid the user, examples of calculations using the new facilities incorporated in MONK5W are given. (UK)

  1. Applications guide to the MORSE Monte Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cramer, S.N.

    1985-08-01

    A practical guide for the implementation of the MORESE-CG Monte Carlo radiation transport computer code system is presented. The various versions of the MORSE code are compared and contrasted, and the many references dealing explicitly with the MORSE-CG code are reviewed. The treatment of angular scattering is discussed, and procedures for obtaining increased differentiality of results in terms of reaction types and nuclides from a multigroup Monte Carlo code are explained in terms of cross-section and geometry data manipulation. Examples of standard cross-section data input and output are shown. Many other features of the code system are also reviewed, including (1) the concept of primary and secondary particles, (2) fission neutron generation, (3) albedo data capability, (4) DOMINO coupling, (5) history file use for post-processing of results, (6) adjoint mode operation, (7) variance reduction, and (8) input/output. In addition, examples of the combinatorial geometry are given, and the new array of arrays geometry feature (MARS) and its three-dimensional plotting code (JUNEBUG) are presented. Realistic examples of user routines for source, estimation, path-length stretching, and cross-section data manipulation are given. A deatiled explanation of the coupling between the random walk and estimation procedure is given in terms of both code parameters and physical analogies. The operation of the code in the adjoint mode is covered extensively. The basic concepts of adjoint theory and dimensionality are discussed and examples of adjoint source and estimator user routines are given for all common situations. Adjoint source normalization is explained, a few sample problems are given, and the concept of obtaining forward differential results from adjoint calculations is covered. Finally, the documentation of the standard MORSE-CG sample problem package is reviewed and on-going and future work is discussed

  2. MCB. A continuous energy Monte Carlo burnup simulation code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cetnar, J.; Wallenius, J.; Gudowski, W.

    1999-01-01

    A code for integrated simulation of neutrinos and burnup based upon continuous energy Monte Carlo techniques and transmutation trajectory analysis has been developed. Being especially well suited for studies of nuclear waste transmutation systems, the code is an extension of the well validated MCNP transport program of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Among the advantages of the code (named MCB) is a fully integrated data treatment combined with a time-stepping routine that automatically corrects for burnup dependent changes in reaction rates, neutron multiplication, material composition and self-shielding. Fission product yields are treated as continuous functions of incident neutron energy, using a non-equilibrium thermodynamical model of the fission process. In the present paper a brief description of the code and applied methods are given. (author)

  3. MORET: Version 4.B. A multigroup Monte Carlo criticality code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jacquet, Olivier; Miss, Joachim; Courtois, Gerard

    2003-01-01

    MORET 4 is a three dimensional multigroup Monte Carlo code which calculates the effective multiplication factor (keff) of any configurations more or less complex as well as reaction rates in the different volumes of the geometry and the leakage out of the system. MORET 4 is the Monte Carlo code of the APOLLO2-MORET 4 standard route of CRISTAL, the French criticality package. It is the most commonly used Monte Carlo code for French criticality calculations. During the last four years, the MORET 4 team has developed or improved the following major points: modernization of the geometry, implementation of perturbation algorithms, source distribution convergence, statistical detection of stationarity, unbiased variance estimation and creation of pre-processing and post-processing tools. The purpose of this paper is not only to present the new features of MORET but also to detail clearly the physical models and the mathematical methods used in the code. (author)

  4. Improvements of MCOR: A Monte Carlo depletion code system for fuel assembly reference calculations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tippayakul, C.; Ivanov, K. [Pennsylvania State Univ., Univ. Park (United States); Misu, S. [AREVA NP GmbH, An AREVA and SIEMENS Company, Erlangen (Germany)

    2006-07-01

    This paper presents the improvements of MCOR, a Monte Carlo depletion code system for fuel assembly reference calculations. The improvements of MCOR were initiated by the cooperation between the Penn State Univ. and AREVA NP to enhance the original Penn State Univ. MCOR version in order to be used as a new Monte Carlo depletion analysis tool. Essentially, a new depletion module using KORIGEN is utilized to replace the existing ORIGEN-S depletion module in MCOR. Furthermore, the online burnup cross section generation by the Monte Carlo calculation is implemented in the improved version instead of using the burnup cross section library pre-generated by a transport code. Other code features have also been added to make the new MCOR version easier to use. This paper, in addition, presents the result comparisons of the original and the improved MCOR versions against CASMO-4 and OCTOPUS. It was observed in the comparisons that there were quite significant improvements of the results in terms of k{sub inf}, fission rate distributions and isotopic contents. (authors)

  5. Automatic modeling for the Monte Carlo transport code Geant4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nie Fanzhi; Hu Liqin; Wang Guozhong; Wang Dianxi; Wu Yican; Wang Dong; Long Pengcheng; FDS Team

    2015-01-01

    Geant4 is a widely used Monte Carlo transport simulation package. Its geometry models could be described in Geometry Description Markup Language (GDML), but it is time-consuming and error-prone to describe the geometry models manually. This study implemented the conversion between computer-aided design (CAD) geometry models and GDML models. This method has been Studied based on Multi-Physics Coupling Analysis Modeling Program (MCAM). The tests, including FDS-Ⅱ model, demonstrated its accuracy and feasibility. (authors)

  6. Core Calculation of 1 MWatt PUSPATI TRIGA Reactor (RTP) using Monte Carlo MVP Code System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karim, Julia Abdul

    2008-05-01

    The Monte Carlo MVP code system was adopted for the Reaktor TRIGA PUSAPTI (RTP) core calculation. The code was developed by a group of researcher of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) first in 1994. MVP is a general multi-purpose Monte Carlo code for neutron and photon transport calculation and able to estimate an accurate simulation problems. The code calculation is based on the continuous energy method. This code is capable of adopting an accurate physics model, geometry description and variance reduction technique faster than conventional method as compared to the conventional scalar method. This code could achieve higher computational speed by several factors on the vector super-computer. In this calculation, RTP core was modeled as close as possible to the real core and results of keff flux, fission densities and others were obtained.

  7. Core Calculation of 1 MWatt PUSPATI TRIGA Reactor (RTP) using Monte Carlo MVP Code System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Karim, Julia Abdul

    2008-01-01

    The Monte Carlo MVP code system was adopted for the Reaktor TRIGA PUSAPTI (RTP) core calculation. The code was developed by a group of researcher of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) first in 1994. MVP is a general multi-purpose Monte Carlo code for neutron and photon transport calculation and able to estimate an accurate simulation problems. The code calculation is based on the continuous energy method. This code is capable of adopting an accurate physics model, geometry description and variance reduction technique faster than conventional method as compared to the conventional scalar method. This code could achieve higher computational speed by several factors on the vector super-computer. In this calculation, RTP core was modeled as close as possible to the real core and results of keff flux, fission densities and others were obtained

  8. MCOR - Monte Carlo depletion code for reference LWR calculations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Puente Espel, Federico, E-mail: fup104@psu.edu [Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Pennsylvania State University (United States); Tippayakul, Chanatip, E-mail: cut110@psu.edu [Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Pennsylvania State University (United States); Ivanov, Kostadin, E-mail: kni1@psu.edu [Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Pennsylvania State University (United States); Misu, Stefan, E-mail: Stefan.Misu@areva.com [AREVA, AREVA NP GmbH, Erlangen (Germany)

    2011-04-15

    Research highlights: > Introduction of a reference Monte Carlo based depletion code with extended capabilities. > Verification and validation results for MCOR. > Utilization of MCOR for benchmarking deterministic lattice physics (spectral) codes. - Abstract: The MCOR (MCnp-kORigen) code system is a Monte Carlo based depletion system for reference fuel assembly and core calculations. The MCOR code is designed as an interfacing code that provides depletion capability to the LANL Monte Carlo code by coupling two codes: MCNP5 with the AREVA NP depletion code, KORIGEN. The physical quality of both codes is unchanged. The MCOR code system has been maintained and continuously enhanced since it was initially developed and validated. The verification of the coupling was made by evaluating the MCOR code against similar sophisticated code systems like MONTEBURNS, OCTOPUS and TRIPOLI-PEPIN. After its validation, the MCOR code has been further improved with important features. The MCOR code presents several valuable capabilities such as: (a) a predictor-corrector depletion algorithm, (b) utilization of KORIGEN as the depletion module, (c) individual depletion calculation of each burnup zone (no burnup zone grouping is required, which is particularly important for the modeling of gadolinium rings), and (d) on-line burnup cross-section generation by the Monte Carlo calculation for 88 isotopes and usage of the KORIGEN libraries for PWR and BWR typical spectra for the remaining isotopes. Besides the just mentioned capabilities, the MCOR code newest enhancements focus on the possibility of executing the MCNP5 calculation in sequential or parallel mode, a user-friendly automatic re-start capability, a modification of the burnup step size evaluation, and a post-processor and test-matrix, just to name the most important. The article describes the capabilities of the MCOR code system; from its design and development to its latest improvements and further ameliorations. Additionally

  9. MCOR - Monte Carlo depletion code for reference LWR calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Puente Espel, Federico; Tippayakul, Chanatip; Ivanov, Kostadin; Misu, Stefan

    2011-01-01

    Research highlights: → Introduction of a reference Monte Carlo based depletion code with extended capabilities. → Verification and validation results for MCOR. → Utilization of MCOR for benchmarking deterministic lattice physics (spectral) codes. - Abstract: The MCOR (MCnp-kORigen) code system is a Monte Carlo based depletion system for reference fuel assembly and core calculations. The MCOR code is designed as an interfacing code that provides depletion capability to the LANL Monte Carlo code by coupling two codes: MCNP5 with the AREVA NP depletion code, KORIGEN. The physical quality of both codes is unchanged. The MCOR code system has been maintained and continuously enhanced since it was initially developed and validated. The verification of the coupling was made by evaluating the MCOR code against similar sophisticated code systems like MONTEBURNS, OCTOPUS and TRIPOLI-PEPIN. After its validation, the MCOR code has been further improved with important features. The MCOR code presents several valuable capabilities such as: (a) a predictor-corrector depletion algorithm, (b) utilization of KORIGEN as the depletion module, (c) individual depletion calculation of each burnup zone (no burnup zone grouping is required, which is particularly important for the modeling of gadolinium rings), and (d) on-line burnup cross-section generation by the Monte Carlo calculation for 88 isotopes and usage of the KORIGEN libraries for PWR and BWR typical spectra for the remaining isotopes. Besides the just mentioned capabilities, the MCOR code newest enhancements focus on the possibility of executing the MCNP5 calculation in sequential or parallel mode, a user-friendly automatic re-start capability, a modification of the burnup step size evaluation, and a post-processor and test-matrix, just to name the most important. The article describes the capabilities of the MCOR code system; from its design and development to its latest improvements and further ameliorations

  10. A NEW MONTE CARLO METHOD FOR TIME-DEPENDENT NEUTRINO RADIATION TRANSPORT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abdikamalov, Ernazar; Ott, Christian D.; O'Connor, Evan; Burrows, Adam; Dolence, Joshua C.; Löffler, Frank; Schnetter, Erik

    2012-01-01

    Monte Carlo approaches to radiation transport have several attractive properties such as simplicity of implementation, high accuracy, and good parallel scaling. Moreover, Monte Carlo methods can handle complicated geometries and are relatively easy to extend to multiple spatial dimensions, which makes them potentially interesting in modeling complex multi-dimensional astrophysical phenomena such as core-collapse supernovae. The aim of this paper is to explore Monte Carlo methods for modeling neutrino transport in core-collapse supernovae. We generalize the Implicit Monte Carlo photon transport scheme of Fleck and Cummings and gray discrete-diffusion scheme of Densmore et al. to energy-, time-, and velocity-dependent neutrino transport. Using our 1D spherically-symmetric implementation, we show that, similar to the photon transport case, the implicit scheme enables significantly larger timesteps compared with explicit time discretization, without sacrificing accuracy, while the discrete-diffusion method leads to significant speed-ups at high optical depth. Our results suggest that a combination of spectral, velocity-dependent, Implicit Monte Carlo and discrete-diffusion Monte Carlo methods represents a robust approach for use in neutrino transport calculations in core-collapse supernovae. Our velocity-dependent scheme can easily be adapted to photon transport.

  11. A NEW MONTE CARLO METHOD FOR TIME-DEPENDENT NEUTRINO RADIATION TRANSPORT

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abdikamalov, Ernazar; Ott, Christian D.; O' Connor, Evan [TAPIR, California Institute of Technology, MC 350-17, 1200 E California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Burrows, Adam; Dolence, Joshua C. [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States); Loeffler, Frank; Schnetter, Erik, E-mail: abdik@tapir.caltech.edu [Center for Computation and Technology, Louisiana State University, 216 Johnston Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803 (United States)

    2012-08-20

    Monte Carlo approaches to radiation transport have several attractive properties such as simplicity of implementation, high accuracy, and good parallel scaling. Moreover, Monte Carlo methods can handle complicated geometries and are relatively easy to extend to multiple spatial dimensions, which makes them potentially interesting in modeling complex multi-dimensional astrophysical phenomena such as core-collapse supernovae. The aim of this paper is to explore Monte Carlo methods for modeling neutrino transport in core-collapse supernovae. We generalize the Implicit Monte Carlo photon transport scheme of Fleck and Cummings and gray discrete-diffusion scheme of Densmore et al. to energy-, time-, and velocity-dependent neutrino transport. Using our 1D spherically-symmetric implementation, we show that, similar to the photon transport case, the implicit scheme enables significantly larger timesteps compared with explicit time discretization, without sacrificing accuracy, while the discrete-diffusion method leads to significant speed-ups at high optical depth. Our results suggest that a combination of spectral, velocity-dependent, Implicit Monte Carlo and discrete-diffusion Monte Carlo methods represents a robust approach for use in neutrino transport calculations in core-collapse supernovae. Our velocity-dependent scheme can easily be adapted to photon transport.

  12. Radiation transport simulation in gamma irradiator systems using E G S 4 Monte Carlo code and dose mapping calculations based on point kernel technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raisali, G.R.

    1992-01-01

    A series of computer codes based on point kernel technique and also Monte Carlo method have been developed. These codes perform radiation transport calculations for irradiator systems having cartesian, cylindrical and mixed geometries. The monte Carlo calculations, the computer code 'EGS4' has been applied to a radiation processing type problem. This code has been acompanied by a specific user code. The set of codes developed include: GCELLS, DOSMAPM, DOSMAPC2 which simulate the radiation transport in gamma irradiator systems having cylinderical, cartesian, and mixed geometries, respectively. The program 'DOSMAP3' based on point kernel technique, has been also developed for dose rate mapping calculations in carrier type gamma irradiators. Another computer program 'CYLDETM' as a user code for EGS4 has been also developed to simulate dose variations near the interface of heterogeneous media in gamma irradiator systems. In addition a system of computer codes 'PRODMIX' has been developed which calculates the absorbed dose in the products with different densities. validation studies of the calculated results versus experimental dosimetry has been performed and good agreement has been obtained

  13. The Physical Models and Statistical Procedures Used in the RACER Monte Carlo Code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sutton, T.M.; Brown, F.B.; Bischoff, F.G.; MacMillan, D.B.; Ellis, C.L.; Ward, J.T.; Ballinger, C.T.; Kelly, D.J.; Schindler, L.

    1999-01-01

    This report describes the MCV (Monte Carlo - Vectorized)Monte Carlo neutron transport code [Brown, 1982, 1983; Brown and Mendelson, 1984a]. MCV is a module in the RACER system of codes that is used for Monte Carlo reactor physics analysis. The MCV module contains all of the neutron transport and statistical analysis functions of the system, while other modules perform various input-related functions such as geometry description, material assignment, output edit specification, etc. MCV is very closely related to the 05R neutron Monte Carlo code [Irving et al., 1965] developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 05R evolved into the 05RR module of the STEMB system, which was the forerunner of the RACER system. Much of the overall logic and physics treatment of 05RR has been retained and, indeed, the original verification of MCV was achieved through comparison with STEMB results. MCV has been designed to be very computationally efficient [Brown, 1981, Brown and Martin, 1984b; Brown, 1986]. It was originally programmed to make use of vector-computing architectures such as those of the CDC Cyber- 205 and Cray X-MP. MCV was the first full-scale production Monte Carlo code to effectively utilize vector-processing capabilities. Subsequently, MCV was modified to utilize both distributed-memory [Sutton and Brown, 1994] and shared memory parallelism. The code has been compiled and run on platforms ranging from 32-bit UNIX workstations to clusters of 64-bit vector-parallel supercomputers. The computational efficiency of the code allows the analyst to perform calculations using many more neutron histories than is practical with most other Monte Carlo codes, thereby yielding results with smaller statistical uncertainties. MCV also utilizes variance reduction techniques such as survival biasing, splitting, and rouletting to permit additional reduction in uncertainties. While a general-purpose neutron Monte Carlo code, MCV is optimized for reactor physics calculations. It has the

  14. Monte Carlo Techniques for Nuclear Systems - Theory Lectures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brown, Forrest B.; Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

    2016-01-01

    These are lecture notes for a Monte Carlo class given at the University of New Mexico. The following topics are covered: course information; nuclear eng. review & MC; random numbers and sampling; computational geometry; collision physics; tallies and statistics; eigenvalue calculations I; eigenvalue calculations II; eigenvalue calculations III; variance reduction; parallel Monte Carlo; parameter studies; fission matrix and higher eigenmodes; doppler broadening; Monte Carlo depletion; HTGR modeling; coupled MC and T/H calculations; fission energy deposition. Solving particle transport problems with the Monte Carlo method is simple - just simulate the particle behavior. The devil is in the details, however. These lectures provide a balanced approach to the theory and practice of Monte Carlo simulation codes. The first lectures provide an overview of Monte Carlo simulation methods, covering the transport equation, random sampling, computational geometry, collision physics, and statistics. The next lectures focus on the state-of-the-art in Monte Carlo criticality simulations, covering the theory of eigenvalue calculations, convergence analysis, dominance ratio calculations, bias in Keff and tallies, bias in uncertainties, a case study of a realistic calculation, and Wielandt acceleration techniques. The remaining lectures cover advanced topics, including HTGR modeling and stochastic geometry, temperature dependence, fission energy deposition, depletion calculations, parallel calculations, and parameter studies. This portion of the class focuses on using MCNP to perform criticality calculations for reactor physics and criticality safety applications. It is an intermediate level class, intended for those with at least some familiarity with MCNP. Class examples provide hands-on experience at running the code, plotting both geometry and results, and understanding the code output. The class includes lectures & hands-on computer use for a variety of Monte Carlo calculations

  15. Monte Carlo Techniques for Nuclear Systems - Theory Lectures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brown, Forrest B. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Monte Carlo Methods, Codes, and Applications Group; Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Nuclear Engineering Dept.

    2016-11-29

    These are lecture notes for a Monte Carlo class given at the University of New Mexico. The following topics are covered: course information; nuclear eng. review & MC; random numbers and sampling; computational geometry; collision physics; tallies and statistics; eigenvalue calculations I; eigenvalue calculations II; eigenvalue calculations III; variance reduction; parallel Monte Carlo; parameter studies; fission matrix and higher eigenmodes; doppler broadening; Monte Carlo depletion; HTGR modeling; coupled MC and T/H calculations; fission energy deposition. Solving particle transport problems with the Monte Carlo method is simple - just simulate the particle behavior. The devil is in the details, however. These lectures provide a balanced approach to the theory and practice of Monte Carlo simulation codes. The first lectures provide an overview of Monte Carlo simulation methods, covering the transport equation, random sampling, computational geometry, collision physics, and statistics. The next lectures focus on the state-of-the-art in Monte Carlo criticality simulations, covering the theory of eigenvalue calculations, convergence analysis, dominance ratio calculations, bias in Keff and tallies, bias in uncertainties, a case study of a realistic calculation, and Wielandt acceleration techniques. The remaining lectures cover advanced topics, including HTGR modeling and stochastic geometry, temperature dependence, fission energy deposition, depletion calculations, parallel calculations, and parameter studies. This portion of the class focuses on using MCNP to perform criticality calculations for reactor physics and criticality safety applications. It is an intermediate level class, intended for those with at least some familiarity with MCNP. Class examples provide hands-on experience at running the code, plotting both geometry and results, and understanding the code output. The class includes lectures & hands-on computer use for a variety of Monte Carlo calculations

  16. Modeling Dynamic Objects in Monte Carlo Particle Transport Calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yegin, G.

    2008-01-01

    In this study, the Multi-Geometry geometry modeling technique was improved in order to handle moving objects in a Monte Carlo particle transport calculation. In the Multi-Geometry technique, the geometry is a superposition of objects not surfaces. By using this feature, we developed a new algorithm which allows a user to make enable or disable geometry elements during particle transport. A disabled object can be ignored at a certain stage of a calculation and switching among identical copies of the same object located adjacent poins during a particle simulation corresponds to the movement of that object in space. We called this powerfull feature as Dynamic Multi-Geometry technique (DMG) which is used for the first time in Brachy Dose Monte Carlo code to simulate HDR brachytherapy treatment systems. Our results showed that having disabled objects in a geometry does not effect calculated dose values. This technique is also suitable to be used in other areas such as IMRT treatment planning systems

  17. MCPT: A Monte Carlo code for simulation of photon transport in tomographic scanners

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Prettyman, T.H.; Gardner, R.P.; Verghese, K.

    1990-01-01

    MCPT is a special-purpose Monte Carlo code designed to simulate photon transport in tomographic scanners. Variance reduction schemes and sampling games present in MCPT were selected to characterize features common to most tomographic scanners. Combined splitting and biasing (CSB) games are used to systematically sample important detection pathways. An efficient splitting game is used to tally particle energy deposition in detection zones. The pulse height distribution of each detector can be found by convolving the calculated energy deposition distribution with the detector's resolution function. A general geometric modelling package, HERMETOR, is used to describe the geometry of the tomographic scanners and provide MCPT information needed for particle tracking. MCPT's modelling capabilites are described and preliminary experimental validation is presented. (orig.)

  18. Validation and verification of the ORNL Monte Carlo codes for nuclear safety analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Emmett, M.B.

    1993-01-01

    The process of ensuring the quality of computer codes can be very time consuming and expensive. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Monte Carlo codes all predate the existence of quality assurance (QA) standards and configuration control. The number of person-years and the amount of money spent on code development make it impossible to adhere strictly to all the current requirements. At ORNL, the Nuclear Engineering Applications Section of the Computing Applications Division is responsible for the development, maintenance, and application of the Monte Carlo codes MORSE and KENO. The KENO code is used for doing criticality analyses; the MORSE code, which has two official versions, CGA and SGC, is used for radiation transport analyses. Because KENO and MORSE were very thoroughly checked out over the many years of extensive use both in the United States and in the international community, the existing codes were open-quotes baselined.close quotes This means that the versions existing at the time the original configuration plan is written are considered to be validated and verified code systems based on the established experience with them

  19. Development of a Fully-Automated Monte Carlo Burnup Code Monteburns

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Poston, D.I.; Trellue, H.R.

    1999-01-01

    Several computer codes have been developed to perform nuclear burnup calculations over the past few decades. In addition, because of advances in computer technology, it recently has become more desirable to use Monte Carlo techniques for such problems. Monte Carlo techniques generally offer two distinct advantages over discrete ordinate methods: (1) the use of continuous energy cross sections and (2) the ability to model detailed, complex, three-dimensional (3-D) geometries. These advantages allow more accurate burnup results to be obtained, provided that the user possesses the required computing power (which is required for discrete ordinate methods as well). Several linkage codes have been written that combine a Monte Carlo N-particle transport code (such as MCNP TM ) with a radioactive decay and burnup code. This paper describes one such code that was written at Los Alamos National Laboratory: monteburns. Monteburns links MCNP with the isotope generation and depletion code ORIGEN2. The basis for the development of monteburns was the need for a fully automated code that could perform accurate burnup (and other) calculations for any 3-D system (accelerator-driven or a full reactor core). Before the initial development of monteburns, a list of desired attributes was made and is given below. o The code should be fully automated (that is, after the input is set up, no further user interaction is required). . The code should allow for the irradiation of several materials concurrently (each material is evaluated collectively in MCNP and burned separately in 0RIGEN2). o The code should allow the transfer of materials (shuffling) between regions in MCNP. . The code should allow any materials to be added or removed before, during, or after each step in an automated fashion. . The code should not require the user to provide input for 0RIGEN2 and should have minimal MCNP input file requirements (other than a working MCNP deck). . The code should be relatively easy to use

  20. Verification and Validation of Monte Carlo n-Particle Code 6 (MCNP6) with Neutron Protection Factor Measurements of an Iron Box

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-03-27

    Vehicle Code System (VCS), the Monte Carlo Adjoint SHielding (MASH), and the Monte Carlo n- Particle ( MCNP ) code. Of the three, the oldest and still most...widely utilized radiation transport code is MCNP . First created at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in 1957, the code simulated neutral...particle types, and previous versions of MCNP were repeatedly validated using both simple and complex 10 geometries [12, 13]. Much greater discussion and

  1. Simulation of transport equations with Monte Carlo

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matthes, W.

    1975-09-01

    The main purpose of the report is to explain the relation between the transport equation and the Monte Carlo game used for its solution. The introduction of artificial particles carrying a weight provides one with high flexibility in constructing many different games for the solution of the same equation. This flexibility opens a way to construct a Monte Carlo game for the solution of the adjoint transport equation. Emphasis is laid mostly on giving a clear understanding of what to do and not on the details of how to do a specific game

  2. User manual for version 4.3 of the Tripoli-4 Monte-Carlo method particle transport computer code; Notice d'utilisation du code Tripoli-4, version 4.3: code de transport de particules par la methode de Monte Carlo

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Both, J.P.; Mazzolo, A.; Peneliau, Y.; Petit, O.; Roesslinger, B

    2003-07-01

    This manual relates to Version 4.3 TRIPOLI-4 code. TRIPOLI-4 is a computer code simulating the transport of neutrons, photons, electrons and positrons. It can be used for radiation shielding calculations (long-distance propagation with flux attenuation in non-multiplying media) and neutronic calculations (fissile medium, criticality or sub-criticality basis). This makes it possible to calculate k{sub eff} (for criticality), flux, currents, reaction rates and multi-group cross-sections. TRIPOLI-4 is a three-dimensional code that uses the Monte-Carlo method. It allows for point-wise description in terms of energy of cross-sections and multi-group homogenized cross-sections and features two modes of geometrical representation: surface and combinatorial. The code uses cross-section libraries in ENDF/B format (such as JEF2-2, ENDF/B-VI and JENDL) for point-wise description cross-sections in APOTRIM format (from the APOLLO2 code) or a format specific to TRIPOLI-4 for multi-group description. (authors)

  3. Coupling of system thermal–hydraulics and Monte-Carlo code: Convergence criteria and quantification of correlation between statistical uncertainty and coupled error

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, Xu; Kozlowski, Tomasz

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Coupling of Monte Carlo code Serpent and thermal–hydraulics code RELAP5. • A convergence criterion is developed based on the statistical uncertainty of power. • Correlation between MC statistical uncertainty and coupled error is quantified. • Both UO 2 and MOX single assembly models are used in the coupled simulation. • Validation of coupling results with a multi-group transport code DeCART. - Abstract: Coupled multi-physics approach plays an important role in improving computational accuracy. Compared with deterministic neutronics codes, Monte Carlo codes have the advantage of a higher resolution level. In the present paper, a three-dimensional continuous-energy Monte Carlo reactor physics burnup calculation code, Serpent, is coupled with a thermal–hydraulics safety analysis code, RELAP5. The coupled Serpent/RELAP5 code capability is demonstrated by the improved axial power distribution of UO 2 and MOX single assembly models, based on the OECD-NEA/NRC PWR MOX/UO 2 Core Transient Benchmark. Comparisons of calculation results using the coupled code with those from the deterministic methods, specifically heterogeneous multi-group transport code DeCART, show that the coupling produces more precise results. A new convergence criterion for the coupled simulation is developed based on the statistical uncertainty in power distribution in the Monte Carlo code, rather than ad-hoc criteria used in previous research. The new convergence criterion is shown to be more rigorous, equally convenient to use but requiring a few more coupling steps to converge. Finally, the influence of Monte Carlo statistical uncertainty on the coupled error of power and thermal–hydraulics parameters is quantified. The results are presented such that they can be used to find the statistical uncertainty to use in Monte Carlo in order to achieve a desired precision in coupled simulation

  4. Voxel2MCNP: a framework for modeling, simulation and evaluation of radiation transport scenarios for Monte Carlo codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pölz, Stefan; Laubersheimer, Sven; Eberhardt, Jakob S; Harrendorf, Marco A; Keck, Thomas; Benzler, Andreas; Breustedt, Bastian

    2013-01-01

    The basic idea of Voxel2MCNP is to provide a framework supporting users in modeling radiation transport scenarios using voxel phantoms and other geometric models, generating corresponding input for the Monte Carlo code MCNPX, and evaluating simulation output. Applications at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology are primarily whole and partial body counter calibration and calculation of dose conversion coefficients. A new generic data model describing data related to radiation transport, including phantom and detector geometries and their properties, sources, tallies and materials, has been developed. It is modular and generally independent of the targeted Monte Carlo code. The data model has been implemented as an XML-based file format to facilitate data exchange, and integrated with Voxel2MCNP to provide a common interface for modeling, visualization, and evaluation of data. Also, extensions to allow compatibility with several file formats, such as ENSDF for nuclear structure properties and radioactive decay data, SimpleGeo for solid geometry modeling, ImageJ for voxel lattices, and MCNPX’s MCTAL for simulation results have been added. The framework is presented and discussed in this paper and example workflows for body counter calibration and calculation of dose conversion coefficients is given to illustrate its application. (paper)

  5. ITS Version 6 : the integrated TIGER series of coupled electron/photon Monte Carlo transport codes.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Franke, Brian Claude; Kensek, Ronald Patrick; Laub, Thomas William

    2008-04-01

    ITS is a powerful and user-friendly software package permitting state-of-the-art Monte Carlo solution of lineartime-independent coupled electron/photon radiation transport problems, with or without the presence of macroscopic electric and magnetic fields of arbitrary spatial dependence. Our goal has been to simultaneously maximize operational simplicity and physical accuracy. Through a set of preprocessor directives, the user selects one of the many ITS codes. The ease with which the makefile system is applied combines with an input scheme based on order-independent descriptive keywords that makes maximum use of defaults and internal error checking to provide experimentalists and theorists alike with a method for the routine but rigorous solution of sophisticated radiation transport problems. Physical rigor is provided by employing accurate cross sections, sampling distributions, and physical models for describing the production and transport of the electron/photon cascade from 1.0 GeV down to 1.0 keV. The availability of source code permits the more sophisticated user to tailor the codes to specific applications and to extend the capabilities of the codes to more complex applications. Version 6, the latest version of ITS, contains (1) improvements to the ITS 5.0 codes, and (2) conversion to Fortran 90. The general user friendliness of the software has been enhanced through memory allocation to reduce the need for users to modify and recompile the code.

  6. A Monte Carlo code for ion beam therapy

    CERN Multimedia

    Anaïs Schaeffer

    2012-01-01

    Initially developed for applications in detector and accelerator physics, the modern Fluka Monte Carlo code is now used in many different areas of nuclear science. Over the last 25 years, the code has evolved to include new features, such as ion beam simulations. Given the growing use of these beams in cancer treatment, Fluka simulations are being used to design treatment plans in several hadron-therapy centres in Europe.   Fluka calculates the dose distribution for a patient treated at CNAO with proton beams. The colour-bar displays the normalized dose values. Fluka is a Monte Carlo code that very accurately simulates electromagnetic and nuclear interactions in matter. In the 1990s, in collaboration with NASA, the code was developed to predict potential radiation hazards received by space crews during possible future trips to Mars. Over the years, it has become the standard tool to investigate beam-machine interactions, radiation damage and radioprotection issues in the CERN accelerator com...

  7. Installation of Monte Carlo neutron and photon transport code system MCNP4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takano, Makoto; Sasaki, Mikio; Kaneko, Toshiyuki; Yamazaki, Takao.

    1993-03-01

    The continuous energy Monte Carlo code MCNP-4 including its graphic functions has been installed on the Sun-4 sparc-2 work station with minor corrections. In order to validate the installed MCNP-4 code, 25 sample problems have been executed on the work station and these results have been compared with the original ones. And, the most of the graphic functions have been demonstrated by using 3 sample problems. Further, additional 14 nuclides have been included to the continuous cross section library edited from JENDL-3. (author)

  8. ERSN-OpenMC, a Java-based GUI for OpenMC Monte Carlo code

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaafar EL Bakkali

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available OpenMC is a new Monte Carlo transport particle simulation code focused on solving two types of neutronic problems mainly the k-eigenvalue criticality fission source problems and external fixed fission source problems. OpenMC does not have any Graphical User Interface and the creation of one is provided by our java-based application named ERSN-OpenMC. The main feature of this application is to provide to the users an easy-to-use and flexible graphical interface to build better and faster simulations, with less effort and great reliability. Additionally, this graphical tool was developed with several features, as the ability to automate the building process of OpenMC code and related libraries as well as the users are given the freedom to customize their installation of this Monte Carlo code. A full description of the ERSN-OpenMC application is presented in this paper.

  9. Penelope - a code system for Monte Carlo simulation of electron and photon transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2003-01-01

    Radiation is used in many applications of modern technology. Its proper handling requires competent knowledge of the basic physical laws governing its interaction with matter. To ensure its safe use, appropriate tools for predicting radiation fields and doses, as well as pertinent regulations, are required. One area of radiation physics that has received much attention concerns electron-photon transport in matter. PENELOPE is a modern, general-purpose Monte Carlo tool for simulating the transport of electrons and photons, which is applicable for arbitrary materials and in a wide energy range. PENELOPE provides quantitative guidance for many practical situations and techniques, including electron and X-ray spectroscopies, electron microscopy and microanalysis, biophysics, dosimetry, medical diagnostics and radiotherapy, as well as radiation damage and shielding. These proceedings contain the extensively revised teaching notes of the second workshop/training course on PENELOPE held in 2003, along with a detailed description of the improved physic models, numerical algorithms and structure of the code system. (author)

  10. A fully coupled Monte Carlo/discrete ordinates solution to the neutron transport equation. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baker, Randal Scott [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)

    1990-01-01

    The neutron transport equation is solved by a hybrid method that iteratively couples regions where deterministic (SN) and stochastic (Monte Carlo) methods are applied. Unlike previous hybrid methods, the Monte Carlo and SN regions are fully coupled in the sense that no assumption is made about geometrical separation or decoupling. The hybrid method provides a new means of solving problems involving both optically thick and optically thin regions that neither Monte Carlo nor SN is well suited for by themselves. The fully coupled Monte Carlo/SN technique consists of defining spatial and/or energy regions of a problem in which either a Monte Carlo calculation or an SN calculation is to be performed. The Monte Carlo region may comprise the entire spatial region for selected energy groups, or may consist of a rectangular area that is either completely or partially embedded in an arbitrary SN region. The Monte Carlo and SN regions are then connected through the common angular boundary fluxes, which are determined iteratively using the response matrix technique, and volumetric sources. The hybrid method has been implemented in the SN code TWODANT by adding special-purpose Monte Carlo subroutines to calculate the response matrices and volumetric sources, and linkage subrountines to carry out the interface flux iterations. The common angular boundary fluxes are included in the SN code as interior boundary sources, leaving the logic for the solution of the transport flux unchanged, while, with minor modifications, the diffusion synthetic accelerator remains effective in accelerating SN calculations. The special-purpose Monte Carlo routines used are essentially analog, with few variance reduction techniques employed. However, the routines have been successfully vectorized, with approximately a factor of five increase in speed over the non-vectorized version.

  11. Application of artificial intelligence techniques to the acceleration of Monte Carlo transport calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maconald, J.L.; Cashwell, E.D.

    1978-09-01

    The techniques of learning theory and pattern recognition are used to learn splitting surface locations for the Monte Carlo neutron transport code MCN. A study is performed to determine default values for several pattern recognition and learning parameters. The modified MCN code is used to reduce computer cost for several nontrivial example problems

  12. Evaluation of speedup of Monte Carlo calculations of two simple reactor physics problems coded for the GPU/CUDA environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ding, Aiping; Liu, Tianyu; Liang, Chao; Ji, Wei; Shephard, Mark S.; Xu, X George; Brown, Forrest B.

    2011-01-01

    Monte Carlo simulation is ideally suited for solving Boltzmann neutron transport equation in inhomogeneous media. However, routine applications require the computation time to be reduced to hours and even minutes in a desktop system. The interest in adopting GPUs for Monte Carlo acceleration is rapidly mounting, fueled partially by the parallelism afforded by the latest GPU technologies and the challenge to perform full-size reactor core analysis on a routine basis. In this study, Monte Carlo codes for a fixed-source neutron transport problem and an eigenvalue/criticality problem were developed for CPU and GPU environments, respectively, to evaluate issues associated with computational speedup afforded by the use of GPUs. The results suggest that a speedup factor of 30 in Monte Carlo radiation transport of neutrons is within reach using the state-of-the-art GPU technologies. However, for the eigenvalue/criticality problem, the speedup was 8.5. In comparison, for a task of voxelizing unstructured mesh geometry that is more parallel in nature, the speedup of 45 was obtained. It was observed that, to date, most attempts to adopt GPUs for Monte Carlo acceleration were based on naïve implementations and have not yielded the level of anticipated gains. Successful implementation of Monte Carlo schemes for GPUs will likely require the development of an entirely new code. Given the prediction that future-generation GPU products will likely bring exponentially improved computing power and performances, innovative hardware and software solutions may make it possible to achieve full-core Monte Carlo calculation within one hour using a desktop computer system in a few years. (author)

  13. Interface methods for hybrid Monte Carlo-diffusion radiation-transport simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Densmore, Jeffery D.

    2006-01-01

    Discrete diffusion Monte Carlo (DDMC) is a technique for increasing the efficiency of Monte Carlo simulations in diffusive media. An important aspect of DDMC is the treatment of interfaces between diffusive regions, where DDMC is used, and transport regions, where standard Monte Carlo is employed. Three previously developed methods exist for treating transport-diffusion interfaces: the Marshak interface method, based on the Marshak boundary condition, the asymptotic interface method, based on the asymptotic diffusion-limit boundary condition, and the Nth-collided source technique, a scheme that allows Monte Carlo particles to undergo several collisions in a diffusive region before DDMC is used. Numerical calculations have shown that each of these interface methods gives reasonable results as part of larger radiation-transport simulations. In this paper, we use both analytic and numerical examples to compare the ability of these three interface techniques to treat simpler, transport-diffusion interface problems outside of a more complex radiation-transport calculation. We find that the asymptotic interface method is accurate regardless of the angular distribution of Monte Carlo particles incident on the interface surface. In contrast, the Marshak boundary condition only produces correct solutions if the incident particles are isotropic. We also show that the Nth-collided source technique has the capacity to yield accurate results if spatial cells are optically small and Monte Carlo particles are allowed to undergo many collisions within a diffusive region before DDMC is employed. These requirements make the Nth-collided source technique impractical for realistic radiation-transport calculations

  14. Development of a space radiation Monte Carlo computer simulation based on the FLUKA and ROOT codes

    CERN Document Server

    Pinsky, L; Ferrari, A; Sala, P; Carminati, F; Brun, R

    2001-01-01

    This NASA funded project is proceeding to develop a Monte Carlo-based computer simulation of the radiation environment in space. With actual funding only initially in place at the end of May 2000, the study is still in the early stage of development. The general tasks have been identified and personnel have been selected. The code to be assembled will be based upon two major existing software packages. The radiation transport simulation will be accomplished by updating the FLUKA Monte Carlo program, and the user interface will employ the ROOT software being developed at CERN. The end-product will be a Monte Carlo-based code which will complement the existing analytic codes such as BRYNTRN/HZETRN presently used by NASA to evaluate the effects of radiation shielding in space. The planned code will possess the ability to evaluate the radiation environment for spacecraft and habitats in Earth orbit, in interplanetary space, on the lunar surface, or on a planetary surface such as Mars. Furthermore, it will be usef...

  15. A midway forward-adjoint coupling method for neutron and photon Monte Carlo transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Serov, I.V.; John, T.M.; Hoogenboom, J.E.

    1999-01-01

    The midway Monte Carlo method for calculating detector responses combines a forward and an adjoint Monte Carlo calculation. In both calculations, particle scores are registered at a surface to be chosen by the user somewhere between the source and detector domains. The theory of the midway response determination is developed within the framework of transport theory for external sources and for criticality theory. The theory is also developed for photons, which are generated at inelastic scattering or capture of neutrons. In either the forward or the adjoint calculation a so-called black absorber technique can be applied; i.e., particles need not be followed after passing the midway surface. The midway Monte Carlo method is implemented in the general-purpose MCNP Monte Carlo code. The midway Monte Carlo method is demonstrated to be very efficient in problems with deep penetration, small source and detector domains, and complicated streaming paths. All the problems considered pose difficult variance reduction challenges. Calculations were performed using existing variance reduction methods of normal MCNP runs and using the midway method. The performed comparative analyses show that the midway method appears to be much more efficient than the standard techniques in an overwhelming majority of cases and can be recommended for use in many difficult variance reduction problems of neutral particle transport

  16. Introduction to the simulation with MCNP Monte Carlo code and its applications in Medical Physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parreno Z, F.; Paucar J, R.; Picon C, C.

    1998-01-01

    The simulation by Monte Carlo is tool which Medical Physics counts with it for the development of its research, the interest by this tool is growing, as we may observe in the main scientific journals for the years 1995-1997 where more than 27 % of the papers treat over Monte Carlo and/or its applications in the radiation transport.In the Peruvian Institute of Nuclear Energy we are implementing and making use of the MCNP4 and EGS4 codes. In this work are presented the general features of the Monte Carlo method and its more useful applications in Medical Physics. Likewise, it is made a simulation of the calculation of isodose curves in an interstitial treatment with Ir-192 wires in a mammary gland carcinoma. (Author)

  17. Tally and geometry definition influence on the computing time in radiotherapy treatment planning with MCNP Monte Carlo code.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juste, B; Miro, R; Gallardo, S; Santos, A; Verdu, G

    2006-01-01

    The present work has simulated the photon and electron transport in a Theratron 780 (MDS Nordion) (60)Co radiotherapy unit, using the Monte Carlo transport code, MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle), version 5. In order to become computationally more efficient in view of taking part in the practical field of radiotherapy treatment planning, this work is focused mainly on the analysis of dose results and on the required computing time of different tallies applied in the model to speed up calculations.

  18. Data decomposition of Monte Carlo particle transport simulations via tally servers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Romano, Paul K.; Siegel, Andrew R.; Forget, Benoit; Smith, Kord

    2013-01-01

    An algorithm for decomposing large tally data in Monte Carlo particle transport simulations is developed, analyzed, and implemented in a continuous-energy Monte Carlo code, OpenMC. The algorithm is based on a non-overlapping decomposition of compute nodes into tracking processors and tally servers. The former are used to simulate the movement of particles through the domain while the latter continuously receive and update tally data. A performance model for this approach is developed, suggesting that, for a range of parameters relevant to LWR analysis, the tally server algorithm should perform with minimal overhead on contemporary supercomputers. An implementation of the algorithm in OpenMC is then tested on the Intrepid and Titan supercomputers, supporting the key predictions of the model over a wide range of parameters. We thus conclude that the tally server algorithm is a successful approach to circumventing classical on-node memory constraints en route to unprecedentedly detailed Monte Carlo reactor simulations

  19. A probability-conserving cross-section biasing mechanism for variance reduction in Monte Carlo particle transport calculations

    OpenAIRE

    Mendenhall, Marcus H.; Weller, Robert A.

    2011-01-01

    In Monte Carlo particle transport codes, it is often important to adjust reaction cross sections to reduce the variance of calculations of relatively rare events, in a technique known as non-analogous Monte Carlo. We present the theory and sample code for a Geant4 process which allows the cross section of a G4VDiscreteProcess to be scaled, while adjusting track weights so as to mitigate the effects of altered primary beam depletion induced by the cross section change. This makes it possible t...

  20. OpenMC: A state-of-the-art Monte Carlo code for research and development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Romano, Paul K.; Horelik, Nicholas E.; Herman, Bryan R.; Nelson, Adam G.; Forget, Benoit; Smith, Kord

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • OpenMC is an open source Monte Carlo particle transport code. • Solid geometry and continuous-energy physics allow high-fidelity simulations. • Development has focused on high performance and modern I/O techniques. • OpenMC is capable of scaling up to hundreds of thousands of processors. • Other features include plotting, CMFD acceleration, and variance reduction. - Abstract: This paper gives an overview of OpenMC, an open source Monte Carlo particle transport code recently developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. OpenMC uses continuous-energy cross sections and a constructive solid geometry representation, enabling high-fidelity modeling of nuclear reactors and other systems. Modern, portable input/output file formats are used in OpenMC: XML for input, and HDF5 for output. High performance parallel algorithms in OpenMC have demonstrated near-linear scaling to over 100,000 processors on modern supercomputers. Other topics discussed in this paper include plotting, CMFD acceleration, variance reduction, eigenvalue calculations, and software development processes

  1. Criticality coefficient calculation for a small PWR using Monte Carlo Transport Code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Trombetta, Debora M.; Su, Jian, E-mail: dtrombetta@nuclear.ufrj.br, E-mail: sujian@nuclear.ufrj.br [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao em Engenharia (COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Chirayath, Sunil S., E-mail: sunilsc@tamu.edu [Department of Nuclear Engineering and Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute, Texas A and M University, TX (United States)

    2015-07-01

    Computational models of reactors are increasingly used to predict nuclear reactor physics parameters responsible for reactivity changes which could lead to accidents and losses. In this work, preliminary results for criticality coefficient calculation using the Monte Carlo transport code MCNPX were presented for a small PWR. The computational modeling developed consists of the core with fuel elements, radial reflectors, and control rods inside a pressure vessel. Three different geometries were simulated, a single fuel pin, a fuel assembly and the core, with the aim to compare the criticality coefficients among themselves.The criticality coefficients calculated were: Doppler Temperature Coefficient, Coolant Temperature Coefficient, Coolant Void Coefficient, Power Coefficient, and Control Rod Worth. The coefficient values calculated by the MCNP code were compared with literature results, showing good agreement with reference data, which validate the computational model developed and allow it to be used to perform more complex studies. Criticality Coefficient values for the three simulations done had little discrepancy for almost all coefficients investigated, the only exception was the Power Coefficient. Preliminary results presented show that simple modelling as a fuel assembly can describe changes at almost all the criticality coefficients, avoiding the need of a complex core simulation. (author)

  2. ARCHER, a new Monte Carlo software tool for emerging heterogeneous computing environments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu, X. George; Liu, Tianyu; Su, Lin; Du, Xining; Riblett, Matthew; Ji, Wei; Gu, Deyang; Carothers, Christopher D.; Shephard, Mark S.; Brown, Forrest B.; Kalra, Mannudeep K.; Liu, Bob

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • A fast Monte Carlo based radiation transport code ARCHER was developed. • ARCHER supports different hardware including CPU, GPU and Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor. • Code is benchmarked again MCNP for medical applications. • A typical CT scan dose simulation only takes 6.8 s on an NVIDIA M2090 GPU. • GPU and coprocessor-based codes are 5–8 times faster than the CPU-based codes. - Abstract: The Monte Carlo radiation transport community faces a number of challenges associated with peta- and exa-scale computing systems that rely increasingly on heterogeneous architectures involving hardware accelerators such as GPUs and Xeon Phi coprocessors. Existing Monte Carlo codes and methods must be strategically upgraded to meet emerging hardware and software needs. In this paper, we describe the development of a software, called ARCHER (Accelerated Radiation-transport Computations in Heterogeneous EnviRonments), which is designed as a versatile testbed for future Monte Carlo codes. Preliminary results from five projects in nuclear engineering and medical physics are presented

  3. General Monte Carlo code MONK

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moore, J.G.

    1974-01-01

    The Monte Carlo code MONK is a general program written to provide a high degree of flexibility to the user. MONK is distinguished by its detailed representation of nuclear data in point form i.e., the cross-section is tabulated at specific energies instead of the more usual group representation. The nuclear data are unadjusted in the point form but recently the code has been modified to accept adjusted group data as used in fast and thermal reactor applications. The various geometrical handling capabilities and importance sampling techniques are described. In addition to the nuclear data aspects, the following features are also described; geometrical handling routines, tracking cycles, neutron source and output facilities. 12 references. (U.S.)

  4. A User's Manual for MASH V1.5 - A Monte Carlo Adjoint Shielding Code System

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    C. O. Slater; J. M. Barnes; J. O. Johnson; J.D. Drischler

    1998-10-01

    The Monte Carlo ~djoint ~ielding Code System, MASH, calculates neutron and gamma- ray environments and radiation protection factors for armored military vehicles, structures, trenches, and other shielding configurations by coupling a forward discrete ordinates air- over-ground transport calculation with an adjoint Monte Carlo treatment of the shielding geometry. Efficiency and optimum use of computer time are emphasized. The code system includes the GRTUNCL and DORT codes for air-over-ground transport calculations, the MORSE code with the GIFT5 combinatorial geometry package for adjoint shielding calculations, and several peripheral codes that perform the required data preparations, transformations, and coupling functions. The current version, MASH v 1.5, is the successor to the original MASH v 1.0 code system initially developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The discrete ordinates calculation determines the fluence on a coupling surface surrounding the shielding geometry due to an external neutron/gamma-ray source. The Monte Carlo calculation determines the effectiveness of the fluence at that surface in causing a response in a detector within the shielding geometry, i.e., the "dose importance" of the coupling surface fluence. A coupling code folds the fluence together with the dose importance, giving the desired dose response. The coupling code can determine the dose response as a function of the shielding geometry orientation relative to the source, distance from the source, and energy response of the detector. This user's manual includes a short description of each code, the input required to execute the code along with some helpful input data notes, and a representative sample problem.

  5. Many-integrated core (MIC) technology for accelerating Monte Carlo simulation of radiation transport: A study based on the code DPM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodriguez, M.; Brualla, L.

    2018-04-01

    Monte Carlo simulation of radiation transport is computationally demanding to obtain reasonably low statistical uncertainties of the estimated quantities. Therefore, it can benefit in a large extent from high-performance computing. This work is aimed at assessing the performance of the first generation of the many-integrated core architecture (MIC) Xeon Phi coprocessor with respect to that of a CPU consisting of a double 12-core Xeon processor in Monte Carlo simulation of coupled electron-photonshowers. The comparison was made twofold, first, through a suite of basic tests including parallel versions of the random number generators Mersenne Twister and a modified implementation of RANECU. These tests were addressed to establish a baseline comparison between both devices. Secondly, through the p DPM code developed in this work. p DPM is a parallel version of the Dose Planning Method (DPM) program for fast Monte Carlo simulation of radiation transport in voxelized geometries. A variety of techniques addressed to obtain a large scalability on the Xeon Phi were implemented in p DPM. Maximum scalabilities of 84 . 2 × and 107 . 5 × were obtained in the Xeon Phi for simulations of electron and photon beams, respectively. Nevertheless, in none of the tests involving radiation transport the Xeon Phi performed better than the CPU. The disadvantage of the Xeon Phi with respect to the CPU owes to the low performance of the single core of the former. A single core of the Xeon Phi was more than 10 times less efficient than a single core of the CPU for all radiation transport simulations.

  6. SWAT4.0 - The integrated burnup code system driving continuous energy Monte Carlo codes MVP, MCNP and deterministic calculation code SRAC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kashima, Takao; Suyama, Kenya; Takada, Tomoyuki

    2015-03-01

    There have been two versions of SWAT depending on details of its development history: the revised SWAT that uses the deterministic calculation code SRAC as a neutron transportation solver, and the SWAT3.1 that uses the continuous energy Monte Carlo code MVP or MCNP5 for the same purpose. It takes several hours, however, to execute one calculation by the continuous energy Monte Carlo code even on the super computer of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. Moreover, two-dimensional burnup calculation is not practical using the revised SWAT because it has problems on production of effective cross section data and applying them to arbitrary fuel geometry when a calculation model has multiple burnup zones. Therefore, SWAT4.0 has been developed by adding, to SWAT3.1, a function to utilize the deterministic code SARC2006, which has shorter calculation time, as an outer module of neutron transportation solver for burnup calculation. SWAT4.0 has been enabled to execute two-dimensional burnup calculation by providing an input data template of SRAC2006 to SWAT4.0 input data, and updating atomic number densities of burnup zones in each burnup step. This report describes outline, input data instruction, and examples of calculations of SWAT4.0. (author)

  7. 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)

  8. 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

  9. Optimization of the Monte Carlo code for modeling of photon migration in tissue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zołek, Norbert S; Liebert, Adam; Maniewski, Roman

    2006-10-01

    The Monte Carlo method is frequently used to simulate light transport in turbid media because of its simplicity and flexibility, allowing to analyze complicated geometrical structures. Monte Carlo simulations are, however, time consuming because of the necessity to track the paths of individual photons. The time consuming computation is mainly associated with the calculation of the logarithmic and trigonometric functions as well as the generation of pseudo-random numbers. In this paper, the Monte Carlo algorithm was developed and optimized, by approximation of the logarithmic and trigonometric functions. The approximations were based on polynomial and rational functions, and the errors of these approximations are less than 1% of the values of the original functions. The proposed algorithm was verified by simulations of the time-resolved reflectance at several source-detector separations. The results of the calculation using the approximated algorithm were compared with those of the Monte Carlo simulations obtained with an exact computation of the logarithm and trigonometric functions as well as with the solution of the diffusion equation. The errors of the moments of the simulated distributions of times of flight of photons (total number of photons, mean time of flight and variance) are less than 2% for a range of optical properties, typical of living tissues. The proposed approximated algorithm allows to speed up the Monte Carlo simulations by a factor of 4. The developed code can be used on parallel machines, allowing for further acceleration.

  10. Monte Carlo methods in electron transport problems. Pt. 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cleri, F.

    1989-01-01

    The condensed-history Monte Carlo method for charged particles transport is reviewed and discussed starting from a general form of the Boltzmann equation (Part I). The physics of the electronic interactions, together with some pedagogic example will be introduced in the part II. The lecture is directed to potential users of the method, for which it can be a useful introduction to the subject matter, and wants to establish the basis of the work on the computer code RECORD, which is at present in a developing stage

  11. SCALE Continuous-Energy Monte Carlo Depletion with Parallel KENO in TRITON

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goluoglu, Sedat; Bekar, Kursat B.; Wiarda, Dorothea

    2012-01-01

    The TRITON sequence of the SCALE code system is a powerful and robust tool for performing multigroup (MG) reactor physics analysis using either the 2-D deterministic solver NEWT or the 3-D Monte Carlo transport code KENO. However, as with all MG codes, the accuracy of the results depends on the accuracy of the MG cross sections that are generated and/or used. While SCALE resonance self-shielding modules provide rigorous resonance self-shielding, they are based on 1-D models and therefore 2-D or 3-D effects such as heterogeneity of the lattice structures may render final MG cross sections inaccurate. Another potential drawback to MG Monte Carlo depletion is the need to perform resonance self-shielding calculations at each depletion step for each fuel segment that is being depleted. The CPU time and memory required for self-shielding calculations can often eclipse the resources needed for the Monte Carlo transport. This summary presents the results of the new continuous-energy (CE) calculation mode in TRITON. With the new capability, accurate reactor physics analyses can be performed for all types of systems using the SCALE Monte Carlo code KENO as the CE transport solver. In addition, transport calculations can be performed in parallel mode on multiple processors.

  12. User manual for version 4.3 of the Tripoli-4 Monte-Carlo method particle transport computer code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Both, J.P.; Mazzolo, A.; Peneliau, Y.; Petit, O.; Roesslinger, B.

    2003-01-01

    This manual relates to Version 4.3 TRIPOLI-4 code. TRIPOLI-4 is a computer code simulating the transport of neutrons, photons, electrons and positrons. It can be used for radiation shielding calculations (long-distance propagation with flux attenuation in non-multiplying media) and neutronic calculations (fissile medium, criticality or sub-criticality basis). This makes it possible to calculate k eff (for criticality), flux, currents, reaction rates and multi-group cross-sections. TRIPOLI-4 is a three-dimensional code that uses the Monte-Carlo method. It allows for point-wise description in terms of energy of cross-sections and multi-group homogenized cross-sections and features two modes of geometrical representation: surface and combinatorial. The code uses cross-section libraries in ENDF/B format (such as JEF2-2, ENDF/B-VI and JENDL) for point-wise description cross-sections in APOTRIM format (from the APOLLO2 code) or a format specific to TRIPOLI-4 for multi-group description. (authors)

  13. Monte Carlo impurity transport modeling in the DIII-D transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Evans, T.E.; Finkenthal, D.F.

    1998-04-01

    A description of the carbon transport and sputtering physics contained in the Monte Carlo Impurity (MCI) transport code is given. Examples of statistically significant carbon transport pathways are examined using MCI's unique tracking visualizer and a mechanism for enhanced carbon accumulation on the high field side of the divertor chamber is discussed. Comparisons between carbon emissions calculated with MCI and those measured in the DIII-D tokamak are described. Good qualitative agreement is found between 2D carbon emission patterns calculated with MCI and experimentally measured carbon patterns. While uncertainties in the sputtering physics, atomic data, and transport models have made quantitative comparisons with experiments more difficult, recent results using a physics based model for physical and chemical sputtering has yielded simulations with about 50% of the total carbon radiation measured in the divertor. These results and plans for future improvement in the physics models and atomic data are discussed

  14. 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

  15. Modification of the MORSE code for Monte Carlo eigenvalue problems by coarse-mesh rebalance acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nishida, Takahiko; Horikami, Kunihiko; Suzuki, Tadakazu; Nakahara, Yasuaki; Taji, Yukichi

    1975-09-01

    The coarse-mesh rebalancing technique is introduced into the general-purpose neutron and gamma-ray Monte Carlo transport code MORSE, to accelerate the convergence rate of the iteration process for eigenvalue calculation in a nuclear reactor system. Two subroutines are thus attached to the code. One is bookkeeping routine 'COARSE' for obtaining the quantities related with the neutron balance in each coarse mesh cell, such as the number of neutrons absorbed in the cell, from random walks of neutrons in a batch. The other is rebalance factor calculation routine 'REBAL' for obtaining the scaling factor whereby the neutron flux in the cell is multiplied to attain the neutron balance. The two subroutines and algorithm of the coarse mesh rebalancing acceleration in a Monte Carlo game are described. (auth.)

  16. Comparison of Monte Carlo method and deterministic method for neutron transport calculation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mori, Takamasa; Nakagawa, Masayuki

    1987-01-01

    The report outlines major features of the Monte Carlo method by citing various applications of the method and techniques used for Monte Carlo codes. Major areas of its application include analysis of measurements on fast critical assemblies, nuclear fusion reactor neutronics analysis, criticality safety analysis, evaluation by VIM code, and calculation for shielding. Major techniques used for Monte Carlo codes include the random walk method, geometric expression method (combinatorial geometry, 1, 2, 4-th degree surface and lattice geometry), nuclear data expression, evaluation method (track length, collision, analog (absorption), surface crossing, point), and dispersion reduction (Russian roulette, splitting, exponential transform, importance sampling, corrected sampling). Major features of the Monte Carlo method are as follows: 1) neutron source distribution and systems of complex geometry can be simulated accurately, 2) physical quantities such as neutron flux in a place, on a surface or at a point can be evaluated, and 3) calculation requires less time. (Nogami, K.)

  17. Monte Carlo simulation of medical linear accelerator using primo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Omer, Mohamed Osman Mohamed Elhasan

    2014-12-01

    The use of monte Carlo simulation has become very important in the medical field and especially in calculation in radiotherapy. Various Monte Carlo codes were developed simulating interactions of particles and photons with matter. One of these codes is PRIMO that performs simulation of radiation transport from the primary electron source of a linac to estimate the absorbed dose in a water phantom or computerized tomography (CT). PRIMO is based on Penelope Monte Carlo code. Measurements of 6 MV photon beam PDD and profile were done for Elekta precise linear accelerator at Radiation and Isotopes Center Khartoum using computerized Blue water phantom and CC13 Ionization Chamber. accept Software was used to control the phantom to measure and verify dose distribution. Elektalinac from the list of available linacs in PRIMO was tuned to model Elekta precise linear accelerator. Beam parameter of 6.0 MeV initial electron energy, 0.20 MeV FWHM, and 0.20 cm focal spot FWHM were used, and an error of 4% between calculated and measured curves was found. The buildup region Z max was 1.40 cm and homogenous profile in cross line and in line were acquired. A number of studies were done to verily the model usability one of them is the effect of the number of histories on accuracy of the simulation and the resulted profile for the same beam parameters. The effect was noticeable and inaccuracies in the profile were reduced by increasing the number of histories. Another study was the effect of Side-step errors on the calculated dose which was compared with the measured dose for the same setting.It was in range of 2% for 5 cm shift, but it was higher in the calculated dose because of the small difference between the tuned model and measured dose curves. Future developments include simulating asymmetrical fields, calculating the dose distribution in computerized tomographic (CT) volume, studying the effect of beam modifiers on beam profile for both electron and photon beams.(Author)

  18. Automatic modeling for the Monte Carlo transport code Geant4 in MCAM

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nie Fanzhi; Hu Liqin; Wang Guozhong; Wang Dianxi; Wu Yican; Wang Dong; Long Pengcheng; FDS Team

    2014-01-01

    Geant4 is a widely used Monte Carlo transport simulation package. Its geometry models could be described in geometry description markup language (GDML), but it is time-consuming and error-prone to describe the geometry models manually. This study implemented the conversion between computer-aided design (CAD) geometry models and GDML models. The conversion program was integrated into Multi-Physics Coupling Analysis Modeling Program (MCAM). The tests, including FDS-Ⅱ model, demonstrated its accuracy and feasibility. (authors)

  19. Development of M3C code for Monte Carlo reactor physics criticality calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kumar, Anek; Kannan, Umasankari; Krishanani, P.D.

    2015-06-01

    The development of Monte Carlo code (M3C) for reactor design entails use of continuous energy nuclear data and Monte Carlo simulations for each of the neutron interaction processes. BARC has started a concentrated effort for developing a new general geometry continuous energy Monte Carlo code for reactor physics calculation indigenously. The code development required a comprehensive understanding of the basic continuous energy cross section sets. The important features of this code are treatment of heterogeneous lattices by general geometry, use of point cross sections along with unionized energy grid approach, thermal scattering model for low energy treatment, capability of handling the microscopic fuel particles dispersed randomly. The capability of handling the randomly dispersed microscopic fuel particles which is very useful for the modeling of High-Temperature Gas-Cooled reactor fuels which are composed of thousands of microscopic fuel particle (TRISO fuel particle), randomly dispersed in a graphite matrix. The Monte Carlo code for criticality calculation is a pioneering effort and has been used to study several types of lattices including cluster geometries. The code has been verified for its accuracy against more than 60 sample problems covering a wide range from simple (like spherical) to complex geometry (like PHWR lattice). Benchmark results show that the code performs quite well for the criticality calculation of the system. In this report, the current status of the code, features of the code, some of the benchmark results for the testing of the code and input preparation etc. are discussed. (author)

  20. Premar-2: a Monte Carlo code for radiative transport simulation in atmospheric environments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cupini, E. [ENEA, Centro Ricerche Ezio Clementel, Bologna, (Italy). Dipt. Innovazione

    1999-07-01

    The peculiarities of the PREMAR-2 code, aimed at radiation transport Monte Carlo simulation in atmospheric environments in the infrared-ultraviolet frequency range, are described. With respect to the previously developed PREMAR code, besides plane multilayers, spherical multilayers and finite sequences of vertical layers, each one with its own atmospheric behaviour, are foreseen in the new code, together with the refraction phenomenon, so that long range, highly slanted paths can now be more faithfully taken into account. A zenithal angular dependence of the albedo coefficient has moreover been introduced. Lidar systems, with spatially independent source and telescope, are allowed again to be simulated, and, in this latest version of the code, sensitivity analyses to be performed. According to this last feasibility, consequences on radiation transport of small perturbations in physical components of the atmospheric environment may be analyze and the related effects on searched results estimated. The availability of a library of physical data (reaction coefficients, phase functions and refraction indexes) is required by the code, providing the essential features of the environment of interest needed of the Monte Carlo simulation. Variance reducing techniques have been enhanced in the Premar-2 code, by introducing, for instance, a local forced collision technique, especially apt to be used in Lidar system simulations. Encouraging comparisons between code and experimental results carried out at the Brasimone Centre of ENEA, have so far been obtained, even if further checks of the code are to be performed. [Italian] Nel presente rapporto vengono descritte le principali caratteristiche del codice di calcolo PREMAR-2, che esegue la simulazione Montecarlo del trasporto della radiazione elettromagnetica nell'atmosfera, nell'intervallo di frequenza che va dall'infrarosso all'ultravioletto. Rispetto al codice PREMAR precedentemente sviluppato, il codice

  1. Subgroup approximation in Monte Carlo neutron transport calculation in resonance region; Primena podgrupe aproksimacije u Monte Carlo proracunima transporta neutrona u rezonantnoj oblasti energije

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Belicev, P [Vojnotehnicki Inst., Belgrade (Yugoslavia)

    1988-07-01

    An outline of the problems encountered in the multigroup calculations of the neutron transport in the resonance region is given. The difference between subgroup and multigroup approximation is described briefly. The features of the Monte Carlo code SUBGR are presented. The results of the calculations of the neutron transmission and albedo for infinite iron slabs are given. (author)

  2. Implementation of a Monte Carlo based inverse planning model for clinical IMRT with MCNP code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    He, Tongming Tony

    2003-01-01

    Inaccurate dose calculations and limitations of optimization algorithms in inverse planning introduce systematic and convergence errors to treatment plans. This work was to implement a Monte Carlo based inverse planning model for clinical IMRT aiming to minimize the aforementioned errors. The strategy was to precalculate the dose matrices of beamlets in a Monte Carlo based method followed by the optimization of beamlet intensities. The MCNP 4B (Monte Carlo N-Particle version 4B) code was modified to implement selective particle transport and dose tallying in voxels and efficient estimation of statistical uncertainties. The resulting performance gain was over eleven thousand times. Due to concurrent calculation of multiple beamlets of individual ports, hundreds of beamlets in an IMRT plan could be calculated within a practical length of time. A finite-sized point source model provided a simple and accurate modeling of treatment beams. The dose matrix calculations were validated through measurements in phantoms. Agreements were better than 1.5% or 0.2 cm. The beamlet intensities were optimized using a parallel platform based optimization algorithm that was capable of escape from local minima and preventing premature convergence. The Monte Carlo based inverse planning model was applied to clinical cases. The feasibility and capability of Monte Carlo based inverse planning for clinical IMRT was demonstrated. Systematic errors in treatment plans of a commercial inverse planning system were assessed in comparison with the Monte Carlo based calculations. Discrepancies in tumor doses and critical structure doses were up to 12% and 17%, respectively. The clinical importance of Monte Carlo based inverse planning for IMRT was demonstrated

  3. Monte Carlo systems used for treatment planning and dose verification

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brualla, Lorenzo [Universitaetsklinikum Essen, NCTeam, Strahlenklinik, Essen (Germany); Rodriguez, Miguel [Centro Medico Paitilla, Balboa (Panama); Lallena, Antonio M. [Universidad de Granada, Departamento de Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear, Granada (Spain)

    2017-04-15

    General-purpose radiation transport Monte Carlo codes have been used for estimation of the absorbed dose distribution in external photon and electron beam radiotherapy patients since several decades. Results obtained with these codes are usually more accurate than those provided by treatment planning systems based on non-stochastic methods. Traditionally, absorbed dose computations based on general-purpose Monte Carlo codes have been used only for research, owing to the difficulties associated with setting up a simulation and the long computation time required. To take advantage of radiation transport Monte Carlo codes applied to routine clinical practice, researchers and private companies have developed treatment planning and dose verification systems that are partly or fully based on fast Monte Carlo algorithms. This review presents a comprehensive list of the currently existing Monte Carlo systems that can be used to calculate or verify an external photon and electron beam radiotherapy treatment plan. Particular attention is given to those systems that are distributed, either freely or commercially, and that do not require programming tasks from the end user. These systems are compared in terms of features and the simulation time required to compute a set of benchmark calculations. (orig.) [German] Seit mehreren Jahrzehnten werden allgemein anwendbare Monte-Carlo-Codes zur Simulation des Strahlungstransports benutzt, um die Verteilung der absorbierten Dosis in der perkutanen Strahlentherapie mit Photonen und Elektronen zu evaluieren. Die damit erzielten Ergebnisse sind meist akkurater als solche, die mit nichtstochastischen Methoden herkoemmlicher Bestrahlungsplanungssysteme erzielt werden koennen. Wegen des damit verbundenen Arbeitsaufwands und der langen Dauer der Berechnungen wurden Monte-Carlo-Simulationen von Dosisverteilungen in der konventionellen Strahlentherapie in der Vergangenheit im Wesentlichen in der Forschung eingesetzt. Im Bemuehen, Monte-Carlo-Codes

  4. Accelerating Monte Carlo simulations of photon transport in a voxelized geometry using a massively parallel graphics processing unit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Badal, Andreu; Badano, Aldo

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: It is a known fact that Monte Carlo simulations of radiation transport are computationally intensive and may require long computing times. The authors introduce a new paradigm for the acceleration of Monte Carlo simulations: The use of a graphics processing unit (GPU) as the main computing device instead of a central processing unit (CPU). Methods: A GPU-based Monte Carlo code that simulates photon transport in a voxelized geometry with the accurate physics models from PENELOPE has been developed using the CUDA programming model (NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, CA). Results: An outline of the new code and a sample x-ray imaging simulation with an anthropomorphic phantom are presented. A remarkable 27-fold speed up factor was obtained using a GPU compared to a single core CPU. Conclusions: The reported results show that GPUs are currently a good alternative to CPUs for the simulation of radiation transport. Since the performance of GPUs is currently increasing at a faster pace than that of CPUs, the advantages of GPU-based software are likely to be more pronounced in the future.

  5. Accelerating Monte Carlo simulations of photon transport in a voxelized geometry using a massively parallel graphics processing unit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Badal, Andreu; Badano, Aldo [Division of Imaging and Applied Mathematics, OSEL, CDRH, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland 20993-0002 (United States)

    2009-11-15

    Purpose: It is a known fact that Monte Carlo simulations of radiation transport are computationally intensive and may require long computing times. The authors introduce a new paradigm for the acceleration of Monte Carlo simulations: The use of a graphics processing unit (GPU) as the main computing device instead of a central processing unit (CPU). Methods: A GPU-based Monte Carlo code that simulates photon transport in a voxelized geometry with the accurate physics models from PENELOPE has been developed using the CUDA programming model (NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, CA). Results: An outline of the new code and a sample x-ray imaging simulation with an anthropomorphic phantom are presented. A remarkable 27-fold speed up factor was obtained using a GPU compared to a single core CPU. Conclusions: The reported results show that GPUs are currently a good alternative to CPUs for the simulation of radiation transport. Since the performance of GPUs is currently increasing at a faster pace than that of CPUs, the advantages of GPU-based software are likely to be more pronounced in the future.

  6. Accelerating Monte Carlo simulations of photon transport in a voxelized geometry using a massively parallel graphics processing unit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badal, Andreu; Badano, Aldo

    2009-11-01

    It is a known fact that Monte Carlo simulations of radiation transport are computationally intensive and may require long computing times. The authors introduce a new paradigm for the acceleration of Monte Carlo simulations: The use of a graphics processing unit (GPU) as the main computing device instead of a central processing unit (CPU). A GPU-based Monte Carlo code that simulates photon transport in a voxelized geometry with the accurate physics models from PENELOPE has been developed using the CUDATM programming model (NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, CA). An outline of the new code and a sample x-ray imaging simulation with an anthropomorphic phantom are presented. A remarkable 27-fold speed up factor was obtained using a GPU compared to a single core CPU. The reported results show that GPUs are currently a good alternative to CPUs for the simulation of radiation transport. Since the performance of GPUs is currently increasing at a faster pace than that of CPUs, the advantages of GPU-based software are likely to be more pronounced in the future.

  7. Particle-transport simulation with the Monte Carlo method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carter, L.L.; Cashwell, E.D.

    1975-01-01

    Attention is focused on the application of the Monte Carlo method to particle transport problems, with emphasis on neutron and photon transport. Topics covered include sampling methods, mathematical prescriptions for simulating particle transport, mechanics of simulating particle transport, neutron transport, and photon transport. A literature survey of 204 references is included. (GMT)

  8. On-the-fly doppler broadening for Monte Carlo codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yesilyurt, G.; Martin, W. R.; Brown, F. B.

    2009-01-01

    A methodology to allow on-the-fly Doppler broadening of neutron cross sections for use in Monte Carlo codes has been developed. The Monte Carlo code only needs to store 0 K cross sections for each isotope and the method will broaden the 0 K cross sections for any isotope in the library to any temperature in the range 77 K-3200 K. The methodology is based on a combination of Taylor series expansions and asymptotic series expansions. The type of series representation was determined by investigating the temperature dependence of U3o8 resonance cross sections in three regions: near the resonance peaks, mid-resonance, and the resonance wings. The coefficients for these series expansions were determined by a regression over the energy and temperature range of interest. Since the resonance parameters are a function of the neutron energy and target nuclide, the ψ and χ functions in the Adler-Adler multi-level resonance model can be represented by series expansions in temperature only, allowing the least number of terms to approximate the temperature dependent cross sections within a given accuracy. The comparison of the broadened cross sections using this methodology with the NJOY cross sections was excellent over the entire temperature range (77 K-3200 K) and energy range. A Monte Carlo code was implemented to apply the combined regression model and used to estimate the additional computing cost which was found to be less than <1%. (authors)

  9. A computationally efficient moment-preserving Monte Carlo electron transport method with implementation in Geant4

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dixon, D.A., E-mail: ddixon@lanl.gov [Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, MS P365, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Prinja, A.K., E-mail: prinja@unm.edu [Department of Nuclear Engineering, MSC01 1120, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001 (United States); Franke, B.C., E-mail: bcfrank@sandia.gov [Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87123 (United States)

    2015-09-15

    This paper presents the theoretical development and numerical demonstration of a moment-preserving Monte Carlo electron transport method. Foremost, a full implementation of the moment-preserving (MP) method within the Geant4 particle simulation toolkit is demonstrated. Beyond implementation details, it is shown that the MP method is a viable alternative to the condensed history (CH) method for inclusion in current and future generation transport codes through demonstration of the key features of the method including: systematically controllable accuracy, computational efficiency, mathematical robustness, and versatility. A wide variety of results common to electron transport are presented illustrating the key features of the MP method. In particular, it is possible to achieve accuracy that is statistically indistinguishable from analog Monte Carlo, while remaining up to three orders of magnitude more efficient than analog Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, it is shown that the MP method can be generalized to any applicable analog scattering DCS model by extending previous work on the MP method beyond analytical DCSs to the partial-wave (PW) elastic tabulated DCS data.

  10. Improving system modeling accuracy with Monte Carlo codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, A.S.

    1996-01-01

    The use of computer codes based on Monte Carlo methods to perform criticality calculations has become common-place. Although results frequently published in the literature report calculated k eff values to four decimal places, people who use the codes in their everyday work say that they only believe the first two decimal places of any result. The lack of confidence in the computed k eff values may be due to the tendency of the reported standard deviation to underestimate errors associated with the Monte Carlo process. The standard deviation as reported by the codes is the standard deviation of the mean of the k eff values for individual generations in the computer simulation, not the standard deviation of the computed k eff value compared with the physical system. A more subtle problem with the standard deviation of the mean as reported by the codes is that all the k eff values from the separate generations are not statistically independent since the k eff of a given generation is a function of k eff of the previous generation, which is ultimately based on the starting source. To produce a standard deviation that is more representative of the physical system, statistically independent values of k eff are needed

  11. MONK - a general purpose Monte Carlo neutronics program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sherriffs, V.S.W.

    1978-01-01

    MONK is a Monte Carlo neutronics code written principally for criticality calculations relevant to the transport, storage, and processing of fissile material. The code exploits the ability of the Monte Carlo method to represent complex shapes with very great accuracy. The nuclear data used is derived from the UK Nuclear Data File processed to the required format by a subsidiary program POND. A general description is given of the MONK code together with the subsidiary program SCAN which produces diagrams of the system specified. Details of the data input required by MONK and SCAN are also given. (author)

  12. MVP/GMVP 2: general purpose Monte Carlo codes for neutron and photon transport calculations based on continuous energy and multigroup methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagaya, Yasunobu; Okumura, Keisuke; Mori, Takamasa; Nakagawa, Masayuki

    2005-06-01

    In order to realize fast and accurate Monte Carlo simulation of neutron and photon transport problems, two vectorized Monte Carlo codes MVP and GMVP have been developed at JAERI. MVP is based on the continuous energy model and GMVP is on the multigroup model. Compared with conventional scalar codes, these codes achieve higher computation speed by a factor of 10 or more on vector super-computers. Both codes have sufficient functions for production use by adopting accurate physics model, geometry description capability and variance reduction techniques. The first version of the codes was released in 1994. They have been extensively improved and new functions have been implemented. The major improvements and new functions are (1) capability to treat the scattering model expressed with File 6 of the ENDF-6 format, (2) time-dependent tallies, (3) reaction rate calculation with the pointwise response function, (4) flexible source specification, (5) continuous-energy calculation at arbitrary temperatures, (6) estimation of real variances in eigenvalue problems, (7) point detector and surface crossing estimators, (8) statistical geometry model, (9) function of reactor noise analysis (simulation of the Feynman-α experiment), (10) arbitrary shaped lattice boundary, (11) periodic boundary condition, (12) parallelization with standard libraries (MPI, PVM), (13) supporting many platforms, etc. This report describes the physical model, geometry description method used in the codes, new functions and how to use them. (author)

  13. MCNP: a general Monte Carlo code for neutron and photon transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1978-07-01

    The general-purpose Monte Carlo code MCNP can be used for neutron, photon, or coupled neutron--photon transport. The code treats an arbitrary three-dimensional configuration of materials in geometric cells bounded by first- and second-degree surfaces and some special fourth-degree surfaces (elliptical tori). Pointwise cross-section data are used. For neutrons, all reactions given in a particular cross-section evaluation (such as ENDF/B-IV) are accounted for. For photons, the code takes account of incoherent and coherent scattering, the possibility of fluorescent emission following photoelectric absorption, and absorption in pair production with local emission of annihilation radiation. Standard optional variance reduction schemes include geometry splitting and Russian roulette, the exponential transformation, energy splitting, forced collisions in designated cells, flux estimates at point detectors, track-length estimators, and source biasing. The standard output of MCNP includes two-way current as a function of energy, time, and angle with the normal, across any subset of bounding surfaces in the problem. Fluxes across any set of bounding surfaces are available as a function of time and energy. Similarly, the flux at designated points and the average flux in a cell (track length per unit volume) are standard tallies. Reactions such as fissions or absorptions may be obtained in a subset of geometric cells. The heating tallies give the energy deposition per starting particle. In addition, particles may be flagged when they cross specified surfaces or enter designated cells, and the contributions of these flagged particles to certain of the tallies are listed separately. All quantities printed out have their relative errors listed also. 11 figures, 27 tables

  14. An Overview of the Monte Carlo Application ToolKit (MCATK)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Trahan, Travis John [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2016-01-07

    MCATK is a C++ component-based Monte Carlo neutron-gamma transport software library designed to build specialized applications and designed to provide new functionality in existing general-purpose Monte Carlo codes like MCNP; it was developed with Agile software engineering methodologies under the motivation to reduce costs. The characteristics of MCATK can be summarized as follows: MCATK physics – continuous energy neutron-gamma transport with multi-temperature treatment, static eigenvalue (k and α) algorithms, time-dependent algorithm, fission chain algorithms; MCATK geometry – mesh geometries, solid body geometries. MCATK provides verified, unit-tested Monte Carlo components, flexibility in Monte Carlo applications development, and numerous tools such as geometry and cross section plotters. Recent work has involved deterministic and Monte Carlo analysis of stochastic systems. Static and dynamic analysis is discussed, and the results of a dynamic test problem are given.

  15. Statistical implications in Monte Carlo depletions - 051

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhiwen, Xu; Rhodes, J.; Smith, K.

    2010-01-01

    As a result of steady advances of computer power, continuous-energy Monte Carlo depletion analysis is attracting considerable attention for reactor burnup calculations. The typical Monte Carlo analysis is set up as a combination of a Monte Carlo neutron transport solver and a fuel burnup solver. Note that the burnup solver is a deterministic module. The statistical errors in Monte Carlo solutions are introduced into nuclide number densities and propagated along fuel burnup. This paper is towards the understanding of the statistical implications in Monte Carlo depletions, including both statistical bias and statistical variations in depleted fuel number densities. The deterministic Studsvik lattice physics code, CASMO-5, is modified to model the Monte Carlo depletion. The statistical bias in depleted number densities is found to be negligible compared to its statistical variations, which, in turn, demonstrates the correctness of the Monte Carlo depletion method. Meanwhile, the statistical variation in number densities generally increases with burnup. Several possible ways of reducing the statistical errors are discussed: 1) to increase the number of individual Monte Carlo histories; 2) to increase the number of time steps; 3) to run additional independent Monte Carlo depletion cases. Finally, a new Monte Carlo depletion methodology, called the batch depletion method, is proposed, which consists of performing a set of independent Monte Carlo depletions and is thus capable of estimating the overall statistical errors including both the local statistical error and the propagated statistical error. (authors)

  16. Tripoli-3: monte Carlo transport code for neutral particles - version 3.5 - users manual

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vergnaud, Th.; Nimal, J.C.; Chiron, M.

    2001-01-01

    The TRIPOLI-3 code applies the Monte Carlo method to neutron, gamma-ray and coupled neutron and gamma-ray transport calculations in three-dimensional geometries, either in steady-state conditions or having a time dependence. It can be used to study problems where there is a high flux attenuation between the source zone and the result zone (studies of shielding configurations or source driven sub-critical systems, with fission being taken into account), as well as problems where there is a low flux attenuation (neutronic calculations -- in a fuel lattice cell, for example -- where fission is taken into account, usually with the calculation on the effective multiplication factor, fine structure studies, numerical experiments to investigate methods approximations, etc). TRIPOLI-3 has been operational since 1995 and is the version of the TRIPOLI code that follows on from TRIPOLI-2; it can be used on SUN, RISC600 and HP workstations and on PC using the Linux or Windows/NT operating systems. The code uses nuclear data libraries generated using the THEMIS/NJOY system. The current libraries were derived from ENDF/B6 and JEF2. There is also a response function library based on a number of evaluations, notably the dosimetry libraries IRDF/85, IRDF/90 and also evaluations from JEF2. The treatment of particle transport is the same in version 3.5 as in version 3.4 of the TRIPOLI code; but the version 3.5 is more convenient for preparing the input data and for reading the output. The french version of the user's manual exists. (authors)

  17. Analysis of error in Monte Carlo transport calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Booth, T.E.

    1979-01-01

    The Monte Carlo method for neutron transport calculations suffers, in part, because of the inherent statistical errors associated with the method. Without an estimate of these errors in advance of the calculation, it is difficult to decide what estimator and biasing scheme to use. Recently, integral equations have been derived that, when solved, predicted errors in Monte Carlo calculations in nonmultiplying media. The present work allows error prediction in nonanalog Monte Carlo calculations of multiplying systems, even when supercritical. Nonanalog techniques such as biased kernels, particle splitting, and Russian Roulette are incorporated. Equations derived here allow prediction of how much a specific variance reduction technique reduces the number of histories required, to be weighed against the change in time required for calculation of each history. 1 figure, 1 table

  18. WE-AB-204-11: Development of a Nuclear Medicine Dosimetry Module for the GPU-Based Monte Carlo Code ARCHER

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, T; Lin, H; Xu, X [Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY (United States); Stabin, M [Vanderbilt Univ Medical Ctr, Nashville, TN (United States)

    2015-06-15

    Purpose: To develop a nuclear medicine dosimetry module for the GPU-based Monte Carlo code ARCHER. Methods: We have developed a nuclear medicine dosimetry module for the fast Monte Carlo code ARCHER. The coupled electron-photon Monte Carlo transport kernel included in ARCHER is built upon the Dose Planning Method code (DPM). The developed module manages the radioactive decay simulation by consecutively tracking several types of radiation on a per disintegration basis using the statistical sampling method. Optimization techniques such as persistent threads and prefetching are studied and implemented. The developed module is verified against the VIDA code, which is based on Geant4 toolkit and has previously been verified against OLINDA/EXM. A voxelized geometry is used in the preliminary test: a sphere made of ICRP soft tissue is surrounded by a box filled with water. Uniform activity distribution of I-131 is assumed in the sphere. Results: The self-absorption dose factors (mGy/MBqs) of the sphere with varying diameters are calculated by ARCHER and VIDA respectively. ARCHER’s result is in agreement with VIDA’s that are obtained from a previous publication. VIDA takes hours of CPU time to finish the computation, while it takes ARCHER 4.31 seconds for the 12.4-cm uniform activity sphere case. For a fairer CPU-GPU comparison, more effort will be made to eliminate the algorithmic differences. Conclusion: The coupled electron-photon Monte Carlo code ARCHER has been extended to radioactive decay simulation for nuclear medicine dosimetry. The developed code exhibits good performance in our preliminary test. The GPU-based Monte Carlo code is developed with grant support from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering through an R01 grant (R01EB015478)

  19. Development of a Monte Carlo software to photon transportation in voxel structures using graphic processing units; Desenvolvimento de um software de Monte Carlo para transporte de fotons em estruturas de voxels usando unidades de processamento grafico

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bellezzo, Murillo

    2014-09-01

    As the most accurate method to estimate absorbed dose in radiotherapy, Monte Carlo Method (MCM) has been widely used in radiotherapy treatment planning. Nevertheless, its efficiency can be improved for clinical routine applications. In this thesis, the CUBMC code is presented, a GPU-based MC photon transport algorithm for dose calculation under the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) platform. The simulation of physical events is based on the algorithm used in PENELOPE, and the cross section table used is the one generated by the MATERIAL routine, also present in PENELOPE code. Photons are transported in voxel-based geometries with different compositions. There are two distinct approaches used for transport simulation. The rst of them forces the photon to stop at every voxel frontier, the second one is the Woodcock method, where the photon ignores the existence of borders and travels in homogeneous fictitious media. The CUBMC code aims to be an alternative of Monte Carlo simulator code that, by using the capability of parallel processing of graphics processing units (GPU), provide high performance simulations in low cost compact machines, and thus can be applied in clinical cases and incorporated in treatment planning systems for radiotherapy. (author)

  20. A general purpose code for Monte Carlo simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wilcke, W.W.; Rochester Univ., NY

    1984-01-01

    A general-purpose computer code MONTHY has been written to perform Monte Carlo simulations of physical systems. To achieve a high degree of flexibility the code is organized like a general purpose computer, operating on a vector describing the time dependent state of the system under simulation. The instruction set of the 'computer' is defined by the user and is therefore adaptable to the particular problem studied. The organization of MONTHY allows iterative and conditional execution of operations. (orig.)

  1. Introduction to the simulation with MCNP Monte Carlo code and its applications in Medical Physics; Introduccion a la simulacion con el codigo de Monte Carlo MCNP y sus aplicaciones en Fisica Medica

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Parreno Z, F.; Paucar J, R.; Picon C, C. [Instituto Peruano de Energia Nuclear, Av. Canada 1470, San Borja, Lima 41 (Peru)

    1998-12-31

    The simulation by Monte Carlo is tool which Medical Physics counts with it for the development of its research, the interest by this tool is growing, as we may observe in the main scientific journals for the years 1995-1997 where more than 27 % of the papers treat over Monte Carlo and/or its applications in the radiation transport.In the Peruvian Institute of Nuclear Energy we are implementing and making use of the MCNP4 and EGS4 codes. In this work are presented the general features of the Monte Carlo method and its more useful applications in Medical Physics. Likewise, it is made a simulation of the calculation of isodose curves in an interstitial treatment with Ir-192 wires in a mammary gland carcinoma. (Author)

  2. Uncertainties associated with the use of the KENO Monte Carlo criticality codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Landers, N.F.; Petrie, L.M.

    1989-01-01

    The KENO multi-group Monte Carlo criticality codes have earned the reputation of being efficient, user friendly tools especially suited for the analysis of situations commonly encountered in the storage and transportation of fissile materials. Throughout their twenty years of service, a continuing effort has been made to maintain and improve these codes to meet the needs of the nuclear criticality safety community. Foremost among these needs is the knowledge of how to utilize the results safely and effectively. Therefore it is important that code users be aware of uncertainties that may affect their results. These uncertainties originate from approximations in the problem data, methods used to process cross sections, and assumptions, limitations and approximations within the criticality computer code itself. 6 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab

  3. Application of Monte Carlo codes to neutron dosimetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Prevo, C.T.

    1982-01-01

    In neutron dosimetry, calculations enable one to predict the response of a proposed dosimeter before effort is expended to design and fabricate the neutron instrument or dosimeter. The nature of these calculations requires the use of computer programs that implement mathematical models representing the transport of radiation through attenuating media. Numerical, and in some cases analytical, solutions of these models can be obtained by one of several calculational techniques. All of these techniques are either approximate solutions to the well-known Boltzmann equation or are based on kernels obtained from solutions to the equation. The Boltzmann equation is a precise mathematical description of neutron behavior in terms of position, energy, direction, and time. The solution of the transport equation represents the average value of the particle flux density. Integral forms of the transport equation are generally regarded as the formal basis for the Monte Carlo method, the results of which can in principle be made to approach the exact solution. This paper focuses on the Monte Carlo technique

  4. Research on GPU acceleration for Monte Carlo criticality calculation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu, Q.; Yu, G.; Wang, K.

    2013-01-01

    The Monte Carlo (MC) neutron transport method can be naturally parallelized by multi-core architectures due to the dependency between particles during the simulation. The GPU+CPU heterogeneous parallel mode has become an increasingly popular way of parallelism in the field of scientific supercomputing. Thus, this work focuses on the GPU acceleration method for the Monte Carlo criticality simulation, as well as the computational efficiency that GPUs can bring. The 'neutron transport step' is introduced to increase the GPU thread occupancy. In order to test the sensitivity of the MC code's complexity, a 1D one-group code and a 3D multi-group general purpose code are respectively transplanted to GPUs, and the acceleration effects are compared. The result of numerical experiments shows considerable acceleration effect of the 'neutron transport step' strategy. However, the performance comparison between the 1D code and the 3D code indicates the poor scalability of MC codes on GPUs. (authors)

  5. Monte Carlo simulations of the particle transport in semiconductor detectors of fast neutrons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sedlačková, Katarína; Zaťko, Bohumír; Šagátová, Andrea; Nečas, Vladimír

    2013-01-01

    Several Monte Carlo all-particle transport codes are under active development around the world. In this paper we focused on the capabilities of the MCNPX code (Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended) to follow the particle transport in semiconductor detector of fast neutrons. Semiconductor detector based on semi-insulating GaAs was the object of our investigation. As converter material capable to produce charged particles from the (n, p) interaction, a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) was employed. As the source of fast neutrons, the 239 Pu–Be neutron source was used in the model. The simulations were performed using the MCNPX code which makes possible to track not only neutrons but also recoiled protons at all interesting energies. Hence, the MCNPX code enables seamless particle transport and no other computer program is needed to process the particle transport. The determination of the optimal thickness of the conversion layer and the minimum thickness of the active region of semiconductor detector as well as the energy spectra simulation were the principal goals of the computer modeling. Theoretical detector responses showed that the best detection efficiency can be achieved for 500 μm thick HDPE converter layer. The minimum detector active region thickness has been estimated to be about 400 μm. -- Highlights: ► Application of the MCNPX code for fast neutron detector design is demonstrated. ► Simulations of the particle transport through conversion film of HDPE are presented. ► Simulations of the particle transport through detector active region are presented. ► The optimal thickness of the HDPE conversion film has been calculated. ► Detection efficiency of 0.135% was reached for 500 μm thick HDPE conversion film

  6. Monte-Carlo simulation of complex vapor-transport systems for RIB applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Y.; Alton, G.D.

    2005-01-01

    In order to minimize decay losses of short-lived radioactive species at ISOL based RIB facilities, effusive-flow particle transit times between target and ion source must be as short as practically achievable. A Monte-Carlo code has been developed for simulating the effusive-flow of neutral particles through vapor-transport systems independent of materials of construction. The code provides average distance traveled and time information associated with the transit of individual particles through a system. It offers a cost effective and accurate means for arriving at vapor-transport system designs. In this report, the code will be described and results obtained by its use in evaluating several prototype vapor-transport systems using specular reflection, cosine and isotropic particle re-emission about the normal to the surface models following adsorption. Simulation results obtained with an isotropic distribution are in close agreement with experimental measurements of the properties of prototype vapor-transport systems fabricated at the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility

  7. Recent developments of JAEA’s Monte Carlo code MVP for reactor physics applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagaya, Yasunobu; Okumura, Keisuke; Mori, Takamasa

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • This paper describes the recent development status of the Monte Carlo code MVP. • The basic features and capabilities of MVP are briefly described. • New capabilities useful for reactor analysis are also described. - Abstract: This paper describes the recent development status of a Monte Carlo code MVP developed at Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The basic features and capabilities of MVP are overviewed. In addition, new capabilities useful for reactor analysis are also described

  8. Development of a Monte Carlo software to photon transportation in voxel structures using graphic processing units

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bellezzo, Murillo

    2014-01-01

    As the most accurate method to estimate absorbed dose in radiotherapy, Monte Carlo Method (MCM) has been widely used in radiotherapy treatment planning. Nevertheless, its efficiency can be improved for clinical routine applications. In this thesis, the CUBMC code is presented, a GPU-based MC photon transport algorithm for dose calculation under the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) platform. The simulation of physical events is based on the algorithm used in PENELOPE, and the cross section table used is the one generated by the MATERIAL routine, also present in PENELOPE code. Photons are transported in voxel-based geometries with different compositions. There are two distinct approaches used for transport simulation. The rst of them forces the photon to stop at every voxel frontier, the second one is the Woodcock method, where the photon ignores the existence of borders and travels in homogeneous fictitious media. The CUBMC code aims to be an alternative of Monte Carlo simulator code that, by using the capability of parallel processing of graphics processing units (GPU), provide high performance simulations in low cost compact machines, and thus can be applied in clinical cases and incorporated in treatment planning systems for radiotherapy. (author)

  9. A Study on Efficiency Improvement of the Hybrid Monte Carlo/Deterministic Method for Global Transport Problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Jong Woo; Woo, Myeong Hyeon; Kim, Jae Hyun; Kim, Do Hyun; Shin, Chang Ho; Kim, Jong Kyung

    2017-01-01

    In this study hybrid Monte Carlo/Deterministic method is explained for radiation transport analysis in global system. FW-CADIS methodology construct the weight window parameter and it useful at most global MC calculation. However, Due to the assumption that a particle is scored at a tally, less particles are transported to the periphery of mesh tallies. For compensation this space-dependency, we modified the module in the ADVANTG code to add the proposed method. We solved the simple test problem for comparing with result from FW-CADIS methodology, it was confirmed that a uniform statistical error was secured as intended. In the future, it will be added more practical problems. It might be useful to perform radiation transport analysis using the Hybrid Monte Carlo/Deterministic method in global transport problems.

  10. Convergence acceleration in the Monte-Carlo particle transport code TRIPOLI-4 in criticality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dehaye, Benjamin

    2014-01-01

    Fields such as criticality studies need to compute some values of interest in neutron physics. Two kind of codes may be used: deterministic ones and stochastic ones. The stochastic codes do not require approximation and are thus more exact. However, they may require a lot of time to converge with a sufficient precision.The work carried out during this thesis aims to build an efficient acceleration strategy in the TRIPOLI-4. We wish to implement the zero variance game. To do so, the method requires to compute the adjoint flux. The originality of this work is to directly compute the adjoint flux directly from a Monte-Carlo simulation without using external codes thanks to the fission matrix method. This adjoint flux is then used as an importance map to bias the simulation. (author) [fr

  11. Applications of Monte Carlo codes to a study of gamma-ray buildup factors, skyshine and duct streaming

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hirayama, H. [High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Ibaraki (Japan)

    2001-07-01

    Many shielding calculations for gamma-rays have continued to rely on point-kernel methods incorporating buildup factor data. Line beam or conical beam response functions, which are calculated using a Monte Carlo code, for skyshine problems are useful to estimate the skyshine dose from various facilities. A simple calculation method for duct streaming was proposed using the parameters calculated by the Monte Carlo code. It is therefore important to study, improve and produce basic parameters related to old, but still important, problems in the fields of radiation shielding using the Monte Carlo code. In this paper, these studies performed by several groups in Japan as applications of the Monte Carlo method are discussed. (orig.)

  12. Efficient data management techniques implemented in the Karlsruhe Monte Carlo code KAMCCO

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arnecke, G.; Borgwaldt, H.; Brandl, V.; Lalovic, M.

    1974-01-01

    The Karlsruhe Monte Carlo Code KAMCCO is a forward neutron transport code with an eigenfunction and a fixed source option, including time-dependence. A continuous energy model is combined with a detailed representation of neutron cross sections, based on linear interpolation, Breit-Wigner resonances and probability tables. All input is processed into densely packed, dynamically addressed parameter fields and networks of pointers (addresses). Estimation routines are decoupled from random walk and analyze a storage region with sample records. This technique leads to fast execution with moderate storage requirements and without any I/O-operations except in the input and output stages. 7 references. (U.S.)

  13. First validation of the new continuous energy version of the MORET5 Monte Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miss, Joachim; Bernard, Franck; Forestier, Benoit; Haeck, Wim; Richet, Yann; Jacquet, Olivier

    2008-01-01

    The 5.A.1 version is the next release of the MORET Monte Carlo code dedicated to criticality and reactor calculations. This new version combines all the capabilities that are already available in the multigroup version with many new and enhanced features. The main capabilities of the previous version are the powerful association of a deterministic and Monte Carlo approach (like for instance APOLLO-MORET), the modular geometry, five source sampling techniques and two simulation strategies. The major advance in MORET5 is the ability to perform calculations either a multigroup or a continuous energy simulation. Thanks to these new developments, we now have better control over the whole process of criticality calculations, from reading the basic nuclear data to the Monte Carlo simulation itself. Moreover, this new capability enables us to better validate the deterministic-Monte Carlo multigroup calculations by performing continuous energy calculations with the same code, using the same geometry and tracking algorithms. The aim of this paper is to describe the main options available in this new release, and to present the first results. Comparisons of the MORET5 continuous-energy results with experimental measurements and against another continuous-energy Monte Carlo code are provided in terms of validation and time performance. Finally, an analysis of the interest of using a unified energy grid for continuous energy Monte Carlo calculations is presented. (authors)

  14. Vectorization and parallelization of Monte-Carlo programs for calculation of radiation transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seidel, R.

    1995-01-01

    The versatile MCNP-3B Monte-Carlo code written in FORTRAN77, for simulation of the radiation transport of neutral particles, has been subjected to vectorization and parallelization of essential parts, without touching its versatility. Vectorization is not dependent on a specific computer. Several sample tasks have been selected in order to test the vectorized MCNP-3B code in comparison to the scalar MNCP-3B code. The samples are a representative example of the 3-D calculations to be performed for simulation of radiation transport in neutron and reactor physics. (1) 4πneutron detector. (2) High-energy calorimeter. (3) PROTEUS benchmark (conversion rates and neutron multiplication factors for the HCLWR (High Conversion Light Water Reactor)). (orig./HP) [de

  15. Importance estimation in Monte Carlo modelling of neutron and photon transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mickael, M.W.

    1992-01-01

    The estimation of neutron and photon importance in a three-dimensional geometry is achieved using a coupled Monte Carlo and diffusion theory calculation. The parameters required for the solution of the multigroup adjoint diffusion equation are estimated from an analog Monte Carlo simulation of the system under investigation. The solution of the adjoint diffusion equation is then used as an estimate of the particle importance in the actual simulation. This approach provides an automated and efficient variance reduction method for Monte Carlo simulations. The technique has been successfully applied to Monte Carlo simulation of neutron and coupled neutron-photon transport in the nuclear well-logging field. The results show that the importance maps obtained in a few minutes of computer time using this technique are in good agreement with Monte Carlo generated importance maps that require prohibitive computing times. The application of this method to Monte Carlo modelling of the response of neutron porosity and pulsed neutron instruments has resulted in major reductions in computation time. (Author)

  16. Scalable Domain Decomposed Monte Carlo Particle Transport

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    O' Brien, Matthew Joseph [Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)

    2013-12-05

    In this dissertation, we present the parallel algorithms necessary to run domain decomposed Monte Carlo particle transport on large numbers of processors (millions of processors). Previous algorithms were not scalable, and the parallel overhead became more computationally costly than the numerical simulation.

  17. A Monte Carlo Code (PHOEL) for generating initial energies of photoelectrons and compton electrons produced by photons in water

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Turner, J.E.; Modolo, J.T.; Sordi, G.M.A.A.; Hamm, R.N.; Wright, H.A.

    1979-01-01

    PHOEL provides a source term for a Monte Carlo code which calculates the electron transport and energy degradation in liquid water. This code is used to study the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of low-LET radiation at low doses. The basic numerical data used and their mathematical treatment are described as well as the operation of the code [pt

  18. The Monte Carlo photoionization and moving-mesh radiation hydrodynamics code CMACIONIZE

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vandenbroucke, B.; Wood, K.

    2018-04-01

    We present the public Monte Carlo photoionization and moving-mesh radiation hydrodynamics code CMACIONIZE, which can be used to simulate the self-consistent evolution of HII regions surrounding young O and B stars, or other sources of ionizing radiation. The code combines a Monte Carlo photoionization algorithm that uses a complex mix of hydrogen, helium and several coolants in order to self-consistently solve for the ionization and temperature balance at any given type, with a standard first order hydrodynamics scheme. The code can be run as a post-processing tool to get the line emission from an existing simulation snapshot, but can also be used to run full radiation hydrodynamical simulations. Both the radiation transfer and the hydrodynamics are implemented in a general way that is independent of the grid structure that is used to discretize the system, allowing it to be run both as a standard fixed grid code, but also as a moving-mesh code.

  19. Tripoli-3: monte Carlo transport code for neutral particles - version 3.5 - users manual; Tripoli-3: code de transport des particules neutres par la methode de monte carlo - version 3.5 - manuel d'utilisation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vergnaud, Th; Nimal, J C; Chiron, M

    2001-07-01

    The TRIPOLI-3 code applies the Monte Carlo method to neutron, gamma-ray and coupled neutron and gamma-ray transport calculations in three-dimensional geometries, either in steady-state conditions or having a time dependence. It can be used to study problems where there is a high flux attenuation between the source zone and the result zone (studies of shielding configurations or source driven sub-critical systems, with fission being taken into account), as well as problems where there is a low flux attenuation (neutronic calculations -- in a fuel lattice cell, for example -- where fission is taken into account, usually with the calculation on the effective multiplication factor, fine structure studies, numerical experiments to investigate methods approximations, etc). TRIPOLI-3 has been operational since 1995 and is the version of the TRIPOLI code that follows on from TRIPOLI-2; it can be used on SUN, RISC600 and HP workstations and on PC using the Linux or Windows/NT operating systems. The code uses nuclear data libraries generated using the THEMIS/NJOY system. The current libraries were derived from ENDF/B6 and JEF2. There is also a response function library based on a number of evaluations, notably the dosimetry libraries IRDF/85, IRDF/90 and also evaluations from JEF2. The treatment of particle transport is the same in version 3.5 as in version 3.4 of the TRIPOLI code; but the version 3.5 is more convenient for preparing the input data and for reading the output. The french version of the user's manual exists. (authors)

  20. Monte Carlo simulation on nuclear energy study. Annual report of Nuclear Code Evaluation Committee

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sakurai, Kiyoshi; Yamamoto, Toshihiro

    1999-03-01

    In this report, research results discussed in 1998 fiscal year at Nuclear Code Evaluation Special Committee of Nuclear Code Committee were summarised. Present status of Monte Carlo calculation in high energy region investigated / discussed at Monte Carlo simulation working-group and automatic compilation system for MCNP cross sections developed at MCNP high temperature library compilation working-group were described. The 6 papers are indexed individually. (J.P.N.)

  1. The Monte Carlo code MCBEND - where it is and where it's going

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chukas, S.J.; Miller, P.C.; Power, S.W.

    1990-05-01

    The Monte Carlo method forms a corner stone to the calculational procedures established in the UK for shielding design and assessment. The emphasis of the work in the shielding area is centred on the Monte Carlo code MCBEND. The work programme in support of the code is broadly directed towards utilisation of new hardware, the development of improved modelling algorithms, the development of new acceleration methods for specific applications and enhancements to user image. This paper summarises the current status of MCBEND and reviews developments carried out over the past two years and planned for the future. (author)

  2. A GPU-based Monte Carlo dose calculation code for photon transport in a voxel phantom

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bellezzo, M.; Do Nascimento, E.; Yoriyaz, H., E-mail: mbellezzo@gmail.br [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares / CNEN, Av. Lineu Prestes 2242, Cidade Universitaria, 05508-000 Sao Paulo (Brazil)

    2014-08-15

    As the most accurate method to estimate absorbed dose in radiotherapy, Monte Carlo method has been widely used in radiotherapy treatment planning. Nevertheless, its efficiency can be improved for clinical routine applications. In this paper, we present the CUBMC code, a GPU-based Mc photon transport algorithm for dose calculation under the Compute Unified Device Architecture platform. The simulation of physical events is based on the algorithm used in Penelope, and the cross section table used is the one generated by the Material routine, als present in Penelope code. Photons are transported in voxel-based geometries with different compositions. To demonstrate the capabilities of the algorithm developed in the present work four 128 x 128 x 128 voxel phantoms have been considered. One of them is composed by a homogeneous water-based media, the second is composed by bone, the third is composed by lung and the fourth is composed by a heterogeneous bone and vacuum geometry. Simulations were done considering a 6 MeV monoenergetic photon point source. There are two distinct approaches that were used for transport simulation. The first of them forces the photon to stop at every voxel frontier, the second one is the Woodcock method, where the photon stop in the frontier will be considered depending on the material changing across the photon travel line. Dose calculations using these methods are compared for validation with Penelope and MCNP5 codes. Speed-up factors are compared using a NVidia GTX 560-Ti GPU card against a 2.27 GHz Intel Xeon CPU processor. (Author)

  3. A GPU-based Monte Carlo dose calculation code for photon transport in a voxel phantom

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bellezzo, M.; Do Nascimento, E.; Yoriyaz, H.

    2014-08-01

    As the most accurate method to estimate absorbed dose in radiotherapy, Monte Carlo method has been widely used in radiotherapy treatment planning. Nevertheless, its efficiency can be improved for clinical routine applications. In this paper, we present the CUBMC code, a GPU-based Mc photon transport algorithm for dose calculation under the Compute Unified Device Architecture platform. The simulation of physical events is based on the algorithm used in Penelope, and the cross section table used is the one generated by the Material routine, als present in Penelope code. Photons are transported in voxel-based geometries with different compositions. To demonstrate the capabilities of the algorithm developed in the present work four 128 x 128 x 128 voxel phantoms have been considered. One of them is composed by a homogeneous water-based media, the second is composed by bone, the third is composed by lung and the fourth is composed by a heterogeneous bone and vacuum geometry. Simulations were done considering a 6 MeV monoenergetic photon point source. There are two distinct approaches that were used for transport simulation. The first of them forces the photon to stop at every voxel frontier, the second one is the Woodcock method, where the photon stop in the frontier will be considered depending on the material changing across the photon travel line. Dose calculations using these methods are compared for validation with Penelope and MCNP5 codes. Speed-up factors are compared using a NVidia GTX 560-Ti GPU card against a 2.27 GHz Intel Xeon CPU processor. (Author)

  4. ScintSim1: a new Monte Carlo simulation code for transport of optical photons in 2D arrays of scintillation detectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mosleh-Shirazi, Mohammad Amin; Karbasi, Sareh; Zarrini-Monfared, Zinat; Zamani, Ali

    2014-01-01

    Two-dimensional (2D) arrays of thick segmented scintillators are of interest as X-ray detectors for both 2D and 3D image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). Their detection process involves ionizing radiation energy deposition followed by production and transport of optical photons. Only a very limited number of optical Monte Carlo simulation models exist, which has limited the number of modeling studies that have considered both stages of the detection process. We present ScintSim1, an in-house optical Monte Carlo simulation code for 2D arrays of scintillation crystals, developed in the MATLAB programming environment. The code was rewritten and revised based on an existing program for single-element detectors, with the additional capability to model 2D arrays of elements with configurable dimensions, material, etc., The code generates and follows each optical photon history through the detector element (and, in case of cross-talk, the surrounding ones) until it reaches a configurable receptor, or is attenuated. The new model was verified by testing against relevant theoretically known behaviors or quantities and the results of a validated single-element model. For both sets of comparisons, the discrepancies in the calculated quantities were all <1%. The results validate the accuracy of the new code, which is a useful tool in scintillation detector optimization. (author)

  5. Transport methods: general. 2. Monte Carlo Particle Transport in Media with Exponentially Varying Time-Dependent Cross Sections

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brown, Forrest B.; Martin, William R.

    2001-01-01

    We have investigated Monte Carlo schemes for analyzing particle transport through media with exponentially varying time-dependent cross sections. For such media, the cross sections are represented in the form Σ(t) = Σ 0 e -at (1) or equivalently as Σ(x) = Σ 0 e -bx (2) where b = av and v is the particle speed. For the following discussion, the parameters a and b may be either positive, for exponentially decreasing cross sections, or negative, for exponentially increasing cross sections. For most time-dependent Monte Carlo applications, the time and spatial variations of the cross-section data are handled by means of a stepwise procedure, holding the cross sections constant for each region over a small time interval Δt, performing the Monte Carlo random walk over the interval Δt, updating the cross sections, and then repeating for a series of time intervals. Continuously varying spatial- or time-dependent cross sections can be treated in a rigorous Monte Carlo fashion using delta-tracking, but inefficiencies may arise if the range of cross-section variation is large. In this paper, we present a new method for sampling collision distances directly for cross sections that vary exponentially in space or time. The method is exact and efficient and has direct application to Monte Carlo radiation transport methods. To verify that the probability density function (PDF) is correct and that the random-sampling procedure yields correct results, numerical experiments were performed using a one-dimensional Monte Carlo code. The physical problem consisted of a beam source impinging on a purely absorbing infinite slab, with a slab thickness of 1 cm and Σ 0 = 1 cm -1 . Monte Carlo calculations with 10 000 particles were run for a range of the exponential parameter b from -5 to +20 cm -1 . Two separate Monte Carlo calculations were run for each choice of b, a continuously varying case using the random-sampling procedures described earlier, and a 'conventional' case where the

  6. Monte Carlo simulation for IRRMA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gardner, R.P.; Liu Lianyan

    2000-01-01

    Monte Carlo simulation is fast becoming a standard approach for many radiation applications that were previously treated almost entirely by experimental techniques. This is certainly true for Industrial Radiation and Radioisotope Measurement Applications - IRRMA. The reasons for this include: (1) the increased cost and inadequacy of experimentation for design and interpretation purposes; (2) the availability of low cost, large memory, and fast personal computers; and (3) the general availability of general purpose Monte Carlo codes that are increasingly user-friendly, efficient, and accurate. This paper discusses the history and present status of Monte Carlo simulation for IRRMA including the general purpose (GP) and specific purpose (SP) Monte Carlo codes and future needs - primarily from the experience of the authors

  7. TRIMARAN: a three dimensional multigroup P1 Monte Carlo code for criticality studies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ermumcu, G.; Gonnord, J.; Nimal, J.C.

    1980-01-01

    TRIMARAN is developed for safety analysis of nuclear components containing fissionable materials: shipping casks, storage and cooling pools, manufacture and reprocessing plants. It solves the transport equation by Monte Carlo method, in general three dimensional geometry with multigroup P1 approximation. A special representation of cross sections and numbers has been developed in order to reduce considerably the computing cost and allow this three dimensional code to compete with standard numerical program used in parametric studies

  8. TRIMARAN: a three dimensional multigroup P1 Monte Carlo code for criticallity studies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ermuncu, G.; Gonnord, J.; Nimal, J.C.

    1980-04-01

    TRIMARAN is developed for safety analysis of nuclar components containing fissionnable materials: shipping casks, storage and cooling pools, manufacture and reprocessing plants. It solves the transport equation by Monte Carlo method in general three dimensional geometry with multigroup P1 approximation. A special representation of cross sections and numbers has been developed in order to reduce considerably the computing cost and allow this three dimensional code to compete with standard numerical program used in parametric studies

  9. General purpose code for Monte Carlo simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wilcke, W.W.

    1983-01-01

    A general-purpose computer called MONTHY has been written to perform Monte Carlo simulations of physical systems. To achieve a high degree of flexibility the code is organized like a general purpose computer, operating on a vector describing the time dependent state of the system under simulation. The instruction set of the computer is defined by the user and is therefore adaptable to the particular problem studied. The organization of MONTHY allows iterative and conditional execution of operations

  10. Criticality qualification of a new Monte Carlo code for reactor core analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Catsaros, N.; Gaveau, B.; Jaekel, M.; Maillard, J.; Maurel, G.; Savva, P.; Silva, J.; Varvayanni, M.; Zisis, Th.

    2009-01-01

    In order to accurately simulate Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS), the utilization of at least two computational tools is necessary (the thermal-hydraulic problem is not considered in the frame of this work), namely: (a) A High Energy Physics (HEP) code system dealing with the 'Accelerator part' of the installation, i.e. the computation of the spectrum, intensity and spatial distribution of the neutrons source created by (p, n) reactions of a proton beam on a target and (b) a neutronics code system, handling the 'Reactor part' of the installation, i.e. criticality calculations, neutron transport, fuel burn-up and fission products evolution. In the present work, a single computational tool, aiming to analyze an ADS in its integrity and also able to perform core analysis for a conventional fission reactor, is proposed. The code is based on the well qualified HEP code GEANT (version 3), transformed to perform criticality calculations. The performance of the code is tested against two qualified neutronics code systems, the diffusion/transport SCALE-CITATION code system and the Monte Carlo TRIPOLI code, in the case of a research reactor core analysis. A satisfactory agreement was exhibited by the three codes.

  11. Uncertainty analysis in Monte Carlo criticality computations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qi Ao

    2011-01-01

    Highlights: ► Two types of uncertainty methods for k eff Monte Carlo computations are examined. ► Sampling method has the least restrictions on perturbation but computing resources. ► Analytical method is limited to small perturbation on material properties. ► Practicality relies on efficiency, multiparameter applicability and data availability. - Abstract: Uncertainty analysis is imperative for nuclear criticality risk assessments when using Monte Carlo neutron transport methods to predict the effective neutron multiplication factor (k eff ) for fissionable material systems. For the validation of Monte Carlo codes for criticality computations against benchmark experiments, code accuracy and precision are measured by both the computational bias and uncertainty in the bias. The uncertainty in the bias accounts for known or quantified experimental, computational and model uncertainties. For the application of Monte Carlo codes for criticality analysis of fissionable material systems, an administrative margin of subcriticality must be imposed to provide additional assurance of subcriticality for any unknown or unquantified uncertainties. Because of a substantial impact of the administrative margin of subcriticality on economics and safety of nuclear fuel cycle operations, recently increasing interests in reducing the administrative margin of subcriticality make the uncertainty analysis in criticality safety computations more risk-significant. This paper provides an overview of two most popular k eff uncertainty analysis methods for Monte Carlo criticality computations: (1) sampling-based methods, and (2) analytical methods. Examples are given to demonstrate their usage in the k eff uncertainty analysis due to uncertainties in both neutronic and non-neutronic parameters of fissionable material systems.

  12. Condensation and homogenization of cross sections for the deterministic transport codes with Monte Carlo method: Application to the GEN IV fast neutron reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cai, Li

    2014-01-01

    calculation solver SNATCH in the PARIS code platform. The latter uses the transport theory which is indispensable for the new generation fast reactors analysis. The principal conclusions are as follows: The Monte-Carlo assembly calculation code is an interesting way (in the sense of avoiding the difficulties in the self-shielding calculation, the limited order development of anisotropy parameters, the exact 3D geometries) to validate the deterministic codes like ECCO or APOLLO3 and to produce the multi-group constants for deterministic or Monte-Carlo multi-group calculation codes. The results obtained for the moment with the multi-group constants calculated by TRIPOLI-4 code are comparable with those produced from ECCO, but did not show remarkable advantages. (author) [fr

  13. Calculation of electron and isotopes dose point kernels with FLUKA Monte Carlo code for dosimetry in nuclear medicine therapy

    CERN Document Server

    Mairani, A; Valente, M; Battistoni, G; Botta, F; Pedroli, G; Ferrari, A; Cremonesi, M; Di Dia, A; Ferrari, M; Fasso, A

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: The calculation of patient-specific dose distribution can be achieved by Monte Carlo simulations or by analytical methods. In this study, FLUKA Monte Carlo code has been considered for use in nuclear medicine dosimetry. Up to now, FLUKA has mainly been dedicated to other fields, namely high energy physics, radiation protection, and hadrontherapy. When first employing a Monte Carlo code for nuclear medicine dosimetry, its results concerning electron transport at energies typical of nuclear medicine applications need to be verified. This is commonly achieved by means of calculation of a representative parameter and comparison with reference data. Dose point kernel (DPK), quantifying the energy deposition all around a point isotropic source, is often the one. Methods: FLUKA DPKS have been calculated in both water and compact bone for monoenergetic electrons (10-3 MeV) and for beta emitting isotopes commonly used for therapy ((89)Sr, (90)Y, (131)I, (153)Sm, (177)Lu, (186)Re, and (188)Re). Point isotropic...

  14. A hybrid transport-diffusion method for Monte Carlo radiative-transfer simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Densmore, Jeffery D.; Urbatsch, Todd J.; Evans, Thomas M.; Buksas, Michael W.

    2007-01-01

    Discrete Diffusion Monte Carlo (DDMC) is a technique for increasing the efficiency of Monte Carlo particle-transport simulations in diffusive media. If standard Monte Carlo is used in such media, particle histories will consist of many small steps, resulting in a computationally expensive calculation. In DDMC, particles take discrete steps between spatial cells according to a discretized diffusion equation. Each discrete step replaces many small Monte Carlo steps, thus increasing the efficiency of the simulation. In addition, given that DDMC is based on a diffusion equation, it should produce accurate solutions if used judiciously. In practice, DDMC is combined with standard Monte Carlo to form a hybrid transport-diffusion method that can accurately simulate problems with both diffusive and non-diffusive regions. In this paper, we extend previously developed DDMC techniques in several ways that improve the accuracy and utility of DDMC for nonlinear, time-dependent, radiative-transfer calculations. The use of DDMC in these types of problems is advantageous since, due to the underlying linearizations, optically thick regions appear to be diffusive. First, we employ a diffusion equation that is discretized in space but is continuous in time. Not only is this methodology theoretically more accurate than temporally discretized DDMC techniques, but it also has the benefit that a particle's time is always known. Thus, there is no ambiguity regarding what time to assign a particle that leaves an optically thick region (where DDMC is used) and begins transporting by standard Monte Carlo in an optically thin region. Also, we treat the interface between optically thick and optically thin regions with an improved method, based on the asymptotic diffusion-limit boundary condition, that can produce accurate results regardless of the angular distribution of the incident Monte Carlo particles. Finally, we develop a technique for estimating radiation momentum deposition during the

  15. Monte-Carlo code calculation of 3D reactor core model with usage of burnt fuel isotopic compositions, obtained by engineering codes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aleshin, Sergey S.; Gorodkov, Sergey S.; Shcherenko, Anna I. [National Research Centre ' Kurchatov Institute' , Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2016-09-15

    A burn-up calculation of large systems by Monte-Carlo code (MCU) is complex process and it requires large computational costs. Previously prepared isotopic compositions are proposed to be used for the Monte-Carlo code calculations of different system states with burnt fuel. Isotopic compositions are calculated by an approximation method. The approximation method is based on usage of a spectral functionality and reference isotopic compositions, that are calculated by the engineering codes (TVS-M, BIPR-7A and PERMAK-A). The multiplication factors and power distributions of FAs from a 3-D reactor core are calculated in this work by the Monte-Carlo code MCU using earlier prepared isotopic compositions. The separate conditions of the burnt core are observed. The results of MCU calculations were compared with those that were obtained by engineering codes.

  16. Tripoli-3: monte Carlo transport code for neutral particles - version 3.5 - users manual; Tripoli-3: code de transport des particules neutres par la methode de monte carlo - version 3.5 - manuel d'utilisation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vergnaud, Th.; Nimal, J.C.; Chiron, M

    2001-07-01

    The TRIPOLI-3 code applies the Monte Carlo method to neutron, gamma-ray and coupled neutron and gamma-ray transport calculations in three-dimensional geometries, either in steady-state conditions or having a time dependence. It can be used to study problems where there is a high flux attenuation between the source zone and the result zone (studies of shielding configurations or source driven sub-critical systems, with fission being taken into account), as well as problems where there is a low flux attenuation (neutronic calculations -- in a fuel lattice cell, for example -- where fission is taken into account, usually with the calculation on the effective multiplication factor, fine structure studies, numerical experiments to investigate methods approximations, etc). TRIPOLI-3 has been operational since 1995 and is the version of the TRIPOLI code that follows on from TRIPOLI-2; it can be used on SUN, RISC600 and HP workstations and on PC using the Linux or Windows/NT operating systems. The code uses nuclear data libraries generated using the THEMIS/NJOY system. The current libraries were derived from ENDF/B6 and JEF2. There is also a response function library based on a number of evaluations, notably the dosimetry libraries IRDF/85, IRDF/90 and also evaluations from JEF2. The treatment of particle transport is the same in version 3.5 as in version 3.4 of the TRIPOLI code; but the version 3.5 is more convenient for preparing the input data and for reading the output. The french version of the user's manual exists. (authors)

  17. Correlated Production and Analog Transport of Fission Neutrons and Photons using Fission Models FREYA, FIFRELIN and the Monte Carlo Code TRIPOLI-4® .

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verbeke, Jérôme M.; Petit, Odile; Chebboubi, Abdelhazize; Litaize, Olivier

    2018-01-01

    Fission modeling in general-purpose Monte Carlo transport codes often relies on average nuclear data provided by international evaluation libraries. As such, only average fission multiplicities are available and correlations between fission neutrons and photons are missing. Whereas uncorrelated fission physics is usually sufficient for standard reactor core and radiation shielding calculations, correlated fission secondaries are required for specialized nuclear instrumentation and detector modeling. For coincidence counting detector optimization for instance, precise simulation of fission neutrons and photons that remain correlated in time from birth to detection is essential. New developments were recently integrated into the Monte Carlo transport code TRIPOLI-4 to model fission physics more precisely, the purpose being to access event-by-event fission events from two different fission models: FREYA and FIFRELIN. TRIPOLI-4 simulations can now be performed, either by connecting via an API to the LLNL fission library including FREYA, or by reading external fission event data files produced by FIFRELIN beforehand. These new capabilities enable us to easily compare results from Monte Carlo transport calculations using the two fission models in a nuclear instrumentation application. In the first part of this paper, broad underlying principles of the two fission models are recalled. We then present experimental measurements of neutron angular correlations for 252Cf(sf) and 240Pu(sf). The correlations were measured for several neutron kinetic energy thresholds. In the latter part of the paper, simulation results are compared to experimental data. Spontaneous fissions in 252Cf and 240Pu are modeled by FREYA or FIFRELIN. Emitted neutrons and photons are subsequently transported to an array of scintillators by TRIPOLI-4 in analog mode to preserve their correlations. Angular correlations between fission neutrons obtained independently from these TRIPOLI-4 simulations, using

  18. A PC version of the Monte Carlo criticality code OMEGA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seifert, E.

    1996-05-01

    A description of the PC version of the Monte Carlo criticality code OMEGA is given. The report contains a general description of the code together with a detailed input description. Furthermore, some examples are given illustrating the generation of an input file. The main field of application is the calculation of the criticality of arrangements of fissionable material. Geometrically complicated arrangements that often appear inside and outside a reactor, e.g. in a fuel storage or transport container, can be considered essentially without geometrical approximations. For example, the real geometry of assemblies containing hexagonal or square lattice structures can be described in full detail. Moreover, the code can be used for special investigations in the field of reactor physics and neutron transport. Many years of practical experience and comparison with reference cases have shown that the code together with the built-in data libraries gives reliable results. OMEGA is completely independent on other widely used criticality codes (KENO, MCNP, etc.), concerning programming and the data base. It is a good practice to run difficult criticality safety problems by different independent codes in order to mutually verify the results. In this way, OMEGA can be used as a redundant code within the family of criticality codes. An advantage of OMEGA is the short calculation time: A typical criticality safety application takes only a few minutes on a Pentium PC. Therefore, the influence of parameter variations can simply be investigated by running many variants of a problem. (orig.)

  19. ITS version 5.0 :the integrated TIGER series of coupled electron/Photon monte carlo transport codes with CAD geometry.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Franke, Brian Claude; Kensek, Ronald Patrick; Laub, Thomas William

    2005-09-01

    ITS is a powerful and user-friendly software package permitting state-of-the-art Monte Carlo solution of linear time-independent coupled electron/photon radiation transport problems, with or without the presence of macroscopic electric and magnetic fields of arbitrary spatial dependence. Our goal has been to simultaneously maximize operational simplicity and physical accuracy. Through a set of preprocessor directives, the user selects one of the many ITS codes. The ease with which the makefile system is applied combines with an input scheme based on order-independent descriptive keywords that makes maximum use of defaults and internal error checking to provide experimentalists and theorists alike with a method for the routine but rigorous solution of sophisticated radiation transport problems. Physical rigor is provided by employing accurate cross sections, sampling distributions, and physical models for describing the production and transport of the electron/photon cascade from 1.0 GeV down to 1.0 keV. The availability of source code permits the more sophisticated user to tailor the codes to specific applications and to extend the capabilities of the codes to more complex applications. Version 5.0, the latest version of ITS, contains (1) improvements to the ITS 3.0 continuous-energy codes, (2) multigroup codes with adjoint transport capabilities, (3) parallel implementations of all ITS codes, (4) a general purpose geometry engine for linking with CAD or other geometry formats, and (5) the Cholla facet geometry library. Moreover, the general user friendliness of the software has been enhanced through increased internal error checking and improved code portability.

  20. Proposal of flexible atomic and molecular process management for Monte Carlo impurity transport code based on object oriented method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asano, K.; Ohno, N.; Takamura, S.

    2001-01-01

    Monte Carlo simulation code on impurity transport has been developed by several groups to be utilized mainly for fusion related edge plasmas. State of impurity particle is determined by atomic and molecular processes such as ionization, charge exchange in plasma. A lot of atomic and molecular processes have been considered because the edge plasma has not only impurity atoms, but also impurity molecules mainly related to chemical erosion of carbon materials, and their cross sections have been given experimentally and theoretically. We need to reveal which process is essential in a given edge plasma condition. Monte Carlo simulation code, which takes such various atomic and molecular processes into account, is necessary to investigate the behavior of impurity particle in plasmas. Usually, the impurity transport simulation code has been intended for some specific atomic and molecular processes so that the introduction of a new process forces complicated programming work. In order to evaluate various proposed atomic and molecular processes, a flexible management of atomic and molecular reaction should be established. We have developed the impurity transport simulation code based on object-oriented method. By employing object-oriented programming, we can handle each particle as 'object', which enfolds data and procedure function itself. A user (notice, not programmer) can define property of each particle species and the related atomic and molecular processes and then each 'object' is defined by analyzing this information. According to the relation among plasma particle species, objects are connected with each other and change their state by themselves. Dynamic allocation of these objects to program memory is employed to adapt for arbitrary number of species and atomic/molecular reactions. Thus we can treat arbitrary species and process starting from, for instance, methane and acetylene. Such a software procedure would be useful also for industrial application plasmas

  1. EGS code system: computer programs for the Monte Carlo simulation of electromagnetic cascade showers. Version 3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ford, R.L.; Nelson, W.R.

    1978-06-01

    A code to simulate almost any electron--photon transport problem conceivable is described. The report begins with a lengthy historical introduction and a description of the shower generation process. Then the detailed physics of the shower processes and the methods used to simulate them are presented. Ideas of sampling theory, transport techniques, particle interactions in general, and programing details are discussed. Next, EGS calculations and various experiments and other Monte Carlo results are compared. The remainder of the report consists of user manuals for EGS, PEGS, and TESTSR codes; options, input specifications, and typical output are included. 38 figures, 12 tables

  2. Review and comparison of effective delayed neutron fraction calculation methods with Monte Carlo codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bécares, V.; Pérez-Martín, S.; Vázquez-Antolín, M.; Villamarín, D.; Martín-Fuertes, F.; González-Romero, E.M.; Merino, I.

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Review of several Monte Carlo effective delayed neutron fraction calculation methods. • These methods have been implemented with the Monte Carlo code MCNPX. • They have been benchmarked against against some critical and subcritical systems. • Several nuclear data libraries have been used. - Abstract: The calculation of the effective delayed neutron fraction, β eff , with Monte Carlo codes is a complex task due to the requirement of properly considering the adjoint weighting of delayed neutrons. Nevertheless, several techniques have been proposed to circumvent this difficulty and obtain accurate Monte Carlo results for β eff without the need of explicitly determining the adjoint flux. In this paper, we make a review of some of these techniques; namely we have analyzed two variants of what we call the k-eigenvalue technique and other techniques based on different interpretations of the physical meaning of the adjoint weighting. To test the validity of all these techniques we have implemented them with the MCNPX code and we have benchmarked them against a range of critical and subcritical systems for which either experimental or deterministic values of β eff are available. Furthermore, several nuclear data libraries have been used in order to assess the impact of the uncertainty in nuclear data in the calculated value of β eff

  3. MORSE-C, Neutron Transport, Gamma Transport for Criticality Calculation by Monte-Carlo Method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    1 - Description of program or function: MORSE-C is a Monte-Carlo code to solve the multiple energy group form of the Boltzmann transport equation in order to obtain the eigenvalue (multiplication) when fissionable materials are present. Cross sections for up to 100 energy groups may be employed. The angular scattering is treated by the usual Legendre expansion as used in the discrete ordinates codes. Up-scattering may be specified. The geometry is defined by relationships to general 1. or 2. degree surfaces. Array units may be specified. Output includes, besides the usual values of input quantities, plots of the geometry, calculated volumes and masses, and graphs of results to assist the user in determining the correctness of the problem's solution

  4. Reactor physics simulations with coupled Monte Carlo calculation and computational fluid dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seker, V.; Thomas, J.W.; Downar, T.J.

    2007-01-01

    A computational code system based on coupling the Monte Carlo code MCNP5 and the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code STAR-CD was developed as an audit tool for lower order nuclear reactor calculations. This paper presents the methodology of the developed computer program 'McSTAR'. McSTAR is written in FORTRAN90 programming language and couples MCNP5 and the commercial CFD code STAR-CD. MCNP uses a continuous energy cross section library produced by the NJOY code system from the raw ENDF/B data. A major part of the work was to develop and implement methods to update the cross section library with the temperature distribution calculated by STARCD for every region. Three different methods were investigated and implemented in McSTAR. The user subroutines in STAR-CD are modified to read the power density data and assign them to the appropriate variables in the program and to write an output data file containing the temperature, density and indexing information to perform the mapping between MCNP and STAR-CD cells. Preliminary testing of the code was performed using a 3x3 PWR pin-cell problem. The preliminary results are compared with those obtained from a STAR-CD coupled calculation with the deterministic transport code DeCART. Good agreement in the k eff and the power profile was observed. Increased computational capabilities and improvements in computational methods have accelerated interest in high fidelity modeling of nuclear reactor cores during the last several years. High-fidelity has been achieved by utilizing full core neutron transport solutions for the neutronics calculation and computational fluid dynamics solutions for the thermal-hydraulics calculation. Previous researchers have reported the coupling of 3D deterministic neutron transport method to CFD and their application to practical reactor analysis problems. One of the principal motivations of the work here was to utilize Monte Carlo methods to validate the coupled deterministic neutron transport

  5. Monte Carlo advances for the Eolus Asci Project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hendrick, J. S.; McKinney, G. W.; Cox, L. J.

    2000-01-01

    The Eolus ASCI project includes parallel, 3-D transport simulation for various nuclear applications. The codes developed within this project provide neutral and charged particle transport, detailed interaction physics, numerous source and tally capabilities, and general geometry packages. One such code is MCNPW which is a general purpose, 3-dimensional, time-dependent, continuous-energy Monte Carlo fully-coupled N-Particle transport code. Significant advances are also being made in the areas of modern software engineering and parallel computing. These advances are described in detail

  6. Portable LQCD Monte Carlo code using OpenACC

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonati, Claudio; Calore, Enrico; Coscetti, Simone; D'Elia, Massimo; Mesiti, Michele; Negro, Francesco; Fabio Schifano, Sebastiano; Silvi, Giorgio; Tripiccione, Raffaele

    2018-03-01

    Varying from multi-core CPU processors to many-core GPUs, the present scenario of HPC architectures is extremely heterogeneous. In this context, code portability is increasingly important for easy maintainability of applications; this is relevant in scientific computing where code changes are numerous and frequent. In this talk we present the design and optimization of a state-of-the-art production level LQCD Monte Carlo application, using the OpenACC directives model. OpenACC aims to abstract parallel programming to a descriptive level, where programmers do not need to specify the mapping of the code on the target machine. We describe the OpenACC implementation and show that the same code is able to target different architectures, including state-of-the-art CPUs and GPUs.

  7. Applications of FLUKA Monte Carlo code for nuclear and accelerator physics

    CERN Document Server

    Battistoni, Giuseppe; Brugger, Markus; Campanella, Mauro; Carboni, Massimo; Empl, Anton; Fasso, Alberto; Gadioli, Ettore; Cerutti, Francesco; Ferrari, Alfredo; Ferrari, Anna; Lantz, Matthias; Mairani, Andrea; Margiotta, M; Morone, Christina; Muraro, Silvia; Parodi, Katerina; Patera, Vincenzo; Pelliccioni, Maurizio; Pinsky, Lawrence; Ranft, Johannes; Roesler, Stefan; Rollet, Sofia; Sala, Paola R; Santana, Mario; Sarchiapone, Lucia; Sioli, Maximiliano; Smirnov, George; Sommerer, Florian; Theis, Christian; Trovati, Stefania; Villari, R; Vincke, Heinz; Vincke, Helmut; Vlachoudis, Vasilis; Vollaire, Joachim; Zapp, Neil

    2011-01-01

    FLUKA is a general purpose Monte Carlo code capable of handling all radiation components from thermal energies (for neutrons) or 1keV (for all other particles) to cosmic ray energies and can be applied in many different fields. Presently the code is maintained on Linux. The validity of the physical models implemented in FLUKA has been benchmarked against a variety of experimental data over a wide energy range, from accelerator data to cosmic ray showers in the Earth atmosphere. FLUKA is widely used for studies related both to basic research and to applications in particle accelerators, radiation protection and dosimetry, including the specific issue of radiation damage in space missions, radiobiology (including radiotherapy) and cosmic ray calculations. After a short description of the main features that make FLUKA valuable for these topics, the present paper summarizes some of the recent applications of the FLUKA Monte Carlo code in the nuclear as well high energy physics. In particular it addresses such top...

  8. Comparison of MCB and MONTEBURNS Monte Carlo burnup codes on a one-pass deep burn

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Talamo, Alberto; Ji, Wei; Cetnar, Jerzy; Gudowski, Waclaw

    2006-01-01

    Numerical applications implemented on the Monte Carlo method have developed in line with the increase of computer power; nowadays, in the field of nuclear reactor physics, it is possible to perform burnup simulations in a detailed 3D geometry and a continuous energy description by the Monte Carlo method; moreover, the required computing time can be abundantly reduced by taking advantage of a computer cluster. In this paper we focused on comparing the results of the two major Monte Carlo burnup codes, MONTEBURNS and MCB, when they share the same MCNP geometry, nuclear data library, core thermal power, and they apply the same refueling and shuffling schedule. While simulating a total operation time of the Gas Turbine-Modular Helium Reactor of 2100 effective full power days and a one-pass deep burn in-core fuel management schedule, we have found that the two Monte Carlo codes produce very similar results both on the criticality value of the core and the transmutation of the key actinides

  9. Comparison of MCB and MONTEBURNS Monte Carlo burnup codes on a one-pass deep burn

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Talamo, Alberto [Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Roslagstullsbacken 21, Stockholm S-10691 (Sweden)]. E-mail: alby@anl.gov; Ji, Wei [University of Michigan, Bonisteel Boulevard 2355, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2104 (United States); Cetnar, Jerzy [AGH-University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30 Cracow (Poland); Gudowski, Waclaw [Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Roslagstullsbacken 21, Stockholm S-10691 (Sweden)

    2006-09-15

    Numerical applications implemented on the Monte Carlo method have developed in line with the increase of computer power; nowadays, in the field of nuclear reactor physics, it is possible to perform burnup simulations in a detailed 3D geometry and a continuous energy description by the Monte Carlo method; moreover, the required computing time can be abundantly reduced by taking advantage of a computer cluster. In this paper we focused on comparing the results of the two major Monte Carlo burnup codes, MONTEBURNS and MCB, when they share the same MCNP geometry, nuclear data library, core thermal power, and they apply the same refueling and shuffling schedule. While simulating a total operation time of the Gas Turbine-Modular Helium Reactor of 2100 effective full power days and a one-pass deep burn in-core fuel management schedule, we have found that the two Monte Carlo codes produce very similar results both on the criticality value of the core and the transmutation of the key actinides.

  10. PRELIMINARY COUPLING OF THE MONTE CARLO CODE OPENMC AND THE MULTIPHYSICS OBJECT-ORIENTED SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT (MOOSE) FOR ANALYZING DOPPLER FEEDBACK IN MONTE CARLO SIMULATIONS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Matthew Ellis; Derek Gaston; Benoit Forget; Kord Smith

    2011-07-01

    In recent years the use of Monte Carlo methods for modeling reactors has become feasible due to the increasing availability of massively parallel computer systems. One of the primary challenges yet to be fully resolved, however, is the efficient and accurate inclusion of multiphysics feedback in Monte Carlo simulations. The research in this paper presents a preliminary coupling of the open source Monte Carlo code OpenMC with the open source Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE). The coupling of OpenMC and MOOSE will be used to investigate efficient and accurate numerical methods needed to include multiphysics feedback in Monte Carlo codes. An investigation into the sensitivity of Doppler feedback to fuel temperature approximations using a two dimensional 17x17 PWR fuel assembly is presented in this paper. The results show a functioning multiphysics coupling between OpenMC and MOOSE. The coupling utilizes Functional Expansion Tallies to accurately and efficiently transfer pin power distributions tallied in OpenMC to unstructured finite element meshes used in MOOSE. The two dimensional PWR fuel assembly case also demonstrates that for a simplified model the pin-by-pin doppler feedback can be adequately replicated by scaling a representative pin based on pin relative powers.

  11. Non-analogue Monte Carlo method, application to neutron simulation; Methode de Monte Carlo non analogue, application a la simulation des neutrons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Morillon, B.

    1996-12-31

    With most of the traditional and contemporary techniques, it is still impossible to solve the transport equation if one takes into account a fully detailed geometry and if one studies precisely the interactions between particles and matters. Only the Monte Carlo method offers such a possibility. However with significant attenuation, the natural simulation remains inefficient: it becomes necessary to use biasing techniques where the solution of the adjoint transport equation is essential. The Monte Carlo code Tripoli has been using such techniques successfully for a long time with different approximate adjoint solutions: these methods require from the user to find out some parameters. If this parameters are not optimal or nearly optimal, the biases simulations may bring about small figures of merit. This paper presents a description of the most important biasing techniques of the Monte Carlo code Tripoli ; then we show how to calculate the importance function for general geometry with multigroup cases. We present a completely automatic biasing technique where the parameters of the biased simulation are deduced from the solution of the adjoint transport equation calculated by collision probabilities. In this study we shall estimate the importance function through collision probabilities method and we shall evaluate its possibilities thanks to a Monte Carlo calculation. We compare different biased simulations with the importance function calculated by collision probabilities for one-group and multigroup problems. We have run simulations with new biasing method for one-group transport problems with isotropic shocks and for multigroup problems with anisotropic shocks. The results show that for the one-group and homogeneous geometry transport problems the method is quite optimal without splitting and russian roulette technique but for the multigroup and heterogeneous X-Y geometry ones the figures of merit are higher if we add splitting and russian roulette technique.

  12. The Monte Carlo SRNA-VOX code for 3D proton dose distribution in voxelized geometry using CT data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ilic, Radovan D; Spasic-Jokic, Vesna; Belicev, Petar; Dragovic, Milos

    2005-01-01

    This paper describes the application of the SRNA Monte Carlo package for proton transport simulations in complex geometry and different material compositions. The SRNA package was developed for 3D dose distribution calculation in proton therapy and dosimetry and it was based on the theory of multiple scattering. The decay of proton induced compound nuclei was simulated by the Russian MSDM model and our own using ICRU 63 data. The developed package consists of two codes: the SRNA-2KG, which simulates proton transport in combinatorial geometry and the SRNA-VOX, which uses the voxelized geometry using the CT data and conversion of the Hounsfield's data to tissue elemental composition. Transition probabilities for both codes are prepared by the SRNADAT code. The simulation of the proton beam characterization by multi-layer Faraday cup, spatial distribution of positron emitters obtained by the SRNA-2KG code and intercomparison of computational codes in radiation dosimetry, indicate immediate application of the Monte Carlo techniques in clinical practice. In this paper, we briefly present the physical model implemented in the SRNA package, the ISTAR proton dose planning software, as well as the results of the numerical experiments with proton beams to obtain 3D dose distribution in the eye and breast tumour

  13. Head simulation of linear accelerators and spectra considerations using EGS4 Monte Carlo code in a PC

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Malatara, G; Kappas, K [Medical Physics Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Patras, 265 00 Patras (Greece); Sphiris, N [Ethnodata S.A., Athens (Greece)

    1994-12-31

    In this work, a Monte Carlo EGS4 code was used to simulate radiation transport through linear accelerators to produce and score energy spectra and angular distributions of 6, 12, 15 and 25 MeV bremsstrahlung photons exiting from different accelerator treatment heads. The energy spectra was used as input for a convolution method program to calculate the tissue-maximum ratio in water. 100.000 histories are recorded in the scoring plane for each simulation. The validity of the Monte Carlo simulation and the precision to the calculated spectra have been verified experimentally and were in good agreement. We believe that the accurate simulation of the different components of the linear accelerator head is very important for the precision of the results. The results of the Monte Carlo and the Convolution Method can be compared with experimental data for verification and they are powerful and practical tools to generate accurate spectra and dosimetric data. (authors). 10 refs,5 figs, 2 tabs.

  14. Head simulation of linear accelerators and spectra considerations using EGS4 Monte Carlo code in a PC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Malatara, G.; Kappas, K.; Sphiris, N.

    1994-01-01

    In this work, a Monte Carlo EGS4 code was used to simulate radiation transport through linear accelerators to produce and score energy spectra and angular distributions of 6, 12, 15 and 25 MeV bremsstrahlung photons exiting from different accelerator treatment heads. The energy spectra was used as input for a convolution method program to calculate the tissue-maximum ratio in water. 100.000 histories are recorded in the scoring plane for each simulation. The validity of the Monte Carlo simulation and the precision to the calculated spectra have been verified experimentally and were in good agreement. We believe that the accurate simulation of the different components of the linear accelerator head is very important for the precision of the results. The results of the Monte Carlo and the Convolution Method can be compared with experimental data for verification and they are powerful and practical tools to generate accurate spectra and dosimetric data. (authors)

  15. Monte-Carlo method - codes for the study of criticality problems (on IBM 7094); Methode de Monte- Carlo - codes pour l'etude des problemes de criticite (IBM 7094)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Moreau, J; Rabot, H; Robin, C [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Saclay (France). Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires

    1965-07-01

    The two codes presented here allow to determine the multiplication constant of media containing fissionable materials under numerous and divided forms; they are based on the Monte-Carlo method. The first code apply to x, y, z, geometries. The volume to be studied ought to be divisible in parallelepipeds, the media within each parallelepiped being limited by non-secant surfaces. The second code is intended for r, 0, z geometries. The results include an analysis of collisions in each medium. Applications and examples with informations on time and accuracy are given. (authors) [French] Les deux codes presentes dans ce rapport permettent la determination des coefficients de multiplication de milieux contenant des matieres fissiles sous des formes tres variees et divisees, ils reposent sur la methode de Monte-Carlo. Le premier code s'applique aux geometries x, y, z, le volume a etudier doit pouvoir etre decompose en parallelepipedes, les milieux a l'interieur de chaque parallelepipede etant limites par des surfaces non secantes. Le deuxieme code s'applique aux geometries r, 0, z. Les resultats comportent une analyse des collisions dans chaque milieu. Des applications et des exemples avec les indications de temps et de precision sont fournis. (auteurs)

  16. Hybrid transport and diffusion modeling using electron thermal transport Monte Carlo SNB in DRACO

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chenhall, Jeffrey; Moses, Gregory

    2017-10-01

    The iSNB (implicit Schurtz Nicolai Busquet) multigroup diffusion electron thermal transport method is adapted into an Electron Thermal Transport Monte Carlo (ETTMC) transport method to better model angular and long mean free path non-local effects. Previously, the ETTMC model had been implemented in the 2D DRACO multiphysics code and found to produce consistent results with the iSNB method. Current work is focused on a hybridization of the computationally slower but higher fidelity ETTMC transport method with the computationally faster iSNB diffusion method in order to maximize computational efficiency. Furthermore, effects on the energy distribution of the heat flux divergence are studied. Work to date on the hybrid method will be presented. This work was supported by Sandia National Laboratories and the Univ. of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics.

  17. Advances in Monte-Carlo code TRIPOLI-4®'s treatment of the electromagnetic cascade

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mancusi, Davide; Bonin, Alice; Hugot, François-Xavier; Malouch, Fadhel

    2018-01-01

    TRIPOLI-4® is a Monte-Carlo particle-transport code developed at CEA-Saclay (France) that is employed in the domains of nuclear-reactor physics, criticality-safety, shielding/radiation protection and nuclear instrumentation. The goal of this paper is to report on current developments, validation and verification made in TRIPOLI-4 in the electron/positron/photon sector. The new capabilities and improvements concern refinements to the electron transport algorithm, the introduction of a charge-deposition score, the new thick-target bremsstrahlung option, the upgrade of the bremsstrahlung model and the improvement of electron angular straggling at low energy. The importance of each of the developments above is illustrated by comparisons with calculations performed with other codes and with experimental data.

  18. Treating voxel geometries in radiation protection dosimetry with a patched version of the Monte Carlo codes MCNP and MCNPX.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burn, K W; Daffara, C; Gualdrini, G; Pierantoni, M; Ferrari, P

    2007-01-01

    The question of Monte Carlo simulation of radiation transport in voxel geometries is addressed. Patched versions of the MCNP and MCNPX codes are developed aimed at transporting radiation both in the standard geometry mode and in the voxel geometry treatment. The patched code reads an unformatted FORTRAN file derived from DICOM format data and uses special subroutines to handle voxel-to-voxel radiation transport. The various phases of the development of the methodology are discussed together with the new input options. Examples are given of employment of the code in internal and external dosimetry and comparisons with results from other groups are reported.

  19. Modelling of the RA-1 reactor using a Monte Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Quinteiro, Guillermo F.; Calabrese, Carlos R.

    2000-01-01

    It was carried out for the first time, a model of the Argentine RA-1 reactor using the MCNP Monte Carlo code. This model was validated using data for experimental neutron and gamma measurements at different energy ranges and locations. In addition, the resulting fluxes were compared with the data obtained using a 3D diffusion code. (author)

  20. Modelling of the RA-1 reactor using a Monte Carlo code; Modelado del reactor RA-1 utilizando un codigo Monte Carlo

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Quinteiro, Guillermo F; Calabrese, Carlos R [Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, General San Martin (Argentina). Dept. de Reactores y Centrales Nucleares

    2000-07-01

    It was carried out for the first time, a model of the Argentine RA-1 reactor using the MCNP Monte Carlo code. This model was validated using data for experimental neutron and gamma measurements at different energy ranges and locations. In addition, the resulting fluxes were compared with the data obtained using a 3D diffusion code. (author)

  1. Comparison of EGS4 and MCNP Monte Carlo codes when calculating radiotherapy depth doses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Love, P A; Lewis, D G; Al-Affan, I A; Smith, C W

    1998-05-01

    The Monte Carlo codes EGS4 and MCNP have been compared when calculating radiotherapy depth doses in water. The aims of the work were to study (i) the differences between calculated depth doses in water for a range of monoenergetic photon energies and (ii) the relative efficiency of the two codes for different electron transport energy cut-offs. The depth doses from the two codes agree with each other within the statistical uncertainties of the calculations (1-2%). The relative depth doses also agree with data tabulated in the British Journal of Radiology Supplement 25. A discrepancy in the dose build-up region may by attributed to the different electron transport algorithims used by EGS4 and MCNP. This discrepancy is considerably reduced when the improved electron transport routines are used in the latest (4B) version of MCNP. Timing calculations show that EGS4 is at least 50% faster than MCNP for the geometries used in the simulations.

  2. Advantages of Analytical Transformations in Monte Carlo Methods for Radiation Transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McKinley, M S; Brooks III, E D; Daffin, F

    2004-01-01

    Monte Carlo methods for radiation transport typically attempt to solve an integral by directly sampling analog or weighted particles, which are treated as physical entities. Improvements to the methods involve better sampling, probability games or physical intuition about the problem. We show that significant improvements can be achieved by recasting the equations with an analytical transform to solve for new, non-physical entities or fields. This paper looks at one such transform, the difference formulation for thermal photon transport, showing a significant advantage for Monte Carlo solution of the equations for time dependent transport. Other related areas are discussed that may also realize significant benefits from similar analytical transformations

  3. Vectorizing and macrotasking Monte Carlo neutral particle algorithms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heifetz, D.B.

    1987-04-01

    Monte Carlo algorithms for computing neutral particle transport in plasmas have been vectorized and macrotasked. The techniques used are directly applicable to Monte Carlo calculations of neutron and photon transport, and Monte Carlo integration schemes in general. A highly vectorized code was achieved by calculating test flight trajectories in loops over arrays of flight data, isolating the conditional branches to as few a number of loops as possible. A number of solutions are discussed to the problem of gaps appearing in the arrays due to completed flights, which impede vectorization. A simple and effective implementation of macrotasking is achieved by dividing the calculation of the test flight profile among several processors. A tree of random numbers is used to ensure reproducible results. The additional memory required for each task may preclude using a larger number of tasks. In future machines, the limit of macrotasking may be possible, with each test flight, and split test flight, being a separate task

  4. Report on the Oak Ridge workshop on Monte Carlo codes for relativistic heavy-ion collisions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Awes, T.C.; Sorensen, S.P.

    1988-01-01

    In order to make detailed predictions for the case of purely hadronic matter, several Monte Carlo codes have been developed to describe relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions. Although these various models build upon models of hadron-hadron interactions and have been fitted to reproduce hadron-hadron collision data, they have rather different pictures of the underlying hadron collision process and of subsequent particle production. Until now, the different Monte Carlo codes have, in general, been compared to different sets of experimental data, according to which results were readily available to the model builder or which Monte Carlo code was readily available to an experimental group. As a result, it has been difficult to draw firm conclusions about whether the observed deviations between experiments and calculations were due to deficiencies in the particular model, experimental discrepancies, or interesting effects beyond a simple superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions. For this reason, it was decided that it would be productive to have a structured confrontation between the available experimental data and the many models of high-energy nuclear collisions in a manner in which it could be ensured that the computer codes were run correctly and the experimental acceptances were properly taken into account. With this purpose in mind, a Workshop on Monte Carlo Codes for Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions was organized at the Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from September 12--23, 1988. This paper reviews this workshop. 11 refs., 6 figs

  5. Monte Carlo techniques in radiation therapy

    CERN Document Server

    Verhaegen, Frank

    2013-01-01

    Modern cancer treatment relies on Monte Carlo simulations to help radiotherapists and clinical physicists better understand and compute radiation dose from imaging devices as well as exploit four-dimensional imaging data. With Monte Carlo-based treatment planning tools now available from commercial vendors, a complete transition to Monte Carlo-based dose calculation methods in radiotherapy could likely take place in the next decade. Monte Carlo Techniques in Radiation Therapy explores the use of Monte Carlo methods for modeling various features of internal and external radiation sources, including light ion beams. The book-the first of its kind-addresses applications of the Monte Carlo particle transport simulation technique in radiation therapy, mainly focusing on external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy. It presents the mathematical and technical aspects of the methods in particle transport simulations. The book also discusses the modeling of medical linacs and other irradiation devices; issues specific...

  6. The MCU-RFFI Monte Carlo code for reactor design applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gomin, E.A.; Maiorov, L.V.

    1995-01-01

    MCU-RFFI is a general-purpose, continuous-energy, general geometry Monte Carlo code for solving external source or criticality problems for neutron transport in the energy range of 20 MeV to 10 -5 eV. The main fields of MCU-RFFI applications are as follows: (a) nuclear data validation; (b) design calculations (space reactors and other); (c) verification of design codes. MCU-RFFI is also supplied with tools to check the accuracy of design codes. These tools permit the user to calculate: the few group parameters of reactor cells, including the diffusion coefficients defined in a variety of ways, reaction rates for various nuclei, energy and space bins, and the kinetic parameters of systems, taking into account delayed neutrons. Boundary conditions include vacuum, white and specular reflection, and the condition of translational symmetry. The criticals with the neutron leakage given by the buckling vector may be calculated by solving Benoist's problem. The curve of criticality coefficient dependence on buckling may be determined during the single code run and critical buckling may be determined. Double heterogeneous systems with fuel elements containing many thousands of spherical microcells can be solved

  7. Practical adjoint Monte Carlo technique for fixed-source and eigenfunction neutron transport problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoogenboom, J.E.

    1981-01-01

    An adjoint Monte Carlo technique is described for the solution of neutron transport problems. The optimum biasing function for a zero-variance collision estimator is derived. The optimum treatment of an analog of a non-velocity thermal group has also been derived. The method is extended to multiplying systems, especially for eigenfunction problems to enable the estimate of averages over the unknown fundamental neutron flux distribution. A versatile computer code, FOCUS, has been written, based on the described theory. Numerical examples are given for a shielding problem and a critical assembly, illustrating the performance of the FOCUS code. 19 refs

  8. Application of SN and Monte Carlo codes to the SHEBA critical assemblies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Dell, R.D.

    1993-01-01

    The Solution High-Energy Burst Assembly (SHEBA) at Los Alamos is a low-enriched (4.95 wt. %) aqueous uranyl fluoride solution critical assembly. There are two SHEBA configurations, both consisting of right circular cylinders with a central control rod. The first configuration, hereafter called the old SHEBA, had a fuel solution diameter of 54.6 cm and a measured critical solution height of 36.5 cm. An improved modification, hereafter called the new SHEBA, has a fuel solution diameter of 48.9 cm but since it is not yet operational, the critical solution height has not yet been measured. In this presentation the application of the discrete-ordinates (S N ) code TWODANT using Hansen-Roach cross sections and the MCNP Monte Carlo code using continuous-energy cross sections for calculating the critical solution heights for both the old and new SHEBA assemblies is described. The code's predictions are compared and it is shown that a single calculation with a standard computer code may yield misleading results, especially when using a Monte Carlo code

  9. Therapeutic Applications of Monte Carlo Calculations in Nuclear Medicine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coulot, J

    2003-01-01

    Monte Carlo techniques are involved in many applications in medical physics, and the field of nuclear medicine has seen a great development in the past ten years due to their wider use. Thus, it is of great interest to look at the state of the art in this domain, when improving computer performances allow one to obtain improved results in a dramatically reduced time. The goal of this book is to make, in 15 chapters, an exhaustive review of the use of Monte Carlo techniques in nuclear medicine, also giving key features which are not necessary directly related to the Monte Carlo method, but mandatory for its practical application. As the book deals with therapeutic' nuclear medicine, it focuses on internal dosimetry. After a general introduction on Monte Carlo techniques and their applications in nuclear medicine (dosimetry, imaging and radiation protection), the authors give an overview of internal dosimetry methods (formalism, mathematical phantoms, quantities of interest). Then, some of the more widely used Monte Carlo codes are described, as well as some treatment planning softwares. Some original techniques are also mentioned, such as dosimetry for boron neutron capture synovectomy. It is generally well written, clearly presented, and very well documented. Each chapter gives an overview of each subject, and it is up to the reader to investigate it further using the extensive bibliography provided. Each topic is discussed from a practical point of view, which is of great help for non-experienced readers. For instance, the chapter about mathematical aspects of Monte Carlo particle transport is very clear and helps one to apprehend the philosophy of the method, which is often a difficulty with a more theoretical approach. Each chapter is put in the general (clinical) context, and this allows the reader to keep in mind the intrinsic limitation of each technique involved in dosimetry (for instance activity quantitation). Nevertheless, there are some minor remarks to

  10. Modular, object-oriented redesign of a large-scale Monte Carlo neutron transport program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moskowitz, B.S.

    2000-01-01

    This paper describes the modular, object-oriented redesign of a large-scale Monte Carlo neutron transport program. This effort represents a complete 'white sheet of paper' rewrite of the code. In this paper, the motivation driving this project, the design objectives for the new version of the program, and the design choices and their consequences will be discussed. The design itself will also be described, including the important subsystems as well as the key classes within those subsystems

  11. NRMC - A GPU code for N-Reverse Monte Carlo modeling of fluids in confined media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sánchez-Gil, Vicente; Noya, Eva G.; Lomba, Enrique

    2017-08-01

    NRMC is a parallel code for performing N-Reverse Monte Carlo modeling of fluids in confined media [V. Sánchez-Gil, E.G. Noya, E. Lomba, J. Chem. Phys. 140 (2014) 024504]. This method is an extension of the usual Reverse Monte Carlo method to obtain structural models of confined fluids compatible with experimental diffraction patterns, specifically designed to overcome the problem of slow diffusion that can appear under conditions of tight confinement. Most of the computational time in N-Reverse Monte Carlo modeling is spent in the evaluation of the structure factor for each trial configuration, a calculation that can be easily parallelized. Implementation of the structure factor evaluation in NVIDIA® CUDA so that the code can be run on GPUs leads to a speed up of up to two orders of magnitude.

  12. Collision of Physics and Software in the Monte Carlo Application Toolkit (MCATK)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sweezy, Jeremy Ed [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2016-01-21

    The topic is presented in a series of slides organized as follows: MCATK overview, development strategy, available algorithms, problem modeling (sources, geometry, data, tallies), parallelism, miscellaneous tools/features, example MCATK application, recent areas of research, and summary and future work. MCATK is a C++ component-based Monte Carlo neutron-gamma transport software library with continuous energy neutron and photon transport. Designed to build specialized applications and to provide new functionality in existing general-purpose Monte Carlo codes like MCNP, it reads ACE formatted nuclear data generated by NJOY. The motivation behind MCATK was to reduce costs. MCATK physics involves continuous energy neutron & gamma transport with multi-temperature treatment, static eigenvalue (keff and α) algorithms, time-dependent algorithm, and fission chain algorithms. MCATK geometry includes mesh geometries and solid body geometries. MCATK provides verified, unit-test Monte Carlo components, flexibility in Monte Carlo application development, and numerous tools such as geometry and cross section plotters.

  13. Evaluation of cobalt-60 energy deposit in mouse and monkey using Monte Carlo simulation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Woo, Sang Keun; Kim, Wook; Park, Yong Sung; Kang, Joo Hyun; Lee, Yong Jin [Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, KIRAMS, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Cho, Doo Wan; Lee, Hong Soo; Han, Su Cheol [Jeonbuk Department of Inhalation Research, Korea Institute of toxicology, KRICT, Jeongeup (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-12-15

    These absorbed dose can calculated using the Monte Carlo transport code MCNP (Monte Carlo N-particle transport code). Internal radiotherapy absorbed dose was calculated using conventional software, such as OLINDA/EXM or Monte Carlo simulation. However, the OLINDA/EXM does not calculate individual absorbed dose and non-standard organ, such as tumor. While the Monte Carlo simulation can calculated non-standard organ and specific absorbed dose using individual CT image. External radiotherapy, absorbed dose can calculated by specific absorbed energy in specific organs using Monte Carlo simulation. The specific absorbed energy in each organ was difference between species or even if the same species. Since they have difference organ sizes, position, and density of organs. The aim of this study was to individually evaluated cobalt-60 energy deposit in mouse and monkey using Monte Carlo simulation. We evaluation of cobalt-60 energy deposit in mouse and monkey using Monte Carlo simulation. The absorbed energy in each organ compared with mouse heart was 54.6 fold higher than monkey absorbed energy in heart. Likewise lung was 88.4, liver was 16.0, urinary bladder was 29.4 fold higher than monkey. It means that the distance of each organs and organ mass was effects of the absorbed energy. This result may help to can calculated absorbed dose and more accuracy plan for external radiation beam therapy and internal radiotherapy.

  14. Evaluation of cobalt-60 energy deposit in mouse and monkey using Monte Carlo simulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Woo, Sang Keun; Kim, Wook; Park, Yong Sung; Kang, Joo Hyun; Lee, Yong Jin; Cho, Doo Wan; Lee, Hong Soo; Han, Su Cheol

    2016-01-01

    These absorbed dose can calculated using the Monte Carlo transport code MCNP (Monte Carlo N-particle transport code). Internal radiotherapy absorbed dose was calculated using conventional software, such as OLINDA/EXM or Monte Carlo simulation. However, the OLINDA/EXM does not calculate individual absorbed dose and non-standard organ, such as tumor. While the Monte Carlo simulation can calculated non-standard organ and specific absorbed dose using individual CT image. External radiotherapy, absorbed dose can calculated by specific absorbed energy in specific organs using Monte Carlo simulation. The specific absorbed energy in each organ was difference between species or even if the same species. Since they have difference organ sizes, position, and density of organs. The aim of this study was to individually evaluated cobalt-60 energy deposit in mouse and monkey using Monte Carlo simulation. We evaluation of cobalt-60 energy deposit in mouse and monkey using Monte Carlo simulation. The absorbed energy in each organ compared with mouse heart was 54.6 fold higher than monkey absorbed energy in heart. Likewise lung was 88.4, liver was 16.0, urinary bladder was 29.4 fold higher than monkey. It means that the distance of each organs and organ mass was effects of the absorbed energy. This result may help to can calculated absorbed dose and more accuracy plan for external radiation beam therapy and internal radiotherapy.

  15. Calibration and Monte Carlo modelling of neutron long counters

    CERN Document Server

    Tagziria, H

    2000-01-01

    The Monte Carlo technique has become a very powerful tool in radiation transport as full advantage is taken of enhanced cross-section data, more powerful computers and statistical techniques, together with better characterisation of neutron and photon source spectra. At the National Physical Laboratory, calculations using the Monte Carlo radiation transport code MCNP-4B have been combined with accurate measurements to characterise two long counters routinely used to standardise monoenergetic neutron fields. New and more accurate response function curves have been produced for both long counters. A novel approach using Monte Carlo methods has been developed, validated and used to model the response function of the counters and determine more accurately their effective centres, which have always been difficult to establish experimentally. Calculations and measurements agree well, especially for the De Pangher long counter for which details of the design and constructional material are well known. The sensitivit...

  16. SAM-CE, Time-Dependent 3-D Neutron Transport, Gamma Transport in Complex Geometry by Monte-Carlo

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2003-01-01

    1 - Nature of physical problem solved: The SAM-CE system comprises two Monte Carlo codes, SAM-F and SAM-A. SAM-F supersedes the forward Monte Carlo code, SAM-C. SAM-A is an adjoint Monte Carlo code designed to calculate the response due to fields of primary and secondary gamma radiation. The SAM-CE system is a FORTRAN Monte Carlo computer code designed to solve the time-dependent neutron and gamma-ray transport equations in complex three-dimensional geometries. SAM-CE is applicable for forward neutron calculations and for forward as well as adjoint primary gamma-ray calculations. In addition, SAM-CE is applicable for the gamma-ray stage of the coupled neutron-secondary gamma ray problem, which may be solved in either the forward or the adjoint mode. Time-dependent fluxes, and flux functionals such as dose, heating, count rates, etc., are calculated as functions of energy, time and position. Multiple scoring regions are permitted and these may be either finite volume regions or point detectors or both. Other scores of interest, e.g., collision and absorption densities, etc., are also made. 2 - Method of solution: A special feature of SAM-CE is its use of the 'combinatorial geometry' technique which affords the user geometric capabilities exceeding those available with other commonly used geometric packages. All nuclear interaction cross section data (derived from the ENDF for neutrons and from the UNC-format library for gamma-rays) are tabulated in point energy meshes. The energy meshes for neutrons are internally derived, based on built-in convergence criteria and user- supplied tolerances. Tabulated neutron data for each distinct nuclide are in unique and appropriate energy meshes. Both resolved and unresolved resonance parameters from ENDF data files are treated automatically, and extremely precise and detailed descriptions of cross section behaviour is permitted. Such treatment avoids the ambiguities usually associated with multi-group codes, which use flux

  17. Comparison of ONETRAN calculations of electron beam dose profiles with Monte Carlo and experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garth, J.C.; Woolf, S.

    1987-01-01

    Electron beam dose profiles have been calculated using a multigroup, discrete ordinates solution of the Spencer-Lewis electron transport equation. This was accomplished by introducing electron transport cross-sections into the ONETRAN code in a simple manner. The authors' purpose is to ''benchmark'' this electron transport model and to demonstrate its accuracy and capabilities over the energy range from 30 keV to 20 MeV. Many of their results are compared with the extensive measurements and TIGER Monte Carlo data. In general the ONETRAN results are smoother, agree with TIGER within the statistical error of the Monte Carlo histograms and require about one tenth the running time of Monte Carlo

  18. Status of Monte Carlo at Los Alamos

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thompson, W.L.; Cashwell, E.D.

    1980-01-01

    At Los Alamos the early work of Fermi, von Neumann, and Ulam has been developed and supplemented by many followers, notably Cashwell and Everett, and the main product today is the continuous-energy, general-purpose, generalized-geometry, time-dependent, coupled neutron-photon transport code called MCNP. The Los Alamos Monte Carlo research and development effort is concentrated in Group X-6. MCNP treats an arbitrary three-dimensional configuration of arbitrary materials in geometric cells bounded by first- and second-degree surfaces and some fourth-degree surfaces (elliptical tori). Monte Carlo has evolved into perhaps the main method for radiation transport calculations at Los Alamos. MCNP is used in every technical division at the Laboratory by over 130 users about 600 times a month accounting for nearly 200 hours of CDC-7600 time

  19. Monte Carlo simulation of gas Cerenkov detectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mack, J.M.; Jain, M.; Jordan, T.M.

    1984-01-01

    Theoretical study of selected gamma-ray and electron diagnostic necessitates coupling Cerenkov radiation to electron/photon cascades. A Cerenkov production model and its incorporation into a general geometry Monte Carlo coupled electron/photon transport code is discussed. A special optical photon ray-trace is implemented using bulk optical properties assigned to each Monte Carlo zone. Good agreement exists between experimental and calculated Cerenkov data in the case of a carbon-dioxide gas Cerenkov detector experiment. Cerenkov production and threshold data are presented for a typical carbon-dioxide gas detector that converts a 16.7 MeV photon source to Cerenkov light, which is collected by optics and detected by a photomultiplier

  20. The use of Monte-Carlo codes for treatment planning in external-beam radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alan, E.; Nahum, PhD.

    2003-01-01

    Monte Carlo simulation of radiation transport is a very powerful technique. There are basically no exact solutions to the Boltzmann transport equation. Even, the 'straightforward' situation (in radiotherapy) of an electron beam depth-dose distribution in water proves to be too difficult for analytical methods without making gross approximations such as ignoring energy-loss straggling, large-angle single scattering and Bremsstrahlung production. monte Carlo is essential when radiation is transport from one medium into another. As the particle (be it a neutron, photon, electron, proton) crosses the boundary then a new set of interaction cross-sections is simply read in and the simulation continues as though the new medium were infinite until the next boundary is encountered. Radiotherapy involves directing a beam of megavoltage x rays or electrons (occasionally protons) at a very complex object, the human body. Monte Carlo simulation has proved in valuable at many stages of the process of accurately determining the distribution of absorbed dose in the patient. Some of these applications will be reviewed here. (Rogers and al 1990; Andreo 1991; Mackie 1990). (N.C.)

  1. Advanced Mesh-Enabled Monte carlo capability for Multi-Physics Reactor Analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wilson, Paul; Evans, Thomas; Tautges, Tim

    2012-12-24

    This project will accumulate high-precision fluxes throughout reactor geometry on a non- orthogonal grid of cells to support multi-physics coupling, in order to more accurately calculate parameters such as reactivity coefficients and to generate multi-group cross sections. This work will be based upon recent developments to incorporate advanced geometry and mesh capability in a modular Monte Carlo toolkit with computational science technology that is in use in related reactor simulation software development. Coupling this capability with production-scale Monte Carlo radiation transport codes can provide advanced and extensible test-beds for these developments. Continuous energy Monte Carlo methods are generally considered to be the most accurate computational tool for simulating radiation transport in complex geometries, particularly neutron transport in reactors. Nevertheless, there are several limitations for their use in reactor analysis. Most significantly, there is a trade-off between the fidelity of results in phase space, statistical accuracy, and the amount of computer time required for simulation. Consequently, to achieve an acceptable level of statistical convergence in high-fidelity results required for modern coupled multi-physics analysis, the required computer time makes Monte Carlo methods prohibitive for design iterations and detailed whole-core analysis. More subtly, the statistical uncertainty is typically not uniform throughout the domain, and the simulation quality is limited by the regions with the largest statistical uncertainty. In addition, the formulation of neutron scattering laws in continuous energy Monte Carlo methods makes it difficult to calculate adjoint neutron fluxes required to properly determine important reactivity parameters. Finally, most Monte Carlo codes available for reactor analysis have relied on orthogonal hexahedral grids for tallies that do not conform to the geometric boundaries and are thus generally not well

  2. Monte Carlo simulations in skin radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sarvari, A.; Jeraj, R.; Kron, T.

    2000-01-01

    The primary goal of this work was to develop a procedure for calculation the appropriate filter shape for a brachytherapy applicator used for skin radiotherapy. In the applicator a radioactive source is positioned close to the skin. Without a filter, the resultant dose distribution would be highly nonuniform.High uniformity is usually required however. This can be achieved using an appropriately shaped filter, which flattens the dose profile. Because of the complexity of the transport and geometry, Monte Carlo simulations had to be used. An 192 Ir high dose rate photon source was used. All necessary transport parameters were simulated with the MCNP4B Monte Carlo code. A highly efficient iterative procedure was developed, which enabled calculation of the optimal filter shape in only few iterations. The initially non-uniform dose distributions became uniform within a percent when applying the filter calculated by this procedure. (author)

  3. Advances in Monte-Carlo code TRIPOLI-4®’s treatment of the electromagnetic cascade

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mancusi Davide

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available TRIPOLI-4® is a Monte-Carlo particle-transport code developed at CEA-Saclay (France that is employed in the domains of nuclear-reactor physics, criticality-safety, shielding/radiation protection and nuclear instrumentation. The goal of this paper is to report on current developments, validation and verification made in TRIPOLI-4 in the electron/positron/photon sector. The new capabilities and improvements concern refinements to the electron transport algorithm, the introduction of a charge-deposition score, the new thick-target bremsstrahlung option, the upgrade of the bremsstrahlung model and the improvement of electron angular straggling at low energy. The importance of each of the developments above is illustrated by comparisons with calculations performed with other codes and with experimental data.

  4. An improved method for storing and retrieving tabulated data in a scalar Monte Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hollenbach, D.F.; Reynolds, K.H.; Dodds, H.L.; Landers, N.F.; Petrie, L.M.

    1990-01-01

    The KENO-Va code is a production-level criticality safety code used to calculate the k eff of a system. The code is stochastic in nature, using a Monte Carlo algorithm to track individual particles one at a time through the system. The advent of computers with vector processors has generated an interest in improving KENO-Va to take advantage of the potential speed-up associated with these new processors. Unfortunately, the original Monte Carlo algorithm and method of storing and retrieving cross-section data is not adaptable to vector processing. This paper discusses an alternate method for storing and retrieving data that not only is readily vectorizable but also improves the efficiency of the current scalar code

  5. Initial Assessment of Parallelization of Monte Carlo Calculation using Graphics Processing Units

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, Sung Hoon; Joo, Han Gyu

    2009-01-01

    Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is an effective tool for calculating neutron transports in complex geometry. However, because Monte Carlo simulates each neutron behavior one by one, it takes a very long computing time if enough neutrons are used for high precision of calculation. Accordingly, methods that reduce the computing time are required. In a Monte Carlo code, parallel calculation is well-suited since it simulates the behavior of each neutron independently and thus parallel computation is natural. The parallelization of the Monte Carlo codes, however, was done using multi CPUs. By the global demand for high quality 3D graphics, the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) has developed into a highly parallel, multi-core processor. This parallel processing capability of GPUs can be available to engineering computing once a suitable interface is provided. Recently, NVIDIA introduced CUDATM, a general purpose parallel computing architecture. CUDA is a software environment that allows developers to manage GPU using C/C++ or other languages. In this work, a GPU-based Monte Carlo is developed and the initial assessment of it parallel performance is investigated

  6. A probability-conserving cross-section biasing mechanism for variance reduction in Monte Carlo particle transport calculations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mendenhall, Marcus H., E-mail: marcus.h.mendenhall@vanderbilt.edu [Vanderbilt University, Department of Electrical Engineering, P.O. Box 351824B, Nashville, TN 37235 (United States); Weller, Robert A., E-mail: robert.a.weller@vanderbilt.edu [Vanderbilt University, Department of Electrical Engineering, P.O. Box 351824B, Nashville, TN 37235 (United States)

    2012-03-01

    In Monte Carlo particle transport codes, it is often important to adjust reaction cross-sections to reduce the variance of calculations of relatively rare events, in a technique known as non-analog Monte Carlo. We present the theory and sample code for a Geant4 process which allows the cross-section of a G4VDiscreteProcess to be scaled, while adjusting track weights so as to mitigate the effects of altered primary beam depletion induced by the cross-section change. This makes it possible to increase the cross-section of nuclear reactions by factors exceeding 10{sup 4} (in appropriate cases), without distorting the results of energy deposition calculations or coincidence rates. The procedure is also valid for bias factors less than unity, which is useful in problems that involve the computation of particle penetration deep into a target (e.g. atmospheric showers or shielding studies).

  7. A probability-conserving cross-section biasing mechanism for variance reduction in Monte Carlo particle transport calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mendenhall, Marcus H.; Weller, Robert A.

    2012-01-01

    In Monte Carlo particle transport codes, it is often important to adjust reaction cross-sections to reduce the variance of calculations of relatively rare events, in a technique known as non-analog Monte Carlo. We present the theory and sample code for a Geant4 process which allows the cross-section of a G4VDiscreteProcess to be scaled, while adjusting track weights so as to mitigate the effects of altered primary beam depletion induced by the cross-section change. This makes it possible to increase the cross-section of nuclear reactions by factors exceeding 10 4 (in appropriate cases), without distorting the results of energy deposition calculations or coincidence rates. The procedure is also valid for bias factors less than unity, which is useful in problems that involve the computation of particle penetration deep into a target (e.g. atmospheric showers or shielding studies).

  8. Monte Carlo based diffusion coefficients for LMFBR analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Rooijen, Willem F.G.; Takeda, Toshikazu; Hazama, Taira

    2010-01-01

    A method based on Monte Carlo calculations is developed to estimate the diffusion coefficient of unit cells. The method uses a geometrical model similar to that used in lattice theory, but does not use the assumption of a separable fundamental mode used in lattice theory. The method uses standard Monte Carlo flux and current tallies, and the continuous energy Monte Carlo code MVP was used without modifications. Four models are presented to derive the diffusion coefficient from tally results of flux and partial currents. In this paper the method is applied to the calculation of a plate cell of the fast-spectrum critical facility ZEBRA. Conventional calculations of the diffusion coefficient diverge in the presence of planar voids in the lattice, but our Monte Carlo method can treat this situation without any problem. The Monte Carlo method was used to investigate the influence of geometrical modeling as well as the directional dependence of the diffusion coefficient. The method can be used to estimate the diffusion coefficient of complicated unit cells, the limitation being the capabilities of the Monte Carlo code. The method will be used in the future to confirm results for the diffusion coefficient obtained of the Monte Carlo code. The method will be used in the future to confirm results for the diffusion coefficient obtained with deterministic codes. (author)

  9. The effect on radiation damage of structural material in a hybrid system by using a Monte Carlo radiation transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Günay, Mehtap; Şarer, Başar; Kasap, Hızır

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • The effects of some fluids on gas production rates in structural material were investigated. • The MCNPX-2.7.0 Monte Carlo code was used for three-dimensional calculations. • It was found that biggest contribution to gas production rates comes from Fe isotope of the. • The desirable values for 5% SFG-PuO 2 with respect to radiation damage were specified. - Abstract: In this study, the molten salt-heavy metal mixtures 99–95% Li20Sn80-1-5% SFG-Pu, 99–95% Li20Sn80-1-5% SFG-PuF4, 99-95% Li20Sn80-1-5% SFG-PuO2 were used as fluids. The fluids were used in the liquid first-wall, blanket and shield zones of the designed hybrid reactor system. 9Cr2WVTa ferritic steel with the width of 4 cm was used as the structural material. The parameters of radiation damage are proton, deuterium, tritium, He-3 and He-4 gas production rates. In this study, the effects of the selected fluid on the radiation damage, in terms of individual as well as total isotopes in the structural material, were investigated for 30 full power years (FPYs). Three-dimensional analyses were performed using the most recent version of the MCNPX-2.7.0 Monte Carlo radiation transport code and the ENDF/B-VII.0 nuclear data library

  10. G4-STORK: A Geant4-based Monte Carlo reactor kinetics simulation code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Russell, Liam; Buijs, Adriaan; Jonkmans, Guy

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • G4-STORK is a new, time-dependent, Monte Carlo code for reactor physics applications. • G4-STORK was built by adapting and expanding on the Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit. • G4-STORK was designed to simulate short-term fluctuations in reactor cores. • G4-STORK is well suited for simulating sub- and supercritical assemblies. • G4-STORK was verified through comparisons with DRAGON and MCNP. - Abstract: In this paper we introduce G4-STORK (Geant4 STOchastic Reactor Kinetics), a new, time-dependent, Monte Carlo particle tracking code for reactor physics applications. G4-STORK was built by adapting and expanding on the Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit. The toolkit provides the fundamental physics models and particle tracking algorithms that track each particle in space and time. It is a framework for further development (e.g. for projects such as G4-STORK). G4-STORK derives reactor physics parameters (e.g. k eff ) from the continuous evolution of a population of neutrons in space and time in the given simulation geometry. In this paper we detail the major additions to the Geant4 toolkit that were necessary to create G4-STORK. These include a renormalization process that maintains a manageable number of neutrons in the simulation even in very sub- or supercritical systems, scoring processes (e.g. recording fission locations, total neutrons produced and lost, etc.) that allow G4-STORK to calculate the reactor physics parameters, and dynamic simulation geometries that can change over the course of simulation to illicit reactor kinetics responses (e.g. fuel temperature reactivity feedback). The additions are verified through simple simulations and code-to-code comparisons with established reactor physics codes such as DRAGON and MCNP. Additionally, G4-STORK was developed to run a single simulation in parallel over many processors using MPI (Message Passing Interface) pipes

  11. About the use of the Monte-Carlo code based tracing algorithm and the volume fraction method for S n full core calculations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gurevich, M. I.; Oleynik, D. S. [RRC Kurchatov Inst., Kurchatov Sq., 1, 123182, Moscow (Russian Federation); Russkov, A. A.; Voloschenko, A. M. [Keldysh Inst. of Applied Mathematics, Miusskaya Sq., 4, 125047, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2006-07-01

    The tracing algorithm that is implemented in the geometrical module of Monte-Carlo transport code MCU is applied to calculate the volume fractions of original materials by spatial cells of the mesh that overlays problem geometry. In this way the 3D combinatorial geometry presentation of the problem geometry, used by MCU code, is transformed to the user defined 2D or 3D bit-mapped ones. Next, these data are used in the volume fraction (VF) method to approximate problem geometry by introducing additional mixtures for spatial cells, where a few original materials are included. We have found that in solving realistic 2D and 3D core problems a sufficiently fast convergence of the VF method takes place if the spatial mesh is refined. Virtually, the proposed variant of implementation of the VF method seems as a suitable geometry interface between Monte-Carlo and S{sub n} transport codes. (authors)

  12. The Monte Carlo method for shielding calculations analysis by MORSE code of a streaming case in the CAORSO BWR power reactor shielding (Italy)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zitouni, Y.

    1987-04-01

    In the field of shielding, the requirement of radiation transport calculations in severe conditions, characterized by irreducible three-dimensional geometries has increased the use of the Monte Carlo method. The latter has proved to be the only rigorous and appropriate calculational method in such conditions. However, further efforts at optimization are still necessary to render the technique practically efficient, despite recent improvements in the Monte Carlo codes, the progress made in the field of computers and the availability of accurate nuclear data. Moreover, the personal experience acquired in the field and the control of sophisticated calculation procedures are of the utmost importance. The aim of the work which has been carried out is the gathering of all the necessary elements and features that would lead to an efficient utilization of the Monte Carlo method used in connection with shielding problems. The study of the general aspects of the method and the exploitation techniques of the MORSE code, which has proved to be one of the most comprehensive of the Monte Carlo codes, lead to a successful analysis of an actual case. In fact, the severe conditions and difficulties met have been overcome using such a stochastic simulation code. Finally, a critical comparison between calculated and high-accuracy experimental results has allowed the final confirmation of the methodology used by us

  13. Modelling of a general purpose irradiation chamber using a Monte Carlo particle transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dhiyauddin Ahmad Fauzi; Sheik, F.O.A.; Nurul Fadzlin Hasbullah

    2013-01-01

    Full-text: The aim of this research is to stimulate the effectiveness use of a general purpose irradiation chamber to contain pure neutron particles obtained from a research reactor. The secondary neutron and gamma particles dose discharge from the chamber layers will be used as a platform to estimate the safe dimension of the chamber. The chamber, made up of layers of lead (Pb), shielding, polyethylene (PE), moderator and commercial grade aluminium (Al) cladding is proposed for the use of interacting samples with pure neutron particles in a nuclear reactor environment. The estimation was accomplished through simulation based on general Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code using Los Alamos MCNPX software. Simulations were performed on the model of the chamber subjected to high neutron flux radiation and its gamma radiation product. The model of neutron particle used is based on the neutron source found in PUSPATI TRIGA MARK II research reactor which holds a maximum flux value of 1 x 10 12 neutron/ cm 2 s. The expected outcomes of this research are zero gamma dose in the core of the chamber and neutron dose rate of less than 10 μSv/ day discharge from the chamber system. (author)

  14. Coupling the MCNP Monte Carlo code and the FISPACT activation code with automatic visualization of the results of simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bourauel, Peter; Nabbi, Rahim; Biel, Wolfgang; Forrest, Robin

    2009-01-01

    The MCNP 3D Monte Carlo computer code is used not only for criticality calculations of nuclear systems but also to simulate transports of radiation and particles. The findings so obtained about neutron flux distribution and the associated spectra allow information about materials activation, nuclear heating, and radiation damage to be obtained by means of activation codes such as FISPACT. The stochastic character of particle and radiation transport processes normally links findings to the materials cells making up the geometry model of MCNP. Where high spatial resolution is required for the activation calculations with FISPACT, fine segmentation of the MCNP geometry becomes compulsory, which implies considerable expense for the modeling process. For this reason, an alternative simulation technique has been developed in an effort to automate and optimize data transfer between MCNP and FISPACT. (orig.)

  15. Testing results of Monte Carlo sampling processes in MCSAD

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pinnera, I.; Cruz, C.; Abreu, Y.; Leyva, A.; Correa, C.; Demydenko, C.

    2009-01-01

    The Monte Carlo Simulation of Atom Displacements (MCSAD) is a code implemented by the authors to simulate the complete process of atom displacement (AD) formation. This code makes use of the Monte Carlo (MC) method to sample all the processes involved in the gamma and electronic radiation transport through matter. The kernel of the calculations applied to this code relies on a model based on an algorithm developed by the authors, which firstly splits out multiple electron elastic scattering events from those single ones at higher scattering angles and then, from the last one, sampling those leading to AD at high transferred atomic recoil energies. Some tests have been developed to check the sampling algorithms with the help of the corresponding theoretical distribution functions. Satisfactory results have been obtained, which indicate the strength of the methods and subroutines used in the code. (Author)

  16. Parallel Monte Carlo Particle Transport and the Quality of Random Number Generators: How Good is Good Enough?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Procassini, R J; Beck, B R

    2004-01-01

    It might be assumed that use of a ''high-quality'' random number generator (RNG), producing a sequence of ''pseudo random'' numbers with a ''long'' repetition period, is crucial for producing unbiased results in Monte Carlo particle transport simulations. While several theoretical and empirical tests have been devised to check the quality (randomness and period) of an RNG, for many applications it is not clear what level of RNG quality is required to produce unbiased results. This paper explores the issue of RNG quality in the context of parallel, Monte Carlo transport simulations in order to determine how ''good'' is ''good enough''. This study employs the MERCURY Monte Carlo code, which incorporates the CNPRNG library for the generation of pseudo-random numbers via linear congruential generator (LCG) algorithms. The paper outlines the usage of random numbers during parallel MERCURY simulations, and then describes the source and criticality transport simulations which comprise the empirical basis of this study. A series of calculations for each test problem in which the quality of the RNG (period of the LCG) is varied provides the empirical basis for determining the minimum repetition period which may be employed without producing a bias in the mean integrated results

  17. Parallel Monte Carlo reactor neutronics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blomquist, R.N.; Brown, F.B.

    1994-01-01

    The issues affecting implementation of parallel algorithms for large-scale engineering Monte Carlo neutron transport simulations are discussed. For nuclear reactor calculations, these include load balancing, recoding effort, reproducibility, domain decomposition techniques, I/O minimization, and strategies for different parallel architectures. Two codes were parallelized and tested for performance. The architectures employed include SIMD, MIMD-distributed memory, and workstation network with uneven interactive load. Speedups linear with the number of nodes were achieved

  18. Gamma irradiation of cultural artifacts for disinfection using Monte Carlo simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, Jong-il; Yoon, Minchul; Kim, Dongho

    2012-01-01

    In this study, it has been investigated the disinfection of Korean cultural artifacts by gamma irradiation, simulating the absorbed dose distribution on the object with the Monte Carlo methodology. Fungal contamination was identified on two traditional Korean agricultural tools, Hongdukkae and Holtae, which had been stored in a museum. Nine primary species were identified from these items: Bjerkandera adusta, Dothideomycetes sp., Penicillium sp., Cladosporium tenuissimum, Aspergillus versicolor, Penicillium sp., Entrophospora sp., Aspergillus sydowii, and Corynascus sepedonium. However, these fungi were completely inactivated by gamma irradiation at an absorbed dose of 20 kGy on the front side. Monte Carlo N Particle Transport Code was used to simulate the doses applied to these cultural artifacts, and the measured dose distributions were well predicted by the simulations. These results show that irradiation is effective for the disinfection of cultural artifacts and that dose distribution can be predicted with Monte Carlo simulations, allowing the optimization of the radiation treatment. - Highlights: ► Radiation was applied for the disinfection of Korean cultural artifacts. ► Fungi on the artifacts were completely inactivated by the irradiation. ► Monte Carlo N Particle Transport Code was used to predict the dose distribution. ► This study is applicable for the preservation of cultural artifacts by irradiation.

  19. Calculation of extended shields in the Monte Carlo method using importance function (BRAND and DD code systems)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Androsenko, A.A.; Androsenko, P.A.; Kagalenko, I.Eh.; Mironovich, Yu.N.

    1992-01-01

    Consideration is given of a technique and algorithms of constructing neutron trajectories in the Monte-Carlo method taking into account the data on adjoint transport equation solution. When simulating the transport part of transfer kernel the use is made of piecewise-linear approximation of free path length density along the particle motion direction. The approach has been implemented in programs within the framework of the BRAND code system. The importance is calculated in the multigroup P 1 -approximation within the framework of the DD-30 code system. The efficiency of the developed computation technique is demonstrated by means of solution of two model problems. 4 refs.; 2 tabs

  20. Algorithmic choices in WARP – A framework for continuous energy Monte Carlo neutron transport in general 3D geometries on GPUs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bergmann, Ryan M.; Vujić, Jasmina L.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • WARP, a GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo neutron transport code, has been developed. • The NVIDIA OptiX high-performance ray tracing library is used to process geometric data. • The unionized cross section representation is modified for higher performance. • Reference remapping is used to keep the GPU busy as neutron batch population reduces. • Reference remapping is done using a key-value radix sort on neutron reaction type. - Abstract: In recent supercomputers, general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs) are a significant faction of the supercomputer’s total computational power. GPGPUs have different architectures compared to central processing units (CPUs), and for Monte Carlo neutron transport codes used in nuclear engineering to take advantage of these coprocessor cards, transport algorithms must be changed to execute efficiently on them. WARP is a continuous energy Monte Carlo neutron transport code that has been written to do this. The main thrust of WARP is to adapt previous event-based transport algorithms to the new GPU hardware; the algorithmic choices for all parts of which are presented in this paper. It is found that remapping history data references increases the GPU processing rate when histories start to complete. The main reason for this is that completed data are eliminated from the address space, threads are kept busy, and memory bandwidth is not wasted on checking completed data. Remapping also allows the interaction kernels to be launched concurrently, improving efficiency. The OptiX ray tracing framework and CUDPP library are used for geometry representation and parallel dataset-side operations, ensuring high performance and reliability

  1. Evaluation of accuracy of Monte Carlo code MVP with VHTRC experiments. Multiplication factor at criticality, burnable poison worth and void worth

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nojiri, Naoki; Yamashita, Kiyonobu; Fiujimoto, Nozomu; Nakano, Masaaki , Yamane, Tsuyoshi; Akino, Fujiyoshi.

    1997-11-01

    Experimental data of VHTRC (Very High Temperature Reactor Critical Assembly) were analyzed using Monte Carlo code MVP (general purpose Monte Carlo code of neutron and photon transport calculations based on the continuous energy method). The calculation accuracy of the code was evaluated by the analysis for nuclear characteristics of a HTGR (high temperature gas-cooled reactor). The MVP code can analyze with a detailed three-dimensional core model with a few approximations. The HTGRs have following characteristics from view point of nuclear design : they have burnable poisons, many void holes, namely, the control insertion holes and so on. Taking account of these characteristics, multiplication factor at criticality, burnable poison worth, and void worth were evaluated. The maximum calculation errors were 0.8%Δk, 7%, and 25% respectively, From these results, it can be concluded that the MVP code is able to be applied to the nuclear characteristics analysis of the HTGR like the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR). (author)

  2. Cost of splitting in Monte Carlo transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Everett, C.J.; Cashwell, E.D.

    1978-03-01

    In a simple transport problem designed to estimate transmission through a plane slab of x free paths by Monte Carlo methods, it is shown that m-splitting (m > or = 2) does not pay unless exp(x) > m(m + 3)/(m - 1). In such a case, the minimum total cost in terms of machine time is obtained as a function of m, and the optimal value of m is determined

  3. Recent Developments of JAEA's Monte Carlo Code MVP for Reactor Physics Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagaya, Yasunobu; Okumura, Keisuke; Mori, Takamasa

    2014-06-01

    This paper describes the recent development status of a Monte Carlo code MVP developed at Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The basic features and capabilities of MVP are overviewed. In addition, new capabilities useful for reactor analysis are also described.

  4. Enhancements to the Combinatorial Geometry Particle Tracker in the Mercury Monte Carlo Transport Code: Embedded Meshes and Domain Decomposition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Greenman, G.M.; O'Brien, M.J.; Procassini, R.J.; Joy, K.I.

    2009-01-01

    Two enhancements to the combinatorial geometry (CG) particle tracker in the Mercury Monte Carlo transport code are presented. The first enhancement is a hybrid particle tracker wherein a mesh region is embedded within a CG region. This method permits efficient calculations of problems with contain both large-scale heterogeneous and homogeneous regions. The second enhancement relates to the addition of parallelism within the CG tracker via spatial domain decomposition. This permits calculations of problems with a large degree of geometric complexity, which are not possible through particle parallelism alone. In this method, the cells are decomposed across processors and a particles is communicated to an adjacent processor when it tracks to an interprocessor boundary. Applications that demonstrate the efficacy of these new methods are presented

  5. Implementation of 3D models in the Monte Carlo code MCNP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lopes, Vivaldo; Millian, Felix M.; Guevara, Maria Victoria M.; Garcia, Fermin; Sena, Isaac; Menezes, Hugo

    2009-01-01

    On the area of numerical dosimetry Applied to medical physics, the scientific community focuses on the elaboration of new hybrids models based on 3D models. But different steps of the process of simulation with 3D models needed improvement and optimization in order to expedite the calculations and accuracy using this methodology. This project was developed with the aim of optimize the process of introduction of 3D models within the simulation code of radiation transport by Monte Carlo (MCNP). The fast implementation of these models on the simulation code allows the estimation of the dose deposited on the patient organs on a more personalized way, increasing the accuracy with this on the estimates and reducing the risks to health, caused by ionizing radiations. The introduction o these models within the MCNP was made through a input file, that was constructed through a sequence of images, bi-dimensional in the 3D model, generated using the program '3DSMAX', imported by the program 'TOMO M C' and thus, introduced as INPUT FILE of the MCNP code. (author)

  6. A functional method for estimating DPA tallies in Monte Carlo calculations of Light Water Reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Read, Edward A.; Oliveira, Cassiano R.E. de

    2011-01-01

    There has been a growing need in recent years for the development of methodology to calculate radiation damage factors, namely displacements per atom (dpa), of structural components for Light Water Reactors (LWRs). The aim of this paper is to discuss the development and implementation of a dpa method using Monte Carlo method for transport calculations. The capabilities of the Monte Carlo code Serpent such as Woodcock tracking and fuel depletion are assessed for radiation damage calculations and its capability demonstrated and compared to those of the Monte Carlo code MCNP for radiation damage calculations of a typical LWR configuration. (author)

  7. DOSE COEFFICIENTS FOR LIVER CHEMOEMBOLISATION PROCEDURES USING MONTE CARLO CODE.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karavasilis, E; Dimitriadis, A; Gonis, H; Pappas, P; Georgiou, E; Yakoumakis, E

    2016-12-01

    The aim of the present study is the estimation of radiation burden during liver chemoembolisation procedures. Organ dose and effective dose conversion factors, normalised to dose-area product (DAP), were estimated for chemoembolisation procedures using a Monte Carlo transport code in conjunction with an adult mathematical phantom. Exposure data from 32 patients were used to determine the exposure projections for the simulations. Equivalent organ (H T ) and effective (E) doses were estimated using individual DAP values. The organs receiving the highest amount of doses during these exams were lumbar spine, liver and kidneys. The mean effective dose conversion factor was 1.4 Sv Gy -1 m -2 Dose conversion factors can be useful for patient-specific radiation burden during chemoembolisation procedures. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  8. Monte Carlo modelling of impurity ion transport for a limiter source/sink

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stangeby, P.C.; Farrell, C.; Hoskins, S.; Wood, L.

    1988-01-01

    In relating the impurity influx Φ I (0) (atoms per second) into a plasma from the edge to the central impurity ion density n I (0) (ions·m -3 ), it is necessary to know the value of τ I SOL , the average dwell time of impurity ions in the scrape-off layer. It is usually assumed that τ I SOL =L c /c s , the hydrogenic dwell time, where L c is the limiter connection length and c s is the hydrogenic ion acoustic speed. Monte Carlo ion transport results are reported here which show that, for a wall (uniform) influx, τ I SOL is longer than L c /c s , while for a limiter influx it is shorter. Thus for a limiter influx n I (0) is predicted to be smaller than the reference value. Impurities released from the limiter form ever large 'clouds' of successively higher ionization stages. These are reproduced by the Monte Carlo code as are the cloud shapes for a localized impurity injection far from the limiter. (author). 23 refs, 18 figs, 6 tabs

  9. Effects of changing the random number stride in Monte Carlo calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hendricks, J.S.

    1991-01-01

    This paper reports on a common practice in Monte Carlo radiation transport codes which is to start each random walk a specified number of steps up the random number sequence from the previous one. This is called the stride in the random number sequence between source particles. It is used for correlated sampling or to provide tree-structured random numbers. A new random number generator algorithm for the major Monte Carlo code MCNP has been written to allow adjustment of the random number stride. This random number generator is machine portable. The effects of varying the stride for several sample problems are examined

  10. Criticality benchmarks for COG: A new point-wise Monte Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alesso, H.P.; Pearson, J.; Choi, J.S.

    1989-01-01

    COG is a new point-wise Monte Carlo code being developed and tested at LLNL for the Cray computer. It solves the Boltzmann equation for the transport of neutrons, photons, and (in future versions) charged particles. Techniques included in the code for modifying the random walk of particles make COG most suitable for solving deep-penetration (shielding) problems. However, its point-wise cross-sections also make it effective for a wide variety of criticality problems. COG has some similarities to a number of other computer codes used in the shielding and criticality community. These include the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) codes TART and ALICE, the Los Alamos National Laboratory code MCNP, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory codes 05R, 06R, KENO, and MORSE, the SACLAY code TRIPOLI, and the MAGI code SAM. Each code is a little different in its geometry input and its random-walk modification options. Validating COG consists in part of running benchmark calculations against critical experiments as well as other codes. The objective of this paper is to present calculational results of a variety of critical benchmark experiments using COG, and to present the resulting code bias. Numerous benchmark calculations have been completed for a wide variety of critical experiments which generally involve both simple and complex physical problems. The COG results, which they report in this paper, have been excellent

  11. Variation in computer time with geometry prescription in monte carlo code KENO-IV

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gopalakrishnan, C.R.

    1988-01-01

    In most studies, the Monte Carlo criticality code KENO-IV has been compared with other Monte Carlo codes, but evaluation of its performance with different box descriptions has not been done so far. In Monte Carlo computations, any fractional savings of computing time is highly desirable. Variation in computation time with box description in KENO for two different fast reactor fuel subassemblies of FBTR and PFBR is studied. The K eff of an infinite array of fuel subassemblies is calculated by modelling the subassemblies in two different ways (i) multi-region, (ii) multi-box. In addition to these two cases, excess reactivity calculations of FBTR are also performed in two ways to study this effect in a complex geometry. It is observed that the K eff values calculated by multi-region and multi-box models agree very well. However the increase in computation time from the multi-box to the multi-region is considerable, while the difference in computer storage requirements for the two models is negligible. This variation in computing time arises from the way the neutron is tracked in the two cases. (author)

  12. A Monte Carlo track structure code for low energy protons

    CERN Document Server

    Endo, S; Nikjoo, H; Uehara, S; Hoshi, M; Ishikawa, M; Shizuma, K

    2002-01-01

    A code is described for simulation of protons (100 eV to 10 MeV) track structure in water vapor. The code simulates molecular interaction by interaction for the transport of primary ions and secondary electrons in the form of ionizations and excitations. When a low velocity ion collides with the atoms or molecules of a target, the ion may also capture or lose electrons. The probabilities for these processes are described by the quantity cross-section. Although proton track simulation at energies above Bragg peak (>0.3 MeV) has been achieved to a high degree of precision, simulations at energies near or below the Bragg peak have only been attempted recently because of the lack of relevant cross-section data. As the hydrogen atom has a different ionization cross-section from that of a proton, charge exchange processes need to be considered in order to calculate stopping power for low energy protons. In this paper, we have used state-of-the-art Monte Carlo track simulation techniques, in conjunction with the pub...

  13. MCT: a Monte Carlo code for time-dependent neutron thermalization problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cupini, E.; Simonini, R.

    1974-01-01

    In the Monte Carlo simulation of pulse source experiments, the neutron energy spectrum, spatial distribution and total density may be required for a long time after the pulse. If the assemblies are very small, as often occurs in the cases of interest, sophisticated Monte Carlo techniques must be applied which force neutrons to remain in the system during the time interval investigated. In the MCT code a splitting technique has been applied to neutrons exceeding assigned target times, and we have found that this technique compares very favorably with more usual ones, such as the expected leakage probability, giving large gains in computational time and variance. As an example, satisfactory asymptotic thermal spectra with a neutron attenuation of 10 -5 were quickly obtained. (U.S.)

  14. Monte Carlo simulation of a coded-aperture thermal neutron camera

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dioszegi, I.; Salwen, C.; Forman, L.

    2011-01-01

    We employed the MCNPX Monte Carlo code to simulate image formation in a coded-aperture thermal-neutron camera. The camera, developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), consists of a 20 x 17 cm"2 active area "3He-filled position-sensitive wire chamber in a cadmium enclosure box. The front of the box is a coded-aperture cadmium mask (at present with three different resolutions). We tested the detector experimentally with various arrangements of moderated point-neutron sources. The purpose of using the Monte Carlo modeling was to develop an easily modifiable model of the device to predict the detector's behavior using different mask patterns, and also to generate images of extended-area sources or large numbers (up to ten) of them, that is important for nonproliferation and arms-control verification, but difficult to achieve experimentally. In the model, we utilized the advanced geometry capabilities of the MCNPX code to simulate the coded aperture mask. Furthermore, the code simulated the production of thermal neutrons from fission sources surrounded by a thermalizer. With this code we also determined the thermal-neutron shadow cast by the cadmium mask; the calculations encompassed fast- and epithermal-neutrons penetrating into the detector through the mask. Since the process of signal production in "3He-filled position-sensitive wire chambers is well known, we omitted this part from our modeling. Simplified efficiency values were used for the three (thermal, epithermal, and fast) neutron-energy regions. Electronic noise and the room's background were included as a uniform irradiation component. We processed the experimental- and simulated-images using identical LabVIEW virtual instruments. (author)

  15. Simulation and study on the γ response spectrum of BGO detector by the application of monte carlo code MOCA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jia Wenbao; Chen Xiaowen; Xu Aiguo; Li Anmin

    2010-01-01

    Application of Monte Carlo method to build spectra library is useful to reduce experiment workload in Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis (PGNAA). The new Monte Carlo Code MOCA was used to simulate the response spectra of BGO detector for gamma rays from 137 Cs, 60 Co and neutron induced gamma rays from S and Ti. The results were compared with general code MCNP, show that the agreement of MOCA between simulation and experiment is better than MCNP. This research indicates that building spectra library by Monte Carlo method is feasible. (authors)

  16. On the use of SERPENT Monte Carlo code to generate few group diffusion constants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Piovezan, Pamela, E-mail: pamela.piovezan@ctmsp.mar.mil.b [Centro Tecnologico da Marinha em Sao Paulo (CTMSP), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil); Carluccio, Thiago; Domingos, Douglas Borges; Rossi, Pedro Russo; Mura, Luiz Felipe, E-mail: fermium@cietec.org.b, E-mail: thiagoc@ipen.b [Fermium Tecnologia Nuclear, Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil); Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares (IPEN/CNEN-SP), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)

    2011-07-01

    The accuracy of diffusion reactor codes strongly depends on the quality of the groups constants processing. For many years, the generation of such constants was based on 1-D infinity cell transport calculations. Some developments using collision probability or the method of characteristics allow, nowadays, 2-D assembly group constants calculations. However, these 1-D and 2-D codes how some limitations as , for example, on complex geometries and in the neighborhood of heavy absorbers. On the other hand, since Monte Carlos (MC) codes provide accurate neutro flux distributions, the possibility of using these solutions to provide group constants to full-core reactor diffusion simulators has been recently investigated, especially for the cases in which the geometry and reactor types are beyond the capability of the conventional deterministic lattice codes. The two greatest difficulties on the use of MC codes to group constant generation are the computational costs and the methodological incompatibility between analog MC particle transport simulation and deterministic transport methods based in several approximations. The SERPENT code is a 3-D continuous energy MC transport code with built-in burnup capability that was specially optimized to generate these group constants. In this work, we present the preliminary results of using the SERPENT MC code to generate 3-D two-group diffusion constants for a PWR like assembly. These constants were used in the CITATION diffusion code to investigate the effects of the MC group constants determination on the neutron multiplication factor diffusion estimate. (author)

  17. Simulation of neutron transport equation using parallel Monte Carlo for deep penetration problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bekar, K. K.; Tombakoglu, M.; Soekmen, C. N.

    2001-01-01

    Neutron transport equation is simulated using parallel Monte Carlo method for deep penetration neutron transport problem. Monte Carlo simulation is parallelized by using three different techniques; direct parallelization, domain decomposition and domain decomposition with load balancing, which are used with PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine) software on LAN (Local Area Network). The results of parallel simulation are given for various model problems. The performances of the parallelization techniques are compared with each other. Moreover, the effects of variance reduction techniques on parallelization are discussed

  18. Monte Carlo charged-particle tracking and energy deposition on a Lagrangian mesh.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuan, J; Moses, G A; McKenty, P W

    2005-10-01

    A Monte Carlo algorithm for alpha particle tracking and energy deposition on a cylindrical computational mesh in a Lagrangian hydrodynamics code used for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) simulations is presented. The straight line approximation is used to follow propagation of "Monte Carlo particles" which represent collections of alpha particles generated from thermonuclear deuterium-tritium (DT) reactions. Energy deposition in the plasma is modeled by the continuous slowing down approximation. The scheme addresses various aspects arising in the coupling of Monte Carlo tracking with Lagrangian hydrodynamics; such as non-orthogonal severely distorted mesh cells, particle relocation on the moving mesh and particle relocation after rezoning. A comparison with the flux-limited multi-group diffusion transport method is presented for a polar direct drive target design for the National Ignition Facility. Simulations show the Monte Carlo transport method predicts about earlier ignition than predicted by the diffusion method, and generates higher hot spot temperature. Nearly linear speed-up is achieved for multi-processor parallel simulations.

  19. Radiosteoplasty study in animal bone and radiodosimetric evaluation using Monte Carlo code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Silveira, Marcia Flavia; Campos, Tarcisio Passos Ribeiro [Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil). Dept. de Engenharia Nuclear]. E-mail: marciaflaviafisio@gmail.com; campos@nuclear.ufmg.br

    2007-07-01

    The radiosteoplasty is a procedure that consists of the injection of a radioactive biomaterial incorporated to the bone cement into the osseous structure affected by cancer. This technique has been developed with the major objective to control the tumor or the regional bone metastasis (in situ) besides pain reduction and structural resistance increasing. In the present study the radiosteoplasty is applied to the bovine and swine bones in vitro using non-radioactive cement. The objective is to know the spatial distribution of the cold compound (non radioactive) in pig and ox bones after implant. A 2 mm needle was introduced into the cortical bone previously perforated. The distribution of this biomaterial was observed trough radiological images obtained just after the compound application. Recent dosimetric studies using Monte Carlo N-Particle method (MCNP-5) concluded that the spatial dose distribution is suitable for the protocol namely radiosteoplasty applied to treat bone tumors on superior and inferior members. The Monte Carlo method simulates the present process and it is particularly interesting tool to solve the complex photon and electron particle transport problems that can not be modeled by codes based on deterministic methods. These related radiodosimetric studies are presented and discussed. (author)

  20. Integrated Tiger Series of electron/photon Monte Carlo transport codes: a user's guide for use on IBM mainframes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kirk, B.L.

    1985-12-01

    The ITS (Integrated Tiger Series) Monte Carlo code package developed at Sandia National Laboratories and distributed as CCC-467/ITS by the Radiation Shielding Information Center (RSIC) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) consists of eight codes - the standard codes, TIGER, CYLTRAN, ACCEPT; the P-codes, TIGERP, CYLTRANP, ACCEPTP; and the M-codes ACCEPTM, CYLTRANM. The codes have been adapted to run on the IBM 3081, VAX 11/780, CDC-7600, and Cray 1 with the use of the update emulator UPEML. This manual should serve as a guide to a user running the codes on IBM computers having 370 architecture. The cases listed were tested on the IBM 3033, under the MVS operating system using the VS Fortran Level 1.3.1 compiler

  1. A hybrid transport-diffusion Monte Carlo method for frequency-dependent radiative-transfer simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Densmore, Jeffery D.; Thompson, Kelly G.; Urbatsch, Todd J.

    2012-01-01

    Discrete Diffusion Monte Carlo (DDMC) is a technique for increasing the efficiency of Implicit Monte Carlo radiative-transfer simulations in optically thick media. In DDMC, particles take discrete steps between spatial cells according to a discretized diffusion equation. Each discrete step replaces many smaller Monte Carlo steps, thus improving the efficiency of the simulation. In this paper, we present an extension of DDMC for frequency-dependent radiative transfer. We base our new DDMC method on a frequency-integrated diffusion equation for frequencies below a specified threshold, as optical thickness is typically a decreasing function of frequency. Above this threshold we employ standard Monte Carlo, which results in a hybrid transport-diffusion scheme. With a set of frequency-dependent test problems, we confirm the accuracy and increased efficiency of our new DDMC method.

  2. Neutron point-flux calculation by Monte Carlo

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eichhorn, M.

    1986-04-01

    A survey of the usual methods for estimating flux at a point is given. The associated variance-reducing techniques in direct Monte Carlo games are explained. The multigroup Monte Carlo codes MC for critical systems and PUNKT for point source-point detector-systems are represented, and problems in applying the codes to practical tasks are discussed. (author)

  3. The electron transport problem sampling by Monte Carlo individual collision technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Androsenko, P.A.; Belousov, V.I.

    2005-01-01

    The problem of electron transport is of most interest in all fields of the modern science. To solve this problem the Monte Carlo sampling has to be used. The electron transport is characterized by a large number of individual interactions. To simulate electron transport the 'condensed history' technique may be used where a large number of collisions are grouped into a single step to be sampled randomly. Another kind of Monte Carlo sampling is the individual collision technique. In comparison with condensed history technique researcher has the incontestable advantages. For example one does not need to give parameters altered by condensed history technique like upper limit for electron energy, resolution, number of sub-steps etc. Also the condensed history technique may lose some very important tracks of electrons because of its limited nature by step parameters of particle movement and due to weakness of algorithms for example energy indexing algorithm. There are no these disadvantages in the individual collision technique. This report presents some sampling algorithms of new version BRAND code where above mentioned technique is used. All information on electrons was taken from Endf-6 files. They are the important part of BRAND. These files have not been processed but directly taken from electron information source. Four kinds of interaction like the elastic interaction, the Bremsstrahlung, the atomic excitation and the atomic electro-ionization were considered. In this report some results of sampling are presented after comparison with analogs. For example the endovascular radiotherapy problem (P2) of QUADOS2002 was presented in comparison with another techniques that are usually used. (authors)

  4. MC21 v.6.0 - A continuous-energy Monte Carlo particle transport code with integrated reactor feedback capabilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grieshemer, D.P.; Gill, D.F.; Nease, B.R.; Carpenter, D.C.; Joo, H.; Millman, D.L.; Sutton, T.M.; Stedry, M.H.; Dobreff, P.S.; Trumbull, T.H.; Caro, E.

    2013-01-01

    MC21 is a continuous-energy Monte Carlo radiation transport code for the calculation of the steady-state spatial distributions of reaction rates in three-dimensional models. The code supports neutron and photon transport in fixed source problems, as well as iterated-fission-source (eigenvalue) neutron transport problems. MC21 has been designed and optimized to support large-scale problems in reactor physics, shielding, and criticality analysis applications. The code also supports many in-line reactor feedback effects, including depletion, thermal feedback, xenon feedback, eigenvalue search, and neutron and photon heating. MC21 uses continuous-energy neutron/nucleus interaction physics over the range from 10 -5 eV to 20 MeV. The code treats all common neutron scattering mechanisms, including fast-range elastic and non-elastic scattering, and thermal- and epithermal-range scattering from molecules and crystalline materials. For photon transport, MC21 uses continuous-energy interaction physics over the energy range from 1 keV to 100 GeV. The code treats all common photon interaction mechanisms, including Compton scattering, pair production, and photoelectric interactions. All of the nuclear data required by MC21 is provided by the NDEX system of codes, which extracts and processes data from EPDL-, ENDF-, and ACE-formatted source files. For geometry representation, MC21 employs a flexible constructive solid geometry system that allows users to create spatial cells from first- and second-order surfaces. The system also allows models to be built up as hierarchical collections of previously defined spatial cells, with interior detail provided by grids and template overlays. Results are collected by a generalized tally capability which allows users to edit integral flux and reaction rate information. Results can be collected over the entire problem or within specific regions of interest through the use of phase filters that control which particles are allowed to score each

  5. Monte Carlo and Quasi-Monte Carlo Sampling

    CERN Document Server

    Lemieux, Christiane

    2009-01-01

    Presents essential tools for using quasi-Monte Carlo sampling in practice. This book focuses on issues related to Monte Carlo methods - uniform and non-uniform random number generation, variance reduction techniques. It covers several aspects of quasi-Monte Carlo methods.

  6. Positron follow-up in liquid water: I. A new Monte Carlo track-structure code.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Champion, C; Le Loirec, C

    2006-04-07

    When biological matter is irradiated by charged particles, a wide variety of interactions occur, which lead to a deep modification of the cellular environment. To understand the fine structure of the microscopic distribution of energy deposits, Monte Carlo event-by-event simulations are particularly suitable. However, the development of these track-structure codes needs accurate interaction cross sections for all the electronic processes: ionization, excitation, positronium formation and even elastic scattering. Under these conditions, we have recently developed a Monte Carlo code for positrons in water, the latter being commonly used to simulate the biological medium. All the processes are studied in detail via theoretical differential and total cross-section calculations performed by using partial wave methods. Comparisons with existing theoretical and experimental data in terms of stopping powers, mean energy transfers and ranges show very good agreements. Moreover, thanks to the theoretical description of positronium formation, we have access, for the first time, to the complete kinematics of the electron capture process. Then, the present Monte Carlo code is able to describe the detailed positronium history, which will provide useful information for medical imaging (like positron emission tomography) where improvements are needed to define with the best accuracy the tumoural volumes.

  7. OPAL reactor calculations using the Monte Carlo code serpent

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ferraro, Diego; Villarino, Eduardo [Nuclear Engineering Dept., INVAP S.E., Rio Negro (Argentina)

    2012-03-15

    In the present work the Monte Carlo cell code developed by VTT Serpent v1.1.14 is used to model the MTR fuel assemblies (FA) and control rods (CR) from OPAL (Open Pool Australian Light-water) reactor in order to obtain few-group constants with burnup dependence to be used in the already developed reactor core models. These core calculations are performed using CITVAP 3-D diffusion code, which is well-known reactor code based on CITATION. Subsequently the results are compared with those obtained by the deterministic calculation line used by INVAP, which uses the Collision Probability Condor cell-code to obtain few-group constants. Finally the results are compared with the experimental data obtained from the reactor information for several operation cycles. As a result several evaluations are performed, including a code to code cell comparison at cell and core level and calculation-experiment comparison at core level in order to evaluate the Serpent code actual capabilities. (author)

  8. Overview of the MCU Monte Carlo software package

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kalugin, M.A.; Oleynik, D.S.; Shkarovsky, D.A.

    2013-01-01

    MCU (Monte Carlo Universal) is a project on development and practical use of a universal computer code for simulation of particle transport (neutrons, photons, electrons, positrons) in three-dimensional systems by means of the Monte Carlo method. This paper provides the information on the current state of the project. The developed libraries of constants are briefly described, and the potentialities of the MCU-5 package modules and the executable codes compiled from them are characterized. Examples of important problems of reactor physics solved with the code are presented. It is shown that the MCU constructor tool is able to assemble a full-scale 3D model from templates describing single components using simple and intuitive graphic user interface. The templates are prepared by a skilled user and stored in constructor's templates library. Ordinary user works with the graphic user interface and does not deal with MCU input data directly. At the present moment there are template libraries for several types of reactors

  9. Numerical computation of discrete differential scattering cross sections for Monte Carlo charged particle transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Walsh, Jonathan A.; Palmer, Todd S.; Urbatsch, Todd J.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Generation of discrete differential scattering angle and energy loss cross sections. • Gauss–Radau quadrature utilizing numerically computed cross section moments. • Development of a charged particle transport capability in the Milagro IMC code. • Integration of cross section generation and charged particle transport capabilities. - Abstract: We investigate a method for numerically generating discrete scattering cross sections for use in charged particle transport simulations. We describe the cross section generation procedure and compare it to existing methods used to obtain discrete cross sections. The numerical approach presented here is generalized to allow greater flexibility in choosing a cross section model from which to derive discrete values. Cross section data computed with this method compare favorably with discrete data generated with an existing method. Additionally, a charged particle transport capability is demonstrated in the time-dependent Implicit Monte Carlo radiative transfer code, Milagro. We verify the implementation of charged particle transport in Milagro with analytic test problems and we compare calculated electron depth–dose profiles with another particle transport code that has a validated electron transport capability. Finally, we investigate the integration of the new discrete cross section generation method with the charged particle transport capability in Milagro.

  10. Application of a Java-based, univel geometry, neutral particle Monte Carlo code to the searchlight problem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Charles A. Wemple; Joshua J. Cogliati

    2005-01-01

    A univel geometry, neutral particle Monte Carlo transport code, written entirely in the Java programming language, is under development for medical radiotherapy applications. The code uses ENDF-VI based continuous energy cross section data in a flexible XML format. Full neutron-photon coupling, including detailed photon production and photonuclear reactions, is included. Charged particle equilibrium is assumed within the patient model so that detailed transport of electrons produced by photon interactions may be neglected. External beam and internal distributed source descriptions for mixed neutron-photon sources are allowed. Flux and dose tallies are performed on a univel basis. A four-tap, shift-register-sequence random number generator is used. Initial verification and validation testing of the basic neutron transport routines is underway. The searchlight problem was chosen as a suitable first application because of the simplicity of the physical model. Results show excellent agreement with analytic solutions. Computation times for similar numbers of histories are comparable to other neutron MC codes written in C and FORTRAN

  11. Detailed resonance absorption calculations with the Monte Carlo code MCNP and collision probability version of the slowing down code ROLAIDS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kruijf, W.J.M. de; Janssen, A.J.

    1994-01-01

    Very accurate Mote Carlo calculations with Monte Carlo Code have been performed to serve as reference for benchmark calculations on resonance absorption by U 238 in a typical PWR pin-cell geometry. Calculations with the energy-pointwise slowing down code calculates the resonance absorption accurately. Calculations with the multigroup discrete ordinates code XSDRN show that accurate results can only be achieved with a very fine energy mesh. (authors). 9 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs

  12. Development of CAD-Based Geometry Processing Module for a Monte Carlo Particle Transport Analysis Code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, Sung Hoon; Kwark, Min Su; Shim, Hyung Jin

    2012-01-01

    As The Monte Carlo (MC) particle transport analysis for a complex system such as research reactor, accelerator, and fusion facility may require accurate modeling of the complicated geometry. Its manual modeling by using the text interface of a MC code to define the geometrical objects is tedious, lengthy and error-prone. This problem can be overcome by taking advantage of modeling capability of the computer aided design (CAD) system. There have been two kinds of approaches to develop MC code systems utilizing the CAD data: the external format conversion and the CAD kernel imbedded MC simulation. The first approach includes several interfacing programs such as McCAD, MCAM, GEOMIT etc. which were developed to automatically convert the CAD data into the MCNP geometry input data. This approach makes the most of the existing MC codes without any modifications, but implies latent data inconsistency due to the difference of the geometry modeling system. In the second approach, a MC code utilizes the CAD data for the direct particle tracking or the conversion to an internal data structure of the constructive solid geometry (CSG) and/or boundary representation (B-rep) modeling with help of a CAD kernel. MCNP-BRL and OiNC have demonstrated their capabilities of the CAD-based MC simulations. Recently we have developed a CAD-based geometry processing module for the MC particle simulation by using the OpenCASCADE (OCC) library. In the developed module, CAD data can be used for the particle tracking through primitive CAD surfaces (hereafter the CAD-based tracking) or the internal conversion to the CSG data structure. In this paper, the performances of the text-based model, the CAD-based tracking, and the internal CSG conversion are compared by using an in-house MC code, McSIM, equipped with the developed CAD-based geometry processing module

  13. Recent developments in the Los Alamos radiation transport code system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forster, R.A.; Parsons, K.

    1997-01-01

    A brief progress report on updates to the Los Alamos Radiation Transport Code System (LARTCS) for solving criticality and fixed-source problems is provided. LARTCS integrates the Diffusion Accelerated Neutral Transport (DANT) discrete ordinates codes with the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code. The LARCTS code is being developed with a graphical user interface for problem setup and analysis. Progress in the DANT system for criticality applications include a two-dimensional module which can be linked to a mesh-generation code and a faster iteration scheme. Updates to MCNP Version 4A allow statistical checks of calculated Monte Carlo results

  14. Continuous energy adjoint Monte Carlo for coupled neutron-photon transport

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hoogenboom, J.E. [Delft Univ. of Technology (Netherlands). Interfaculty Reactor Inst.

    2001-07-01

    Although the theory for adjoint Monte Carlo calculations with continuous energy treatment for neutrons as well as for photons is known, coupled neutron-photon transport problems present fundamental difficulties because of the discrete energies of the photons produced by neutron reactions. This problem was solved by forcing the energy of the adjoint photon to the required discrete value by an adjoint Compton scattering reaction or an adjoint pair production reaction. A mathematical derivation shows the exact procedures to follow for the generation of an adjoint neutron and its statistical weight. A numerical example demonstrates that correct detector responses are obtained compared to a standard forward Monte Carlo calculation. (orig.)

  15. Nuclear reactions in Monte Carlo codes

    CERN Document Server

    Ferrari, Alfredo

    2002-01-01

    The physics foundations of hadronic interactions as implemented in most Monte Carlo codes are presented together with a few practical examples. The description of the relevant physics is presented schematically split into the major steps in order to stress the different approaches required for the full understanding of nuclear reactions at intermediate and high energies. Due to the complexity of the problem, only a few semi-qualitative arguments are developed in this paper. The description will be necessarily schematic and somewhat incomplete, but hopefully it will be useful for a first introduction into this topic. Examples are shown mostly for the high energy regime, where all mechanisms mentioned in the paper are at work and to which perhaps most of the readers are less accustomed. Examples for lower energies can be found in the references. (43 refs) .

  16. Verification of vectorized Monte Carlo code MVP using JRR-4 experiment of fast neutrons penetrating through graphite and water

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Odano, N.; Miura, T.; Yamaji, A.

    1996-01-01

    Measurement of activation reaction rates was carried out for fast neutrons penetrating through graphite and water from the core of JRR-4 research reactor of JAERI, with paying attention to the energy above 10 MeV. Analysis of the experiment was made using a vectorized continuous energy Monte Carlo code MVP to verify the code. The analysis shows good agreements between the measurement and calculation and the MVP code has been confirmed its validity for the fast neutron transport calculations above 10 MeV in fission neutron field. (author)

  17. Monte Carlo transport correction of sodium reactivity worth spatial distribution in perspective Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raskach, K.F.; Blyskavka, V; Kislitsyna, T.S.

    2011-01-01

    In this paper we apply Monte Carlo for calculating spatial distribution of sodium reactivity worth in the perspective Russian sodium-cooled fast reactor BN-1200. A special Monte Carlo technique applicable for calculating perturbations and derivatives of the effective multiplication factor is used. The numerical results obtained show that Monte Carlo has a good perspective to deal with such problems and to be used as a reference solution for engineering codes based on the diffusion approximation. They also allow to conclude that in the sodium blanket and in the neighboring region of the core the diffusion code used likely overestimates sodium reactivity worth. This conclusion has to be verified in future work. (author)

  18. Setup of HDRK-Man voxel model in Geant4 Monte Carlo code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jeong, Jong Hwi; Cho, Sung Koo; Kim, Chan Hyeong [Hanyang Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Choi, Sang Hyoun [Inha Univ., Incheon (Korea, Republic of); Cho, Kun Woo [Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2008-10-15

    Many different voxel models, developed using tomographic images of human body, are used in various fields including both ionizing and non-ionizing radiation fields. Recently a high-quality voxel model/ named HDRK-Man, was constructed at Hanyang University and used to calculate the dose conversion coefficients (DCC) values for external photon and neutron beams using the MCNPX Monte Carlo code. The objective of the present study is to set up the HDRK-Man model in Geant4 in order to use it in more advanced calculations such as 4-D Monte Carlo simulations and space dosimetry studies involving very high energy particles. To that end, the HDRK-Man was ported to Geant4 and used to calculate the DCC values for external photon beams. The calculated values were then compared with the results of the MCNPX code. In addition, a computational Linux cluster was built to improve the computing speed in Geant4.

  19. Sub-step methodology for coupled Monte Carlo depletion and thermal hydraulic codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kotlyar, D.; Shwageraus, E.

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Discretization of time in coupled MC codes determines the results’ accuracy. • The error is due to lack of information regarding the time-dependent reaction rates. • The proposed sub-step method considerably reduces the time discretization error. • No additional MC transport solutions are required within the time step. • The reaction rates are varied as functions of nuclide densities and TH conditions. - Abstract: The governing procedure in coupled Monte Carlo (MC) codes relies on discretization of the simulation time into time steps. Typically, the MC transport solution at discrete points will generate reaction rates, which in most codes are assumed to be constant within the time step. This assumption can trigger numerical instabilities or result in a loss of accuracy, which, in turn, would require reducing the time steps size. This paper focuses on reducing the time discretization error without requiring additional MC transport solutions and hence with no major computational overhead. The sub-step method presented here accounts for the reaction rate variation due to the variation in nuclide densities and thermal hydraulic (TH) conditions. This is achieved by performing additional depletion and TH calculations within the analyzed time step. The method was implemented in BGCore code and subsequently used to analyze a series of test cases. The results indicate that computational speedup of up to a factor of 10 may be achieved over the existing coupling schemes.

  20. Chain segmentation for the Monte Carlo solution of particle transport problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ragheb, M.M.H.

    1984-01-01

    A Monte Carlo approach is proposed where the random walk chains generated in particle transport simulations are segmented. Forward and adjoint-mode estimators are then used in conjunction with the firstevent source density on the segmented chains to obtain multiple estimates of the individual terms of the Neumann series solution at each collision point. The solution is then constructed by summation of the series. The approach is compared to the exact analytical and to the Monte Carlo nonabsorption weighting method results for two representative slowing down and deep penetration problems. Application of the proposed approach leads to unbiased estimates for limited numbers of particle simulations and is useful in suppressing an effective bias problem observed in some cases of deep penetration particle transport problems

  1. Advanced Monte Carlo for radiation physics, particle transport simulation and applications. Proceedings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kling, A.; Barao, F.J.C.; Nakagawa, M.; Tavora, L.

    2001-01-01

    The following topics were dealt with: Electron and photon interactions and transport mechanisms, random number generation, applications in medical physisc, microdosimetry, track structure, radiobiological modeling, Monte Carlo method in radiotherapy, dosimetry, and medical accelerator simulation, neutron transport, high-energy hadron transport. (HSI)

  2. Response matrix Monte Carlo based on a general geometry local calculation for electron transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ballinger, C.T.; Rathkopf, J.A.; Martin, W.R.

    1991-01-01

    A Response Matrix Monte Carlo (RMMC) method has been developed for solving electron transport problems. This method was born of the need to have a reliable, computationally efficient transport method for low energy electrons (below a few hundred keV) in all materials. Today, condensed history methods are used which reduce the computation time by modeling the combined effect of many collisions but fail at low energy because of the assumptions required to characterize the electron scattering. Analog Monte Carlo simulations are prohibitively expensive since electrons undergo coulombic scattering with little state change after a collision. The RMMC method attempts to combine the accuracy of an analog Monte Carlo simulation with the speed of the condensed history methods. Like condensed history, the RMMC method uses probability distributions functions (PDFs) to describe the energy and direction of the electron after several collisions. However, unlike the condensed history method the PDFs are based on an analog Monte Carlo simulation over a small region. Condensed history theories require assumptions about the electron scattering to derive the PDFs for direction and energy. Thus the RMMC method samples from PDFs which more accurately represent the electron random walk. Results show good agreement between the RMMC method and analog Monte Carlo. 13 refs., 8 figs

  3. Development and Implementation of Photonuclear Cross-Section Data for Mutually Coupled Neutron-Photon Transport Calculations in the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) Radiation Transport Code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    White, Morgan C.

    2000-01-01

    The fundamental motivation for the research presented in this dissertation was the need to development a more accurate prediction method for characterization of mixed radiation fields around medical electron accelerators (MEAs). Specifically, a model is developed for simulation of neutron and other particle production from photonuclear reactions and incorporated in the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) radiation transport code. This extension of the capability within the MCNP code provides for the more accurate assessment of the mixed radiation fields. The Nuclear Theory and Applications group of the Los Alamos National Laboratory has recently provided first-of-a-kind evaluated photonuclear data for a select group of isotopes. These data provide the reaction probabilities as functions of incident photon energy with angular and energy distribution information for all reaction products. The availability of these data is the cornerstone of the new methodology for state-of-the-art mutually coupled photon-neutron transport simulations. The dissertation includes details of the model development and implementation necessary to use the new photonuclear data within MCNP simulations. A new data format has been developed to include tabular photonuclear data. Data are processed from the Evaluated Nuclear Data Format (ENDF) to the new class ''u'' A Compact ENDF (ACE) format using a standalone processing code. MCNP modifications have been completed to enable Monte Carlo sampling of photonuclear reactions. Note that both neutron and gamma production are included in the present model. The new capability has been subjected to extensive verification and validation (V and V) testing. Verification testing has established the expected basic functionality. Two validation projects were undertaken. First, comparisons were made to benchmark data from literature. These calculations demonstrate the accuracy of the new data and transport routines to better than 25 percent. Second, the ability to

  4. Development and Implementation of Photonuclear Cross-Section Data for Mutually Coupled Neutron-Photon Transport Calculations in the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) Radiation Transport Code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    White, Morgan C. [Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)

    2000-07-01

    The fundamental motivation for the research presented in this dissertation was the need to development a more accurate prediction method for characterization of mixed radiation fields around medical electron accelerators (MEAs). Specifically, a model is developed for simulation of neutron and other particle production from photonuclear reactions and incorporated in the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) radiation transport code. This extension of the capability within the MCNP code provides for the more accurate assessment of the mixed radiation fields. The Nuclear Theory and Applications group of the Los Alamos National Laboratory has recently provided first-of-a-kind evaluated photonuclear data for a select group of isotopes. These data provide the reaction probabilities as functions of incident photon energy with angular and energy distribution information for all reaction products. The availability of these data is the cornerstone of the new methodology for state-of-the-art mutually coupled photon-neutron transport simulations. The dissertation includes details of the model development and implementation necessary to use the new photonuclear data within MCNP simulations. A new data format has been developed to include tabular photonuclear data. Data are processed from the Evaluated Nuclear Data Format (ENDF) to the new class ''u'' A Compact ENDF (ACE) format using a standalone processing code. MCNP modifications have been completed to enable Monte Carlo sampling of photonuclear reactions. Note that both neutron and gamma production are included in the present model. The new capability has been subjected to extensive verification and validation (V&V) testing. Verification testing has established the expected basic functionality. Two validation projects were undertaken. First, comparisons were made to benchmark data from literature. These calculations demonstrate the accuracy of the new data and transport routines to better than 25 percent. Second

  5. Biases and statistical errors in Monte Carlo burnup calculations: an unbiased stochastic scheme to solve Boltzmann/Bateman coupled equations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dumonteil, E.; Diop, C.M.

    2011-01-01

    External linking scripts between Monte Carlo transport codes and burnup codes, and complete integration of burnup capability into Monte Carlo transport codes, have been or are currently being developed. Monte Carlo linked burnup methodologies may serve as an excellent benchmark for new deterministic burnup codes used for advanced systems; however, there are some instances where deterministic methodologies break down (i.e., heavily angularly biased systems containing exotic materials without proper group structure) and Monte Carlo burn up may serve as an actual design tool. Therefore, researchers are also developing these capabilities in order to examine complex, three-dimensional exotic material systems that do not contain benchmark data. Providing a reference scheme implies being able to associate statistical errors to any neutronic value of interest like k(eff), reaction rates, fluxes, etc. Usually in Monte Carlo, standard deviations are associated with a particular value by performing different independent and identical simulations (also referred to as 'cycles', 'batches', or 'replicas'), but this is only valid if the calculation itself is not biased. And, as will be shown in this paper, there is a bias in the methodology that consists of coupling transport and depletion codes because Bateman equations are not linear functions of the fluxes or of the reaction rates (those quantities being always measured with an uncertainty). Therefore, we have to quantify and correct this bias. This will be achieved by deriving an unbiased minimum variance estimator of a matrix exponential function of a normal mean. The result is then used to propose a reference scheme to solve Boltzmann/Bateman coupled equations, thanks to Monte Carlo transport codes. Numerical tests will be performed with an ad hoc Monte Carlo code on a very simple depletion case and will be compared to the theoretical results obtained with the reference scheme. Finally, the statistical error propagation

  6. Development of a consistent Monte Carlo-deterministic transport methodology based on the method of characteristics and MCNP5

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Karriem, Z.; Ivanov, K.; Zamonsky, O.

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents work that has been performed to develop an integrated Monte Carlo- Deterministic transport methodology in which the two methods make use of exactly the same general geometry and multigroup nuclear data. The envisioned application of this methodology is in reactor lattice physics methods development and shielding calculations. The methodology will be based on the Method of Long Characteristics (MOC) and the Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport code MCNP5. Important initial developments pertaining to ray tracing and the development of an MOC flux solver for the proposed methodology are described. Results showing the viability of the methodology are presented for two 2-D general geometry transport problems. The essential developments presented is the use of MCNP as geometry construction and ray tracing tool for the MOC, verification of the ray tracing indexing scheme that was developed to represent the MCNP geometry in the MOC and the verification of the prototype 2-D MOC flux solver. (author)

  7. Developing and investigating a pure Monte-Carlo module for transient neutron transport analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mylonakis, Antonios G.; Varvayanni, M.; Grigoriadis, D.G.E.; Catsaros, N.

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • Development and investigation of a Monte-Carlo module for transient neutronic analysis. • A transient module developed on the open-source Monte-Carlo static code OpenMC. • Treatment of delayed neutrons is inserted. • Simulation of precursors’ decay process is performed. • Transient analysis of simplified test-cases. - Abstract: In the field of computational reactor physics, Monte-Carlo methodology is extensively used in the analysis of static problems while the transient behavior of the reactor core is mostly analyzed using deterministic algorithms. However, deterministic algorithms make use of various approximations mainly in the geometric and energetic domain that may induce inaccuracy. Therefore, Monte-Carlo methodology which generally does not require significant approximations seems to be an attractive candidate tool for the analysis of transient phenomena. One of the most important constraints towards this direction is the significant computational cost; however since nowadays the available computational resources are continuously increasing, the potential use of the Monte-Carlo methodology in the field of reactor core transient analysis seems feasible. So far, very few attempts to employ Monte-Carlo methodology to transient analysis have been reported. Even more, most of those few attempts make use of several approximations, showing the existence of an “open” research field of great interest. It is obvious that comparing to static Monte-Carlo, a straight-forward physical treatment of a transient problem requires the temporal evolution of the simulated neutrons; but this is not adequate. In order to be able to properly analyze transient reactor core phenomena, the proper simulation of delayed neutrons together with other essential extensions and modifications is necessary. This work is actually the first step towards the development of a tool that could serve as a platform for research and development on this interesting but also

  8. Towards scalable parellelism in Monte Carlo particle transport codes using remote memory access

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Romano, Paul K [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Brown, Forrest B [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Forget, Benoit [MIT

    2010-01-01

    One forthcoming challenge in the area of high-performance computing is having the ability to run large-scale problems while coping with less memory per compute node. In this work, they investigate a novel data decomposition method that would allow Monte Carlo transport calculations to be performed on systems with limited memory per compute node. In this method, each compute node remotely retrieves a small set of geometry and cross-section data as needed and remotely accumulates local tallies when crossing the boundary of the local spatial domain. initial results demonstrate that while the method does allow large problems to be run in a memory-limited environment, achieving scalability may be difficult due to inefficiencies in the current implementation of RMA operations.

  9. Towards scalable parallelism in Monte Carlo particle transport codes using remote memory access

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Romano, Paul K.; Forget, Benoit; Brown, Forrest

    2010-01-01

    One forthcoming challenge in the area of high-performance computing is having the ability to run large-scale problems while coping with less memory per compute node. In this work, we investigate a novel data decomposition method that would allow Monte Carlo transport calculations to be performed on systems with limited memory per compute node. In this method, each compute node remotely retrieves a small set of geometry and cross-section data as needed and remotely accumulates local tallies when crossing the boundary of the local spatial domain. Initial results demonstrate that while the method does allow large problems to be run in a memory-limited environment, achieving scalability may be difficult due to inefficiencies in the current implementation of RMA operations. (author)

  10. Monte Carlo method in radiation transport problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dejonghe, G.; Nimal, J.C.; Vergnaud, T.

    1986-11-01

    In neutral radiation transport problems (neutrons, photons), two values are important: the flux in the phase space and the density of particles. To solve the problem with Monte Carlo method leads to, among other things, build a statistical process (called the play) and to provide a numerical value to a variable x (this attribution is called score). Sampling techniques are presented. Play biasing necessity is proved. A biased simulation is made. At last, the current developments (rewriting of programs for instance) are presented due to several reasons: two of them are the vectorial calculation apparition and the photon and neutron transport in vacancy media [fr

  11. Monte Carlo study of the performance of a time-of-flight multichopper spectrometer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daemen, L.L.; Eckert, J.; Pynn, R.

    1995-01-01

    The Monte Carlo method is a powerful technique for neutron transport studies. While it has been applied for many years to the study of nuclear systems, there are few codes available for neutron transport in the optical regime. The recent surge of interest in so-called next generation spallation neutron sources and the desire to design new and optimized instruments for these facilities has led us to develop a Monte Carlo code geared toward the simulation of neutron scattering instruments. The time-of-flight multichopper spectrometer, of which IN5 at the ILL is the prototypical example, is the first spectrometer studied with the code. Some of the results of a comparison between the IN5 performance at a reactor and at a Long Pulse Spallation Source (LPSS) are summarized here

  12. On a New Variance Reduction Technique: Neural Network Biasing-a Study of Two Test Cases with the Monte Carlo Code Tripoli4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dumonteil, E.

    2009-01-01

    Various variance-reduction techniques are used in Monte Carlo particle transport. Most of them rely either on a hypothesis made by the user (parameters of the exponential biasing, mesh and weight bounds for weight windows, etc.) or on a previous calculation of the system with, for example, a deterministic solver. This paper deals with a new acceleration technique, namely, auto-adaptative neural network biasing. Indeed, instead of using any a priori knowledge of the system, it is possible, at a given point in a simulation, to use the Monte Carlo histories previously simulated to train a neural network, which, in return, should be able to provide an estimation of the adjoint flux, used then for biasing the simulation. We will describe this method, detail its implementation in the Monte Carlo code Tripoli4, and discuss its results on two test cases. (author)

  13. Evaluation and comparison of SN and Monte-Carlo charged particle transport calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hadad, K.

    2000-01-01

    A study was done to evaluate a 3-D S N charged particle transport code called SMARTEPANTS 1 and another 3-D Monte Carlo code called Integrated Tiger Series, ITS 2 . The evaluation study of SMARTEPANTS code was based on angular discretization and reflected boundary sensitivity whilst the evaluation of ITS was based on CPU time and variance reduction. The comparison of the two code was based on energy and charge deposition calculation in block of Gallium Arsenide with embedded gold cylinders. The result of evaluation tests shows that an S 8 calculation maintains both accuracy and speed and calculations with reflected boundaries geometry produces full symmetrical results. As expected for ITS evaluation, the CPU time and variance reduction are opposite to a point beyond which the history augmentation while increasing the CPU time do not result in variance reduction. The comparison test problem showed excellent agreement in total energy deposition calculations

  14. Monte Carlo simulation for the estimation of iron in human whole ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    2017-02-10

    Feb 10, 2017 ... Monte Carlo N-particle (MCNP) code has been used to simulate the transport of gamma photon rays ... experimental data, and better than the theoretical XCOM values. ... tions in the materials, according to probability density.

  15. The effect of load imbalances on the performance of Monte Carlo algorithms in LWR analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Siegel, A.R.; Smith, K.; Romano, P.K.; Forget, B.; Felker, K.

    2013-01-01

    A model is developed to predict the impact of particle load imbalances on the performance of domain-decomposed Monte Carlo neutron transport algorithms. Expressions for upper bound performance “penalties” are derived in terms of simple machine characteristics, material characterizations and initial particle distributions. The hope is that these relations can be used to evaluate tradeoffs among different memory decomposition strategies in next generation Monte Carlo codes, and perhaps as a metric for triggering particle redistribution in production codes

  16. Parallelization of MCNP 4, a Monte Carlo neutron and photon transport code system, in highly parallel distributed memory type computer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Masukawa, Fumihiro; Takano, Makoto; Naito, Yoshitaka; Yamazaki, Takao; Fujisaki, Masahide; Suzuki, Koichiro; Okuda, Motoi.

    1993-11-01

    In order to improve the accuracy and calculating speed of shielding analyses, MCNP 4, a Monte Carlo neutron and photon transport code system, has been parallelized and measured of its efficiency in the highly parallel distributed memory type computer, AP1000. The code has been analyzed statically and dynamically, then the suitable algorithm for parallelization has been determined for the shielding analysis functions of MCNP 4. This includes a strategy where a new history is assigned to the idling processor element dynamically during the execution. Furthermore, to avoid the congestion of communicative processing, the batch concept, processing multi-histories by a unit, has been introduced. By analyzing a sample cask problem with 2,000,000 histories by the AP1000 with 512 processor elements, the 82 % of parallelization efficiency is achieved, and the calculational speed has been estimated to be around 50 times as fast as that of FACOM M-780. (author)

  17. Lecture 1. Monte Carlo basics. Lecture 2. Adjoint Monte Carlo. Lecture 3. Coupled Forward-Adjoint calculations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hoogenboom, J.E. [Delft University of Technology, Interfaculty Reactor Institute, Delft (Netherlands)

    2000-07-01

    The Monte Carlo method is a statistical method to solve mathematical and physical problems using random numbers. The principle of the methods will be demonstrated for a simple mathematical problem and for neutron transport. Various types of estimators will be discussed, as well as generally applied variance reduction methods like splitting, Russian roulette and importance biasing. The theoretical formulation for solving eigenvalue problems for multiplying systems will be shown. Some reflections will be given about the applicability of the Monte Carlo method, its limitations and its future prospects for reactor physics calculations. Adjoint Monte Carlo is a Monte Carlo game to solve the adjoint neutron (or photon) transport equation. The adjoint transport equation can be interpreted in terms of simulating histories of artificial particles, which show properties of neutrons that move backwards in history. These particles will start their history at the detector from which the response must be estimated and give a contribution to the estimated quantity when they hit or pass through the neutron source. Application to multigroup transport formulation will be demonstrated Possible implementation for the continuous energy case will be outlined. The inherent advantages and disadvantages of the method will be discussed. The Midway Monte Carlo method will be presented for calculating a detector response due to a (neutron or photon) source. A derivation will be given of the basic formula for the Midway Monte Carlo method The black absorber technique, allowing for a cutoff of particle histories when reaching the midway surface in one of the calculations will be derived. An extension of the theory to coupled neutron-photon problems is given. The method will be demonstrated for an oil well logging problem, comprising a neutron source in a borehole and photon detectors to register the photons generated by inelastic neutron scattering. (author)

  18. Lecture 1. Monte Carlo basics. Lecture 2. Adjoint Monte Carlo. Lecture 3. Coupled Forward-Adjoint calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoogenboom, J.E.

    2000-01-01

    The Monte Carlo method is a statistical method to solve mathematical and physical problems using random numbers. The principle of the methods will be demonstrated for a simple mathematical problem and for neutron transport. Various types of estimators will be discussed, as well as generally applied variance reduction methods like splitting, Russian roulette and importance biasing. The theoretical formulation for solving eigenvalue problems for multiplying systems will be shown. Some reflections will be given about the applicability of the Monte Carlo method, its limitations and its future prospects for reactor physics calculations. Adjoint Monte Carlo is a Monte Carlo game to solve the adjoint neutron (or photon) transport equation. The adjoint transport equation can be interpreted in terms of simulating histories of artificial particles, which show properties of neutrons that move backwards in history. These particles will start their history at the detector from which the response must be estimated and give a contribution to the estimated quantity when they hit or pass through the neutron source. Application to multigroup transport formulation will be demonstrated Possible implementation for the continuous energy case will be outlined. The inherent advantages and disadvantages of the method will be discussed. The Midway Monte Carlo method will be presented for calculating a detector response due to a (neutron or photon) source. A derivation will be given of the basic formula for the Midway Monte Carlo method The black absorber technique, allowing for a cutoff of particle histories when reaching the midway surface in one of the calculations will be derived. An extension of the theory to coupled neutron-photon problems is given. The method will be demonstrated for an oil well logging problem, comprising a neutron source in a borehole and photon detectors to register the photons generated by inelastic neutron scattering. (author)

  19. COG10, Multiparticle Monte Carlo Code System for Shielding and Criticality Use

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2007-01-01

    1 - Description of program or function: COG is a modern, full-featured Monte Carlo radiation transport code which provides accurate answers to complex shielding, criticality, and activation problems. COG was written to be state-of-the-art and free of physics approximations and compromises found in earlier codes. COG is fully 3-D, uses point-wise cross sections and exact angular scattering, and allows a full range of biasing options to speed up solutions for deep penetration problems. Additionally, a criticality option is available for computing Keff for assemblies of fissile materials. ENDL or ENDFB cross section libraries may be used. COG home page: http://www-phys.llnl.gov/N_Div/COG/. Cross section libraries are included in the package. COG can use either the LLNL ENDL-90 cross section set or the ENDFB/VI set. Analytic surfaces are used to describe geometric boundaries. Parts (volumes) are described by a method of Constructive Solid Geometry. Surface types include surfaces of up to fourth order, and pseudo-surfaces such as boxes, finite cylinders, and figures of revolution. Repeated assemblies need be defined only once. Parts are visualized in cross-section and perspective picture views. Source and random-walk biasing techniques may be selected to improve solution statistics. These include source angular biasing, importance weighting, particle splitting and Russian roulette, path-length stretching, point detectors, scattered direction biasing, and forced collisions. Criticality - For a fissioning system, COG will compute Keff by transporting batches of neutrons through the system. Activation - COG can compute gamma-ray doses due to neutron-activated materials, starting with just a neutron source. Coupled Problems - COG can solve coupled problems involving neutrons, photons, and electrons. 2 - Methods:COG uses Monte Carlo methods to solve the Boltzmann transport equation for particles traveling through arbitrary 3-dimensional geometries. Neutrons, photons

  20. Implementation of the probability table method in a continuous-energy Monte Carlo code system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sutton, T.M.; Brown, F.B.

    1998-10-01

    RACER is a particle-transport Monte Carlo code that utilizes a continuous-energy treatment for neutrons and neutron cross section data. Until recently, neutron cross sections in the unresolved resonance range (URR) have been treated in RACER using smooth, dilute-average representations. This paper describes how RACER has been modified to use probability tables to treat cross sections in the URR, and the computer codes that have been developed to compute the tables from the unresolved resonance parameters contained in ENDF/B data files. A companion paper presents results of Monte Carlo calculations that demonstrate the effect of the use of probability tables versus the use of dilute-average cross sections for the URR. The next section provides a brief review of the probability table method as implemented in the RACER system. The production of the probability tables for use by RACER takes place in two steps. The first step is the generation of probability tables from the nuclear parameters contained in the ENDF/B data files. This step, and the code written to perform it, are described in Section 3. The tables produced are at energy points determined by the ENDF/B parameters and/or accuracy considerations. The tables actually used in the RACER calculations are obtained in the second step from those produced in the first. These tables are generated at energy points specific to the RACER calculation. Section 4 describes this step and the code written to implement it, as well as modifications made to RACER to enable it to use the tables. Finally, some results and conclusions are presented in Section 5

  1. Kinetic Monte Carlo model of defect transport and irradiation effects in La-doped CeO2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oaks, Aaron; Yun Di; Ye Bei; Chen Weiying; Stubbins, James F.

    2011-01-01

    A generalized Kinetic Monte Carlo code was developed to study oxygen mobility in UO 2 type nuclear fuels, using lanthanum doped CeO 2 as a surrogate material. Molecular Statics simulations were performed using interatomic potentials for CeO 2 developed by Gotte, Minervini, and Sayle to calculate local configuration-dependent oxygen vacancy migration energies. Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of oxygen vacancy diffusion were performed at varying lanthanum dopant concentrations using the developed generalized Kinetic Monte Carlo code and the calculated configuration-dependent migration energies. All three interatomic potentials were found to confirm the lanthanum trapping effect. The results of these simulations were compared with experimental data and the Gotte potential was concluded to yield the most realistic diffusivity curve.

  2. The electron transport problem sampling by Monte Carlo individual collision technique

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Androsenko, P.A.; Belousov, V.I. [Obninsk State Technical Univ. of Nuclear Power Engineering, Kaluga region (Russian Federation)

    2005-07-01

    The problem of electron transport is of most interest in all fields of the modern science. To solve this problem the Monte Carlo sampling has to be used. The electron transport is characterized by a large number of individual interactions. To simulate electron transport the 'condensed history' technique may be used where a large number of collisions are grouped into a single step to be sampled randomly. Another kind of Monte Carlo sampling is the individual collision technique. In comparison with condensed history technique researcher has the incontestable advantages. For example one does not need to give parameters altered by condensed history technique like upper limit for electron energy, resolution, number of sub-steps etc. Also the condensed history technique may lose some very important tracks of electrons because of its limited nature by step parameters of particle movement and due to weakness of algorithms for example energy indexing algorithm. There are no these disadvantages in the individual collision technique. This report presents some sampling algorithms of new version BRAND code where above mentioned technique is used. All information on electrons was taken from Endf-6 files. They are the important part of BRAND. These files have not been processed but directly taken from electron information source. Four kinds of interaction like the elastic interaction, the Bremsstrahlung, the atomic excitation and the atomic electro-ionization were considered. In this report some results of sampling are presented after comparison with analogs. For example the endovascular radiotherapy problem (P2) of QUADOS2002 was presented in comparison with another techniques that are usually used. (authors)

  3. An intercomparison of Monte Carlo codes used for in-situ gamma-ray spectrometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hurtado, S.; Villa, M.

    2010-01-01

    In-situ gamma-ray spectrometry is widely used for monitoring of natural as well as man-made radionuclides and corresponding gamma fields in the environment or working places. It finds effective application in the operational and accidental monitoring of nuclear facilities and their vicinity, waste depositories, radioactive contamination measurements and environmental mapping or geological prospecting. In order to determine accurate radionuclide concentrations in these research fields, Monte Carlo codes have recently been used to obtain the efficiency calibration of in-situ gamma-ray detectors. This work presents an inter-comparison between two Monte Carlo codes applied to in-situ gamma-ray spectrometry. On the commercial market, Canberra has its LABSOCS/ISOCS software which is relatively inexpensive. The ISOCS mathematical efficiency calibration software uses a combination of Monte Carlo calculations and discrete ordinate attenuation computations. Efficiencies can be generated in a few minutes in the field and can be modified easily if needed. However, it has been reported in the literature that ISOCS computation method is accurate on average only within 5%, and additionally in order to use LABSOCS/ISOCS it is necessary a previous characterization of the detector by Canberra, which is an expensive process. On the other hand, the multipurpose and open source GEANT4 takes significant computer time and presents a non-friendly but powerful toolkit, independent of the manufacturer of the detector. Different experimental measurements of calibrated sources were performed with a Canberra portable HPGe detector and compared to the results obtained using both Monte Carlo codes. Furthermore, a variety of efficiency calibrations for different radioactive source distributions were calculated and tested, like plane shapes or containers filled with different materials such as soil, water, etc. LabSOCS simulated efficiencies for medium and high energies were given within an

  4. Improvement of Monte Carlo code A3MCNP for large-scale shielding problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miyake, Y.; Ohmura, M.; Hasegawa, T.; Ueki, K.; Sato, O.; Haghighat, A.; Sjoden, G.E.

    2004-01-01

    A 3 MCNP (Automatic Adjoint Accelerated MCNP) is a revised version of the MCNP Monte Carlo code, that automatically prepares variance reduction parameters for the CADIS (Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling) methodology. Using a deterministic 'importance' (or adjoint) function, CADIS performs source and transport biasing within the weight-window technique. The current version of A 3 MCNP uses the 3-D Sn transport TORT code to determine a 3-D importance function distribution. Based on simulation of several real-life problems, it is demonstrated that A 3 MCNP provides precise calculation results with a remarkably short computation time by using the proper and objective variance reduction parameters. However, since the first version of A 3 MCNP provided only a point source configuration option for large-scale shielding problems, such as spent-fuel transport casks, a large amount of memory may be necessary to store enough points to properly represent the source. Hence, we have developed an improved version of A 3 MCNP (referred to as A 3 MCNPV) which has a volumetric source configuration option. This paper describes the successful use of A 3 MCNPV for a concrete cask streaming problem and a PWR dosimetry problem. (author)

  5. Monte Carlo - Advances and Challenges

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brown, Forrest B.; Mosteller, Russell D.; Martin, William R.

    2008-01-01

    Abstract only, full text follows: With ever-faster computers and mature Monte Carlo production codes, there has been tremendous growth in the application of Monte Carlo methods to the analysis of reactor physics and reactor systems. In the past, Monte Carlo methods were used primarily for calculating k eff of a critical system. More recently, Monte Carlo methods have been increasingly used for determining reactor power distributions and many design parameters, such as β eff , l eff , τ, reactivity coefficients, Doppler defect, dominance ratio, etc. These advanced applications of Monte Carlo methods are now becoming common, not just feasible, but bring new challenges to both developers and users: Convergence of 3D power distributions must be assured; confidence interval bias must be eliminated; iterated fission probabilities are required, rather than single-generation probabilities; temperature effects including Doppler and feedback must be represented; isotopic depletion and fission product buildup must be modeled. This workshop focuses on recent advances in Monte Carlo methods and their application to reactor physics problems, and on the resulting challenges faced by code developers and users. The workshop is partly tutorial, partly a review of the current state-of-the-art, and partly a discussion of future work that is needed. It should benefit both novice and expert Monte Carlo developers and users. In each of the topic areas, we provide an overview of needs, perspective on past and current methods, a review of recent work, and discussion of further research and capabilities that are required. Electronic copies of all workshop presentations and material will be available. The workshop is structured as 2 morning and 2 afternoon segments: - Criticality Calculations I - convergence diagnostics, acceleration methods, confidence intervals, and the iterated fission probability, - Criticality Calculations II - reactor kinetics parameters, dominance ratio, temperature

  6. Monte Carlo Simulations of Neutron Oil well Logging Tools

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Azcurra, Mario

    2002-01-01

    Monte Carlo simulations of simple neutron oil well logging tools into typical geological formations are presented.The simulated tools consist of both 14 MeV pulsed and continuous Am-Be neutron sources with time gated and continuous gamma ray detectors respectively.The geological formation consists of pure limestone with 15% absolute porosity in a wide range of oil saturation.The particle transport was performed with the Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code System, MCNP-4B.Several gamma ray spectra were obtained at the detector position that allow to perform composition analysis of the formation.In particular, the ratio C/O was analyzed as an indicator of oil saturation.Further calculations are proposed to simulate actual detector responses in order to contribute to understand the relation between the detector response with the formation composition

  7. Monte Carlo simulations of neutron oil well logging tools

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Azcurra, Mario O.; Zamonsky, Oscar M.

    2003-01-01

    Monte Carlo simulations of simple neutron oil well logging tools into typical geological formations are presented. The simulated tools consist of both 14 MeV pulsed and continuous Am-Be neutron sources with time gated and continuous gamma ray detectors respectively. The geological formation consists of pure limestone with 15% absolute porosity in a wide range of oil saturation. The particle transport was performed with the Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code System, MCNP-4B. Several gamma ray spectra were obtained at the detector position that allow to perform composition analysis of the formation. In particular, the ratio C/O was analyzed as an indicator of oil saturation. Further calculations are proposed to simulate actual detector responses in order to contribute to understand the relation between the detector response with the formation composition. (author)

  8. Monte Carlo simulations of the Galileo energetic particle detector

    CERN Document Server

    Jun, I; Garrett, H B; McEntire, R W

    2002-01-01

    Monte Carlo radiation transport studies have been performed for the Galileo spacecraft energetic particle detector (EPD) in order to study its response to energetic electrons and protons. Three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiation transport codes, MCNP version 4B (for electrons) and MCNPX version 2.2.3 (for protons), were used throughout the study. The results are presented in the form of 'geometric factors' for the high-energy channels studied in this paper: B1, DC2, and DC3 for electrons and B0, DC0, and DC1 for protons. The geometric factor is the energy-dependent detector response function that relates the incident particle fluxes to instrument count rates. The trend of actual data measured by the EPD was successfully reproduced using the geometric factors obtained in this study.

  9. Monte Carlo simulations of the Galileo energetic particle detector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jun, I.; Ratliff, J.M.; Garrett, H.B.; McEntire, R.W.

    2002-01-01

    Monte Carlo radiation transport studies have been performed for the Galileo spacecraft energetic particle detector (EPD) in order to study its response to energetic electrons and protons. Three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiation transport codes, MCNP version 4B (for electrons) and MCNPX version 2.2.3 (for protons), were used throughout the study. The results are presented in the form of 'geometric factors' for the high-energy channels studied in this paper: B1, DC2, and DC3 for electrons and B0, DC0, and DC1 for protons. The geometric factor is the energy-dependent detector response function that relates the incident particle fluxes to instrument count rates. The trend of actual data measured by the EPD was successfully reproduced using the geometric factors obtained in this study

  10. Neutron cross section library production code system for continuous energy Monte Carlo code MVP. LICEM

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mori, Takamasa; Nakagawa, Masayuki; Kaneko, Kunio.

    1996-05-01

    A code system has been developed to produce neutron cross section libraries for the MVP continuous energy Monte Carlo code from an evaluated nuclear data library in the ENDF format. The code system consists of 9 computer codes, and can process nuclear data in the latest ENDF-6 format. By using the present system, MVP neutron cross section libraries for important nuclides in reactor core analyses, shielding and fusion neutronics calculations have been prepared from JENDL-3.1, JENDL-3.2, JENDL-FUSION file and ENDF/B-VI data bases. This report describes the format of MVP neutron cross section library, the details of each code in the code system and how to use them. (author)

  11. Neutron cross section library production code system for continuous energy Monte Carlo code MVP. LICEM

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mori, Takamasa; Nakagawa, Masayuki [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment; Kaneko, Kunio

    1996-05-01

    A code system has been developed to produce neutron cross section libraries for the MVP continuous energy Monte Carlo code from an evaluated nuclear data library in the ENDF format. The code system consists of 9 computer codes, and can process nuclear data in the latest ENDF-6 format. By using the present system, MVP neutron cross section libraries for important nuclides in reactor core analyses, shielding and fusion neutronics calculations have been prepared from JENDL-3.1, JENDL-3.2, JENDL-FUSION file and ENDF/B-VI data bases. This report describes the format of MVP neutron cross section library, the details of each code in the code system and how to use them. (author).

  12. A parallel Monte Carlo code for planar and SPECT imaging: implementation, verification and applications in (131)I SPECT.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dewaraja, Yuni K; Ljungberg, Michael; Majumdar, Amitava; Bose, Abhijit; Koral, Kenneth F

    2002-02-01

    This paper reports the implementation of the SIMIND Monte Carlo code on an IBM SP2 distributed memory parallel computer. Basic aspects of running Monte Carlo particle transport calculations on parallel architectures are described. Our parallelization is based on equally partitioning photons among the processors and uses the Message Passing Interface (MPI) library for interprocessor communication and the Scalable Parallel Random Number Generator (SPRNG) to generate uncorrelated random number streams. These parallelization techniques are also applicable to other distributed memory architectures. A linear increase in computing speed with the number of processors is demonstrated for up to 32 processors. This speed-up is especially significant in Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) simulations involving higher energy photon emitters, where explicit modeling of the phantom and collimator is required. For (131)I, the accuracy of the parallel code is demonstrated by comparing simulated and experimental SPECT images from a heart/thorax phantom. Clinically realistic SPECT simulations using the voxel-man phantom are carried out to assess scatter and attenuation correction.

  13. SU-E-T-180: Fano Cavity Test of Proton Transport in Monte Carlo Codes Running On GPU and Xeon Phi

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sterpin, E; Sorriaux, J; Souris, K; Lee, J; Vynckier, S; Schuemann, J; Paganetti, H; Jia, X; Jiang, S

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: In proton dose calculation, clinically compatible speeds are now achieved with Monte Carlo codes (MC) that combine 1) adequate simplifications in the physics of transport and 2) the use of hardware architectures enabling massive parallel computing (like GPUs). However, the uncertainties related to the transport algorithms used in these codes must be kept minimal. Such algorithms can be checked with the so-called “Fano cavity test”. We implemented the test in two codes that run on specific hardware: gPMC on an nVidia GPU and MCsquare on an Intel Xeon Phi (60 cores). Methods: gPMC and MCsquare are designed for transporting protons in CT geometries. Both codes use the method of fictitious interaction to sample the step-length for each transport step. The considered geometry is a water cavity (2×2×0.2 cm 3 , 0.001 g/cm 3 ) in a 10×10×50 cm 3 water phantom (1 g/cm 3 ). CPE in the cavity is established by generating protons over the phantom volume with a uniform momentum (energy E) and a uniform intensity per unit mass I. Assuming no nuclear reactions and no generation of other secondaries, the computed cavity dose should equal IE, according to Fano's theorem. Both codes were tested for initial proton energies of 50, 100, and 200 MeV. Results: For all energies, gPMC and MCsquare are within 0.3 and 0.2 % of the theoretical value IE, respectively (0.1% standard deviation). Single-precision computations (instead of double) increased the error by about 0.1% in MCsquare. Conclusion: Despite the simplifications in the physics of transport, both gPMC and MCsquare successfully pass the Fano test. This ensures optimal accuracy of the codes for clinical applications within the uncertainties on the underlying physical models. It also opens the path to other applications of these codes, like the simulation of ion chamber response

  14. SU-E-T-180: Fano Cavity Test of Proton Transport in Monte Carlo Codes Running On GPU and Xeon Phi

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sterpin, E; Sorriaux, J; Souris, K; Lee, J; Vynckier, S [Universite catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Brussels (Belgium); Schuemann, J; Paganetti, H [Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA (United States); Jia, X; Jiang, S [The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Ctr, Dallas, TX (United States)

    2014-06-01

    Purpose: In proton dose calculation, clinically compatible speeds are now achieved with Monte Carlo codes (MC) that combine 1) adequate simplifications in the physics of transport and 2) the use of hardware architectures enabling massive parallel computing (like GPUs). However, the uncertainties related to the transport algorithms used in these codes must be kept minimal. Such algorithms can be checked with the so-called “Fano cavity test”. We implemented the test in two codes that run on specific hardware: gPMC on an nVidia GPU and MCsquare on an Intel Xeon Phi (60 cores). Methods: gPMC and MCsquare are designed for transporting protons in CT geometries. Both codes use the method of fictitious interaction to sample the step-length for each transport step. The considered geometry is a water cavity (2×2×0.2 cm{sup 3}, 0.001 g/cm{sup 3}) in a 10×10×50 cm{sup 3} water phantom (1 g/cm{sup 3}). CPE in the cavity is established by generating protons over the phantom volume with a uniform momentum (energy E) and a uniform intensity per unit mass I. Assuming no nuclear reactions and no generation of other secondaries, the computed cavity dose should equal IE, according to Fano's theorem. Both codes were tested for initial proton energies of 50, 100, and 200 MeV. Results: For all energies, gPMC and MCsquare are within 0.3 and 0.2 % of the theoretical value IE, respectively (0.1% standard deviation). Single-precision computations (instead of double) increased the error by about 0.1% in MCsquare. Conclusion: Despite the simplifications in the physics of transport, both gPMC and MCsquare successfully pass the Fano test. This ensures optimal accuracy of the codes for clinical applications within the uncertainties on the underlying physical models. It also opens the path to other applications of these codes, like the simulation of ion chamber response.

  15. Monte Carlo simulations for plasma physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Okamoto, M.; Murakami, S.; Nakajima, N.; Wang, W.X.

    2000-07-01

    Plasma behaviours are very complicated and the analyses are generally difficult. However, when the collisional processes play an important role in the plasma behaviour, the Monte Carlo method is often employed as a useful tool. For examples, in neutral particle injection heating (NBI heating), electron or ion cyclotron heating, and alpha heating, Coulomb collisions slow down high energetic particles and pitch angle scatter them. These processes are often studied by the Monte Carlo technique and good agreements can be obtained with the experimental results. Recently, Monte Carlo Method has been developed to study fast particle transports associated with heating and generating the radial electric field. Further it is applied to investigating the neoclassical transport in the plasma with steep gradients of density and temperatures which is beyong the conventional neoclassical theory. In this report, we briefly summarize the researches done by the present authors utilizing the Monte Carlo method. (author)

  16. NASA space radiation transport code development consortium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Townsend, L. W.

    2005-01-01

    Recently, NASA established a consortium involving the Univ. of Tennessee (lead institution), the Univ. of Houston, Roanoke College and various government and national laboratories, to accelerate the development of a standard set of radiation transport computer codes for NASA human exploration applications. This effort involves further improvements of the Monte Carlo codes HETC and FLUKA and the deterministic code HZETRN, including developing nuclear reaction databases necessary to extend the Monte Carlo codes to carry out heavy ion transport, and extending HZETRN to three dimensions. The improved codes will be validated by comparing predictions with measured laboratory transport data, provided by an experimental measurements consortium, and measurements in the upper atmosphere on the balloon-borne Deep Space Test Bed (DSTB). In this paper, we present an overview of the consortium members and the current status and future plans of consortium efforts to meet the research goals and objectives of this extensive undertaking. (authors)

  17. Experimental validation of the DPM Monte Carlo code using minimally scattered electron beams in heterogeneous media

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chetty, Indrin J.; Moran, Jean M.; Nurushev, Teamor S.; McShan, Daniel L.; Fraass, Benedick A.; Wilderman, Scott J.; Bielajew, Alex F.

    2002-01-01

    A comprehensive set of measurements and calculations has been conducted to investigate the accuracy of the Dose Planning Method (DPM) Monte Carlo code for electron beam dose calculations in heterogeneous media. Measurements were made using 10 MeV and 50 MeV minimally scattered, uncollimated electron beams from a racetrack microtron. Source distributions for the Monte Carlo calculations were reconstructed from in-air ion chamber scans and then benchmarked against measurements in a homogeneous water phantom. The in-air spatial distributions were found to have FWHM of 4.7 cm and 1.3 cm, at 100 cm from the source, for the 10 MeV and 50 MeV beams respectively. Energy spectra for the electron beams were determined by simulating the components of the microtron treatment head using the code MCNP4B. Profile measurements were made using an ion chamber in a water phantom with slabs of lung or bone-equivalent materials submerged at various depths. DPM calculations are, on average, within 2% agreement with measurement for all geometries except for the 50 MeV incident on a 6 cm lung-equivalent slab. Measurements using approximately monoenergetic, 50 MeV, 'pencil-beam'-type electrons in heterogeneous media provide conditions for maximum electronic disequilibrium and hence present a stringent test of the code's electron transport physics; the agreement noted between calculation and measurement illustrates that the DPM code is capable of accurate dose calculation even under such conditions. (author)

  18. Probability-neighbor method of accelerating geometry treatment in reactor Monte Carlo code RMC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    She, Ding; Li, Zeguang; Xu, Qi; Wang, Kan; Yu, Ganglin

    2011-01-01

    Probability neighbor method (PNM) is proposed in this paper to accelerate geometry treatment of Monte Carlo (MC) simulation and validated in self-developed reactor Monte Carlo code RMC. During MC simulation by either ray-tracking or delta-tracking method, large amounts of time are spent in finding out which cell one particle is located in. The traditional way is to search cells one by one with certain sequence defined previously. However, this procedure becomes very time-consuming when the system contains a large number of cells. Considering that particles have different probability to enter different cells, PNM method optimizes the searching sequence, i.e., the cells with larger probability are searched preferentially. The PNM method is implemented in RMC code and the numerical results show that the considerable time of geometry treatment in MC calculation for complicated systems is saved, especially effective in delta-tracking simulation. (author)

  19. A Monte Carlo neutron transport code for eigenvalue calculations on a dual-GPU system and CUDA environment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, T.; Ding, A.; Ji, W.; Xu, X. G. [Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY 12180 (United States); Carothers, C. D. [Dept. of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. RPI (United States); Brown, F. B. [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) (United States)

    2012-07-01

    Monte Carlo (MC) method is able to accurately calculate eigenvalues in reactor analysis. Its lengthy computation time can be reduced by general-purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units (GPU), one of the latest parallel computing techniques under development. The method of porting a regular transport code to GPU is usually very straightforward due to the 'embarrassingly parallel' nature of MC code. However, the situation becomes different for eigenvalue calculation in that it will be performed on a generation-by-generation basis and the thread coordination should be explicitly taken care of. This paper presents our effort to develop such a GPU-based MC code in Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) environment. The code is able to perform eigenvalue calculation under simple geometries on a multi-GPU system. The specifics of algorithm design, including thread organization and memory management were described in detail. The original CPU version of the code was tested on an Intel Xeon X5660 2.8 GHz CPU, and the adapted GPU version was tested on NVIDIA Tesla M2090 GPUs. Double-precision floating point format was used throughout the calculation. The result showed that a speedup of 7.0 and 33.3 were obtained for a bare spherical core and a binary slab system respectively. The speedup factor was further increased by a factor of {approx}2 on a dual GPU system. The upper limit of device-level parallelism was analyzed, and a possible method to enhance the thread-level parallelism was proposed. (authors)

  20. A Monte Carlo neutron transport code for eigenvalue calculations on a dual-GPU system and CUDA environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, T.; Ding, A.; Ji, W.; Xu, X. G.; Carothers, C. D.; Brown, F. B.

    2012-01-01

    Monte Carlo (MC) method is able to accurately calculate eigenvalues in reactor analysis. Its lengthy computation time can be reduced by general-purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units (GPU), one of the latest parallel computing techniques under development. The method of porting a regular transport code to GPU is usually very straightforward due to the 'embarrassingly parallel' nature of MC code. However, the situation becomes different for eigenvalue calculation in that it will be performed on a generation-by-generation basis and the thread coordination should be explicitly taken care of. This paper presents our effort to develop such a GPU-based MC code in Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) environment. The code is able to perform eigenvalue calculation under simple geometries on a multi-GPU system. The specifics of algorithm design, including thread organization and memory management were described in detail. The original CPU version of the code was tested on an Intel Xeon X5660 2.8 GHz CPU, and the adapted GPU version was tested on NVIDIA Tesla M2090 GPUs. Double-precision floating point format was used throughout the calculation. The result showed that a speedup of 7.0 and 33.3 were obtained for a bare spherical core and a binary slab system respectively. The speedup factor was further increased by a factor of ∼2 on a dual GPU system. The upper limit of device-level parallelism was analyzed, and a possible method to enhance the thread-level parallelism was proposed. (authors)

  1. Monte Carlo simulation of the electron transport through thin slabs: A comparative study of PENELOPE, GEANT3, GEANT4, EGSnrc and MCNPX

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vilches, M. [Servicio de Fisica y Proteccion Radiologica, Hospital Regional Universitario ' Virgen de las Nieves' , Avda. de las Fuerzas Armadas, 2, E-18014 Granada (Spain)]. E-mail: mvilches@ugr.es; Garcia-Pareja, S. [Servicio de Radiofisica Hospitalaria, Hospital Regional Universitario ' Carlos Haya' , Avda. Carlos Haya, s/n, E-29010 Malaga (Spain)]. E-mail: garciapareja@gmail.com; Guerrero, R. [Servicio de Radiofisica, Hospital Universitario ' San Cecilio' , Avda. Dr. Oloriz, 16, E-18012 Granada (Spain)]. E-mail: rafael.guerrero.alcalde.sspa@juntadeandalucia.es; Anguiano, M. [Departamento de Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad de Granada, E-18071 Granada (Spain)]. E-mail: mangui@ugr.es; Lallena, A.M. [Departamento de Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad de Granada, E-18071 Granada (Spain)]. E-mail: lallena@ugr.es

    2007-01-15

    The Monte Carlo simulation of the electron transport through thin slabs is studied with five general purpose codes: PENELOPE, GEANT3, GEANT4, EGSnrc and MCNPX. The different material foils analyzed in the old experiments of Kulchitsky and Latyshev [L.A. Kulchitsky, G.D. Latyshev, Phys. Rev. 61 (1942) 254] and Hanson et al. [A.O. Hanson, L.H. Lanzl, E.M. Lyman, M.B. Scott, Phys. Rev. 84 (1951) 634] are used to perform the comparison between the Monte Carlo codes. Non-negligible differences are observed in the angular distributions of the transmitted electrons obtained with the some of the codes. The experimental data are reasonably well described by EGSnrc, PENELOPE (v.2005) and GEANT4. A general good agreement is found for EGSnrc and PENELOPE (v.2005) in all the cases analyzed.

  2. Monte Carlo simulation of the electron transport through thin slabs: A comparative study of PENELOPE, GEANT3, GEANT4, EGSnrc and MCNPX

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vilches, M.; Garcia-Pareja, S.; Guerrero, R.; Anguiano, M.; Lallena, A.M.

    2007-01-01

    The Monte Carlo simulation of the electron transport through thin slabs is studied with five general purpose codes: PENELOPE, GEANT3, GEANT4, EGSnrc and MCNPX. The different material foils analyzed in the old experiments of Kulchitsky and Latyshev [L.A. Kulchitsky, G.D. Latyshev, Phys. Rev. 61 (1942) 254] and Hanson et al. [A.O. Hanson, L.H. Lanzl, E.M. Lyman, M.B. Scott, Phys. Rev. 84 (1951) 634] are used to perform the comparison between the Monte Carlo codes. Non-negligible differences are observed in the angular distributions of the transmitted electrons obtained with the some of the codes. The experimental data are reasonably well described by EGSnrc, PENELOPE (v.2005) and GEANT4. A general good agreement is found for EGSnrc and PENELOPE (v.2005) in all the cases analyzed

  3. Continuous energy Monte Carlo method based lattice homogeinzation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Mancang; Yao Dong; Wang Kan

    2014-01-01

    Based on the Monte Carlo code MCNP, the continuous energy Monte Carlo multi-group constants generation code MCMC has been developed. The track length scheme has been used as the foundation of cross section generation. The scattering matrix and Legendre components require special techniques, and the scattering event method has been proposed to solve this problem. Three methods have been developed to calculate the diffusion coefficients for diffusion reactor core codes and the Legendre method has been applied in MCMC. To the satisfaction of the equivalence theory, the general equivalence theory (GET) and the superhomogenization method (SPH) have been applied to the Monte Carlo method based group constants. The super equivalence method (SPE) has been proposed to improve the equivalence. GET, SPH and SPE have been implemented into MCMC. The numerical results showed that generating the homogenization multi-group constants via Monte Carlo method overcomes the difficulties in geometry and treats energy in continuum, thus provides more accuracy parameters. Besides, the same code and data library can be used for a wide range of applications due to the versatility. The MCMC scheme can be seen as a potential alternative to the widely used deterministic lattice codes. (authors)

  4. OpenMC: a state-of-the-Art Monte Carlo code for research and development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Romano, P.K.; Horelik, N.E.; Herman, B.R.; Forget, B.; Smith, K.; Nelson, A.G.

    2013-01-01

    This paper gives an overview of OpenMC, an open source Monte Carlo particle transport code recently developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. OpenMC uses continuous-energy cross sections and a constructive solid geometry representation, enabling high-fidelity modeling of nuclear reactors and other systems. Modern, portable input/output file formats are used in OpenMC: XML for input, and HDF5 for output. High performance parallel algorithms in OpenMC have demonstrated near-linear scaling to over 100,000 processors on modern supercomputers. Other topics discussed in this paper include plotting, CMFD acceleration, variance reduction, eigenvalue calculations, and software development processes. (authors)

  5. Effect of the multiple scattering of electrons in Monte Carlo simulation of LINACS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vilches, Manuel; Garcia-Pareja, Salvador; Guerrero, Rafael; Anguiano, Marta; Lallena, Antonio M.

    2008-01-01

    Results obtained from Monte Carlo simulations of the transport of electrons in thin slabs of dense material media and air slabs with different widths are analyzed. Various general purpose Monte Carlo codes have been used: PENELOPE, GEANT3, GEANT4, EGSnrc, MCNPX. Non-negligible differences between the angular and radial distributions after the slabs have been found. The effects of these differences on the depth doses measured in water are also discussed

  6. Deficiency in Monte Carlo simulations of coupled neutron-gamma-ray fields

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maleka, Peane P.; Maucec, Marko; de Meijer, Robert J.

    2011-01-01

    The deficiency in Monte Carlo simulations of coupled neutron-gamma-ray field was investigated by benchmarking two simulation codes with experimental data. Simulations showed better correspondence with the experimental data for gamma-ray transport only. In simulations, the neutron interactions with

  7. Gamma streaming experiments for validation of Monte Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thilagam, L.; Mohapatra, D.K.; Subbaiah, K.V.; Iliyas Lone, M.; Balasubramaniyan, V.

    2012-01-01

    In-homogeneities in shield structures lead to considerable amount of leakage radiation (streaming) increasing the radiation levels in accessible areas. Development works on experimental as well as computational methods for quantifying this streaming radiation are still continuing. Monte Carlo based radiation transport code, MCNP is usually a tool for modeling and analyzing such problems involving complex geometries. In order to validate this computational method for streaming analysis, it is necessary to carry out some experimental measurements simulating these inhomogeneities like ducts and voids present in the bulk shields for typical cases. The data thus generated will be analysed by simulating the experimental set up employing MCNP code and optimized input parameters for the code in finding solutions for similar radiation streaming problems will be formulated. Comparison of experimental data obtained from radiation streaming experiments through ducts will give a set of thumb rules and analytical fits for total radiation dose rates within and outside the duct. The present study highlights the validation of MCNP code through the gamma streaming experiments carried out with the ducts of various shapes and dimensions. Over all, the present study throws light on suitability of MCNP code for the analysis of gamma radiation streaming problems for all duct configurations considered. In the present study, only dose rate comparisons have been made. Studies on spectral comparison of streaming radiation are in process. Also, it is planned to repeat the experiments with various shield materials. Since the penetrations and ducts through bulk shields are unavoidable in an operating nuclear facility the results on this kind of radiation streaming simulations and experiments will be very useful in the shield structure optimization without compromising the radiation safety

  8. Application of the Monte Carlo technique to the study of radiation transport in a prompt gamma in vivo neutron activation system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chan, A.A.; Beddoe, A.H.

    1985-01-01

    A Monte Carlo code (MORSE-SGC) from the Radiation Shielding Information Centre at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, has been adapted and used to model radiation transport in the Auckland prompt gamma in vivo neutron activation analysis facility. Preliminary results are presented for the slow neutron flux in an anthropomorphic phantom which are in broad agreement with those obtained by measurement via activation foils. Since experimental optimization is not logistically feasible and since theoretical optimization of neutron activation facilities has not previously been attempted, it is hoped that the Monte Carlo calculations can be used to provide a basis for improved system design

  9. Monte Carlo validation of self shielding and void effect calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tellier, H.; Coste, M.; Raepsaet, C.; Soldevila, M.; Van der Gucht, C.

    1995-01-01

    The self shielding validation and the void effect are studied with Monte Carlo method. The satisfactory comparison obtained between the APOLLO 2 results of the self shielding effect and the TRIPOLI and MCNP results allows us to be confident in the multigroup transport code. (K.A.)

  10. Monte Carlo simulations of a D-T neutron generator shielding for landmine detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reda, A.M.

    2011-01-01

    Shielding for a D-T sealed neutron generator has been designed using the MCNP5 Monte Carlo radiation transport code. The neutron generator will be used in field for the detection of explosives, landmines, drugs and other 'threat' materials. The optimization of the detection of buried objects was started by studying the signal-to-noise ratio for different geometric conditions. - Highlights: → A landmine detection system based on neutron fast/slow analysis has been designed. → Shielding for a D-T sealed neutron generator tube has been designed using Monte Carlo radiation transport code. → Detection of buried objects was started by studying the signal-to-noise ratio for different geometric conditions. → The signal-to-background ratio optimized at one position for all depths.

  11. Advanced Computational Methods for Monte Carlo Calculations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brown, Forrest B. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2018-01-12

    This course is intended for graduate students who already have a basic understanding of Monte Carlo methods. It focuses on advanced topics that may be needed for thesis research, for developing new state-of-the-art methods, or for working with modern production Monte Carlo codes.

  12. SU-E-T-254: Optimization of GATE and PHITS Monte Carlo Code Parameters for Uniform Scanning Proton Beam Based On Simulation with FLUKA General-Purpose Code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurosu, K [Department of Radiation Oncology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka (Japan); Department of Medical Physics ' Engineering, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka (Japan); Takashina, M; Koizumi, M [Department of Medical Physics ' Engineering, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka (Japan); Das, I; Moskvin, V [Department of Radiation Oncology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN (United States)

    2014-06-01

    Purpose: Monte Carlo codes are becoming important tools for proton beam dosimetry. However, the relationships between the customizing parameters and percentage depth dose (PDD) of GATE and PHITS codes have not been reported which are studied for PDD and proton range compared to the FLUKA code and the experimental data. Methods: The beam delivery system of the Indiana University Health Proton Therapy Center was modeled for the uniform scanning beam in FLUKA and transferred identically into GATE and PHITS. This computational model was built from the blue print and validated with the commissioning data. Three parameters evaluated are the maximum step size, cut off energy and physical and transport model. The dependence of the PDDs on the customizing parameters was compared with the published results of previous studies. Results: The optimal parameters for the simulation of the whole beam delivery system were defined by referring to the calculation results obtained with each parameter. Although the PDDs from FLUKA and the experimental data show a good agreement, those of GATE and PHITS obtained with our optimal parameters show a minor discrepancy. The measured proton range R90 was 269.37 mm, compared to the calculated range of 269.63 mm, 268.96 mm, and 270.85 mm with FLUKA, GATE and PHITS, respectively. Conclusion: We evaluated the dependence of the results for PDDs obtained with GATE and PHITS Monte Carlo generalpurpose codes on the customizing parameters by using the whole computational model of the treatment nozzle. The optimal parameters for the simulation were then defined by referring to the calculation results. The physical model, particle transport mechanics and the different geometrybased descriptions need accurate customization in three simulation codes to agree with experimental data for artifact-free Monte Carlo simulation. This study was supported by Grants-in Aid for Cancer Research (H22-3rd Term Cancer Control-General-043) from the Ministry of Health

  13. Condensed history Monte Carlo methods for photon transport problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bhan, Katherine; Spanier, Jerome

    2007-01-01

    We study methods for accelerating Monte Carlo simulations that retain most of the accuracy of conventional Monte Carlo algorithms. These methods - called Condensed History (CH) methods - have been very successfully used to model the transport of ionizing radiation in turbid systems. Our primary objective is to determine whether or not such methods might apply equally well to the transport of photons in biological tissue. In an attempt to unify the derivations, we invoke results obtained first by Lewis, Goudsmit and Saunderson and later improved by Larsen and Tolar. We outline how two of the most promising of the CH models - one based on satisfying certain similarity relations and the second making use of a scattering phase function that permits only discrete directional changes - can be developed using these approaches. The main idea is to exploit the connection between the space-angle moments of the radiance and the angular moments of the scattering phase function. We compare the results obtained when the two CH models studied are used to simulate an idealized tissue transport problem. The numerical results support our findings based on the theoretical derivations and suggest that CH models should play a useful role in modeling light-tissue interactions

  14. Spot: a new Monte Carlo solver for fast alpha particles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schneider, M.; Eriksson, L.G.; Basiuk, V.; Imbeaux, F.

    2004-01-01

    The predictive transport code CRONOS has been augmented by an orbit following Monte Carlo code, SPOT (Simulation of Particle Orbits in a Tokamak). The SPOT code simulates the dynamics of nonthermal particles, and takes into account effects of finite orbit width and collisional transport of fast ions. Recent developments indicate that it might be difficult to avoid, at least transiently, current holes in a reactor. They occur already on existing tokamaks during advanced tokamak scenarios. The SPOT code has been used to study the alpha particle behaviour in the presence of current holes for both JET and ITER relevant parameters. (authors)

  15. Monte Carlo simulation for the transport beamline

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Romano, F.; Cuttone, G.; Jia, S. B.; Varisano, A. [INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via Santa Sofia 62, Catania (Italy); Attili, A.; Marchetto, F.; Russo, G. [INFN, Sezione di Torino, Via P.Giuria, 1 10125 Torino (Italy); Cirrone, G. A. P.; Schillaci, F.; Scuderi, V. [INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via Santa Sofia 62, Catania, Italy and Institute of Physics Czech Academy of Science, ELI-Beamlines project, Na Slovance 2, Prague (Czech Republic); Carpinelli, M. [INFN Sezione di Cagliari, c/o Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Cagliari, Cagliari (Italy); Tramontana, A. [INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Via Santa Sofia 62, Catania, Italy and Università di Catania, Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Via S. Sofia 64, Catania (Italy)

    2013-07-26

    In the framework of the ELIMED project, Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are widely used to study the physical transport of charged particles generated by laser-target interactions and to preliminarily evaluate fluence and dose distributions. An energy selection system and the experimental setup for the TARANIS laser facility in Belfast (UK) have been already simulated with the GEANT4 (GEometry ANd Tracking) MC toolkit. Preliminary results are reported here. Future developments are planned to implement a MC based 3D treatment planning in order to optimize shots number and dose delivery.

  16. Monte Carlo simulation for the transport beamline

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Romano, F.; Cuttone, G.; Jia, S. B.; Varisano, A.; Attili, A.; Marchetto, F.; Russo, G.; Cirrone, G. A. P.; Schillaci, F.; Scuderi, V.; Carpinelli, M.; Tramontana, A.

    2013-01-01

    In the framework of the ELIMED project, Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are widely used to study the physical transport of charged particles generated by laser-target interactions and to preliminarily evaluate fluence and dose distributions. An energy selection system and the experimental setup for the TARANIS laser facility in Belfast (UK) have been already simulated with the GEANT4 (GEometry ANd Tracking) MC toolkit. Preliminary results are reported here. Future developments are planned to implement a MC based 3D treatment planning in order to optimize shots number and dose delivery

  17. Burnup calculation methodology in the serpent 2 Monte Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leppaenen, J.; Isotalo, A.

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents two topics related to the burnup calculation capabilities in the Serpent 2 Monte Carlo code: advanced time-integration methods and improved memory management, accomplished by the use of different optimization modes. The development of the introduced methods is an important part of re-writing the Serpent source code, carried out for the purpose of extending the burnup calculation capabilities from 2D assembly-level calculations to large 3D reactor-scale problems. The progress is demonstrated by repeating a PWR test case, originally carried out in 2009 for the validation of the newly-implemented burnup calculation routines in Serpent 1. (authors)

  18. A Multivariate Time Series Method for Monte Carlo Reactor Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taro Ueki

    2008-01-01

    A robust multivariate time series method has been established for the Monte Carlo calculation of neutron multiplication problems. The method is termed Coarse Mesh Projection Method (CMPM) and can be implemented using the coarse statistical bins for acquisition of nuclear fission source data. A novel aspect of CMPM is the combination of the general technical principle of projection pursuit in the signal processing discipline and the neutron multiplication eigenvalue problem in the nuclear engineering discipline. CMPM enables reactor physicists to accurately evaluate major eigenvalue separations of nuclear reactors with continuous energy Monte Carlo calculation. CMPM was incorporated in the MCNP Monte Carlo particle transport code of Los Alamos National Laboratory. The great advantage of CMPM over the traditional Fission Matrix method is demonstrated for the three space-dimensional modeling of the initial core of a pressurized water reactor

  19. New developments on Monte Carlo simulation code for the calculation of Atom Displacements Induced rates by High Energy Electrons in Solid Materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Damiani, Daniela D.; Cruz, Carlos M.; Pinnera, Ibrahin; Abreu, Yamiel; Leyva, Antonio

    2015-01-01

    New developments and simulations on regard to the interactions of incident gamma radiation over solids materials using the MCSAD (Monte Carlo Simulation of Atom Displacement) code are presented. In this code Monte Carlo algorithms are applied in order to sample all electrons and gamma interaction processes occurring during their transport through a solid target, especially those connected to the output of atom displacements events. Particularly, it is calculated the limit angle to elastic scattering for the electrons on a new approach, which allows correctly the splitting of the electron single processes at higher scattering angles. On this way, the probability of single electron scattering processes transferring high recoil atomic energy leading to atom displacement effects is calculated and consequently sampled in the MCSAD code. In addition, it is considered some other new theoretical aspects in order to improve previous versions, like the one concerning the selection of threshold energy for displacements at a given atom site in dependence of the atom recoil direction. (Author)

  20. Monte Carlo simulation of radioactive contaminant transport in unsaturated porous media

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Giacobbo, F.; Patelli, E.; Zio, E.

    2005-01-01

    In the current proposed solutions of radioactive waste repositories, the protective function against the radionuclide water-driven transport back to the biosphere is to be provided by an integrated system of artificial and natural geologic barriers. The complexity of the transport process in the barriers' heterogeneous media forces approximations to the classical analytical-numerical models, thus reducing their adherence to reality. In an attempt to overcome these difficulties, in the present paper we adopt a Monte Carlo simulation approach, previously developed on the basis of the Kolmogorov and Dmitriev theory of branching stochastic processes. The approach is here extended for describing transport through unsaturated porous media under unsteady flow conditions. This generalization entails the determination of the functional dependence of the parameters of the proposed transport model from the water content, which changes in space and time during the water infiltration process. The approach is verified with respect to a case of non-reactive transport under transient unsaturated field conditions by a comparison with a standard code based on the classical advection-dispersion equations. An application regarding linear reactive transport is then presented. (authors)

  1. Monte Carlo simulations of plutonium gamma-ray spectra

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koenig, Z.M.; Carlson, J.B.; Wang, Tzu-Fang; Ruhter, W.D.

    1993-01-01

    Monte Carlo calculations were investigated as a means of simulating the gamma-ray spectra of Pu. These simulated spectra will be used to develop and evaluate gamma-ray analysis techniques for various nondestructive measurements. Simulated spectra of calculational standards can be used for code intercomparisons, to understand systematic biases and to estimate minimum detection levels of existing and proposed nondestructive analysis instruments. The capability to simulate gamma-ray spectra from HPGe detectors could significantly reduce the costs of preparing large numbers of real reference materials. MCNP was used for the Monte Carlo transport of the photons. Results from the MCNP calculations were folded in with a detector response function for a realistic spectrum. Plutonium spectrum peaks were produced with Lorentzian shapes, for the x-rays, and Gaussian distributions. The MGA code determined the Pu isotopes and specific power of this calculated spectrum and compared it to a similar analysis on a measured spectrum

  2. Temperature variance study in Monte-Carlo photon transport theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Giorla, J.

    1985-10-01

    We study different Monte-Carlo methods for solving radiative transfer problems, and particularly Fleck's Monte-Carlo method. We first give the different time-discretization schemes and the corresponding stability criteria. Then we write the temperature variance as a function of the variances of temperature and absorbed energy at the previous time step. Finally we obtain some stability criteria for the Monte-Carlo method in the stationary case [fr

  3. Evaluation of CASMO-3 and HELIOS for Fuel Assembly Analysis from Monte Carlo Code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shim, Hyung Jin; Song, Jae Seung; Lee, Chung Chan

    2007-05-15

    This report presents a study comparing deterministic lattice physics calculations with Monte Carlo calculations for LWR fuel pin and assembly problems. The study has focused on comparing results from the lattice physics code CASMO-3 and HELIOS against those from the continuous-energy Monte Carlo code McCARD. The comparisons include k{sub inf}, isotopic number densities, and pin power distributions. The CASMO-3 and HELIOS calculations for the k{sub inf}'s of the LWR fuel pin problems show good agreement with McCARD within 956pcm and 658pcm, respectively. For the assembly problems with Gadolinia burnable poison rods, the largest difference between the k{sub inf}'s is 1463pcm with CASMO-3 and 1141pcm with HELIOS. RMS errors for the pin power distributions of CASMO-3 and HELIOS are within 1.3% and 1.5%, respectively.

  4. A quick and easy improvement of Monte Carlo codes for simulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lebrere, A.; Talhi, R.; Tripathy, M.; Pyée, M.

    The simulation of trials of independent random variables of given distribution is a critical element of running Monte-Carlo codes. This is usually performed by using pseudo-random number generators (and in most cases linearcongruential ones). We present here an alternative way to generate sequences with given statistical properties. This sequences are purely deterministic and are given by closed formulae, and can give in some cases better results than classical generators.

  5. EGS code system: computer programs for the Monte Carlo simulation of electromagnetic cascade showers. Version 3. [EGS, PEGS, TESTSR, in MORTRAN

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ford, R.L.; Nelson, W.R.

    1978-06-01

    A code to simulate almost any electron--photon transport problem conceivable is described. The report begins with a lengthy historical introduction and a description of the shower generation process. Then the detailed physics of the shower processes and the methods used to simulate them are presented. Ideas of sampling theory, transport techniques, particle interactions in general, and programing details are discussed. Next, EGS calculations and various experiments and other Monte Carlo results are compared. The remainder of the report consists of user manuals for EGS, PEGS, and TESTSR codes; options, input specifications, and typical output are included. 38 figures, 12 tables. (RWR)

  6. The three-dimensional Monte-Carlo code TRIPOLI-02

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baur, A.; Bourdet, L.; Dejonghe, G.; Gonnord, J.; Monnier, A.; Nimal, J.C.; Vergnaud, T.

    1980-04-01

    TRIPOLI-2 solves the transport equation for neutrons or gamma rays in tridimensional geometrical configurations. TRIPOLI uses the Monte Carlo method. This method allows to treat exactly the geometrical configurations, the energy losses and the scattering laws. TRIPOLI 2 allows to treat the following problems: gamma transport problems, neutrons transport problems with fixed source (the problems can be time dependent or not), critical problems without fixed source and research of multiplication factor due to fissions, subcritical problems with fixed source and with multiplication by fission. These problems can be separate in two types. First type: shielding problems essentially with deep penetration and streaming through voids. Biasing technics are used to reduce the computing time. Second type: core problems for cell calculations or for small core calculations. In this case, it is necessary to have a fine representation of the cross sections. The thermalization is also treated exactly [fr

  7. Monte-Carlo code PARJET to simulate e+e--annihilation events via QCD jets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ritter, S.

    1983-01-01

    The Monte-Carlo code PARJET simulates exclusive hadronic final states produced in e + e - -annihilation via a virtual photon by two steps: (i) the fragmentation of the original quark-antiquark pair into further partons using results of perturbative QCD in the leading logarithmic approximation (LLA), and (ii) the transition of these parton jets into hadrons on the basis of a chain decay model. Program summary and code description are given. (author)

  8. Computed radiography simulation using the Monte Carlo code MCNPX

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Correa, S.C.A.; Souza, E.M.; Silva, A.X.; Lopes, R.T.

    2009-01-01

    Simulating x-ray images has been of great interest in recent years as it makes possible an analysis of how x-ray images are affected owing to relevant operating parameters. In this paper, a procedure for simulating computed radiographic images using the Monte Carlo code MCNPX is proposed. The sensitivity curve of the BaFBr image plate detector as well as the characteristic noise of a 16-bit computed radiography system were considered during the methodology's development. The results obtained confirm that the proposed procedure for simulating computed radiographic images is satisfactory, as it allows obtaining results comparable with experimental data. (author)

  9. Computed radiography simulation using the Monte Carlo code MCNPX

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Correa, S.C.A. [Programa de Engenharia Nuclear/COPPE, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Fundao, Caixa Postal 68509, 21945-970, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Centro Universitario Estadual da Zona Oeste (CCMAT)/UEZO, Av. Manuel Caldeira de Alvarenga, 1203, Campo Grande, 23070-200, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Souza, E.M. [Programa de Engenharia Nuclear/COPPE, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Fundao, Caixa Postal 68509, 21945-970, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Silva, A.X., E-mail: ademir@con.ufrj.b [PEN/COPPE-DNC/Poli CT, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Fundao, Caixa Postal 68509, 21945-970, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Cassiano, D.H. [Instituto de Radioprotecao e Dosimetria/CNEN Av. Salvador Allende, s/n, Recreio, 22780-160, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Lopes, R.T. [Programa de Engenharia Nuclear/COPPE, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Fundao, Caixa Postal 68509, 21945-970, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

    2010-09-15

    Simulating X-ray images has been of great interest in recent years as it makes possible an analysis of how X-ray images are affected owing to relevant operating parameters. In this paper, a procedure for simulating computed radiographic images using the Monte Carlo code MCNPX is proposed. The sensitivity curve of the BaFBr image plate detector as well as the characteristic noise of a 16-bit computed radiography system were considered during the methodology's development. The results obtained confirm that the proposed procedure for simulating computed radiographic images is satisfactory, as it allows obtaining results comparable with experimental data.

  10. Solution weighting for the SAND-II Monte Carlo code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oster, C.A.; McElroy, W.N.; Simons, R.L.; Lippincott, E.P.; Odette, G.R.

    1976-01-01

    Modifications to the SAND-II Error Analysis Monte Carlo code to include solution weighting based on input data uncertainties have been made and are discussed together with background information on the SAND-II algorithm. The new procedure permits input data having smaller uncertainties to have a greater influence on the solution spectrum than do the data having larger uncertainties. The results of an indepth study to find a practical procedure and the first results of its application to three important Interlaboratory LMFBR Reaction Rate (ILRR) program benchmark spectra (CFRMF, ΣΣ, and 235 U fission) are discussed

  11. EGS4, Electron Photon Shower Simulation by Monte-Carlo

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1998-01-01

    1 - Description of program or function: The EGS code system is one of a chain of three codes designed to solve the electromagnetic shower problem by Monte Carlo simulation. This chain makes possible simulation of almost any electron-photon transport problem conceivable. The structure of the system, with its global features, modular form, and structured programming, is readily adaptable to virtually any interfacing scheme that is desired on the part of the user. EGS4 is a package of subroutines plus block data with a flexible user interface. This allows for greater flexibility without requiring the user to be overly familiar with the internal details of the code. Combining this with the macro facility capabilities of the Mortran3 language, this reduces the likelihood that user edits will introduce bugs into the code. EGS4 uses material cross section and branching ratio data created and fit by the companion code, PEGS4. EGS4 allows for the implementation of importance sampling and other variance reduction techniques such as leading particle biasing, splitting, path length biasing, Russian roulette, etc. 2 - Method of solution: EGS employs the Monte Carlo method of solution. It allows all of the fundamental processes to be included and arbitrary geometries can be treated, also. Other minor processes, such as photoneutron production, can be added as a further generalization. Since showers develop randomly according to the quantum laws of probability, each shower is different. We again are led to the Monte Carlo method. 3 - Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: None noted

  12. Hybrid SN/Monte Carlo research and results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baker, R.S.

    1993-01-01

    The neutral particle transport equation is solved by a hybrid method that iteratively couples regions where deterministic (S N ) and stochastic (Monte Carlo) methods are applied. The Monte Carlo and S N regions are fully coupled in the sense that no assumption is made about geometrical separation or decoupling. The hybrid Monte Carlo/S N method provides a new means of solving problems involving both optically thick and optically thin regions that neither Monte Carlo nor S N is well suited for by themselves. The hybrid method has been successfully applied to realistic shielding problems. The vectorized Monte Carlo algorithm in the hybrid method has been ported to the massively parallel architecture of the Connection Machine. Comparisons of performance on a vector machine (Cray Y-MP) and the Connection Machine (CM-2) show that significant speedups are obtainable for vectorized Monte Carlo algorithms on massively parallel machines, even when realistic problems requiring variance reduction are considered. However, the architecture of the Connection Machine does place some limitations on the regime in which the Monte Carlo algorithm may be expected to perform well

  13. A perturbation-based susbtep method for coupled depletion Monte-Carlo codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kotlyar, Dan; Aufiero, Manuele; Shwageraus, Eugene; Fratoni, Massimiliano

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • The GPT method allows to calculate the sensitivity coefficients to any perturbation. • Full Jacobian of sensitivities, cross sections (XS) to concentrations, may be obtained. • The time dependent XS is obtained by combining the GPT and substep methods. • The proposed GPT substep method considerably reduces the time discretization error. • No additional MC transport solutions are required within the time step. - Abstract: Coupled Monte Carlo (MC) methods are becoming widely used in reactor physics analysis and design. Many research groups therefore, developed their own coupled MC depletion codes. Typically, in such coupled code systems, neutron fluxes and cross sections are provided to the depletion module by solving a static neutron transport problem. These fluxes and cross sections are representative only of a specific time-point. In reality however, both quantities would change through the depletion time interval. Recently, Generalized Perturbation Theory (GPT) equivalent method that relies on collision history approach was implemented in Serpent MC code. This method was used here to calculate the sensitivity of each nuclide and reaction cross section due to the change in concentration of every isotope in the system. The coupling method proposed in this study also uses the substep approach, which incorporates these sensitivity coefficients to account for temporal changes in cross sections. As a result, a notable improvement in time dependent cross section behavior was obtained. The method was implemented in a wrapper script that couples Serpent with an external depletion solver. The performance of this method was compared with other existing methods. The results indicate that the proposed method requires substantially less MC transport solutions to achieve the same accuracy.

  14. Modification to the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) Visual Editor (MCNPVised) to Read in Computer Aided Design (CAD) Files

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Randolph Schwarz; Leland L. Carter; Alysia Schwarz

    2005-01-01

    Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code (MCNP) is the code of choice for doing complex neutron/photon/electron transport calculations for the nuclear industry and research institutions. The Visual Editor for Monte Carlo N-Particle is internationally recognized as the best code for visually creating and graphically displaying input files for MCNP. The work performed in this grant was used to enhance the capabilities of the MCNP Visual Editor to allow it to read in both 2D and 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) files, allowing the user to electronically generate a valid MCNP input geometry

  15. The impact of Monte Carlo simulation: a scientometric analysis of scholarly literature

    CERN Document Server

    Pia, Maria Grazia; Bell, Zane W; Dressendorfer, Paul V

    2010-01-01

    A scientometric analysis of Monte Carlo simulation and Monte Carlo codes has been performed over a set of representative scholarly journals related to radiation physics. The results of this study are reported and discussed. They document and quantitatively appraise the role of Monte Carlo methods and codes in scientific research and engineering applications.

  16. THEMIS-4: a coherent punctual and multigroup cross section library for Monte Carlo and SN codes from ENDF/B4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dejonghe, G.; Gonnord, J.; Monnier, A.; Nimal, J.C.

    1983-05-01

    The THEMIS cross section processing system has been developped to produce punctual data for MONTE CARLO and coherent multigroup data for SN codes from ENDF/B. The THEMIS-4 data base has been generated from ENDF/B4 using the system and can be accessed by the 3-D Monte Carlo system TRIPOLI-2 and by the SN codes ANISN and DOT. An interpretation of ORNL fusion shielding benchmark is presented

  17. ICF target 2D modeling using Monte Carlo SNB electron thermal transport in DRACO

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chenhall, Jeffrey; Cao, Duc; Moses, Gregory

    2016-10-01

    The iSNB (implicit Schurtz Nicolai Busquet multigroup diffusion electron thermal transport method is adapted into a Monte Carlo (MC) transport method to better model angular and long mean free path non-local effects. The MC model was first implemented in the 1D LILAC code to verify consistency with the iSNB model. Implementation of the MC SNB model in the 2D DRACO code enables higher fidelity non-local thermal transport modeling in 2D implosions such as polar drive experiments on NIF. The final step is to optimize the MC model by hybridizing it with a MC version of the iSNB diffusion method. The hybrid method will combine the efficiency of a diffusion method in intermediate mean free path regions with the accuracy of a transport method in long mean free path regions allowing for improved computational efficiency while maintaining accuracy. Work to date on the method will be presented. This work was supported by Sandia National Laboratories and the Univ. of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics.

  18. Milagro Version 2 An Implicit Monte Carlo Code for Thermal Radiative Transfer: Capabilities, Development, and Usage

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    T.J. Urbatsch; T.M. Evans

    2006-02-15

    We have released Version 2 of Milagro, an object-oriented, C++ code that performs radiative transfer using Fleck and Cummings' Implicit Monte Carlo method. Milagro, a part of the Jayenne program, is a stand-alone driver code used as a methods research vehicle and to verify its underlying classes. These underlying classes are used to construct Implicit Monte Carlo packages for external customers. Milagro-2 represents a design overhaul that allows better parallelism and extensibility. New features in Milagro-2 include verified momentum deposition, restart capability, graphics capability, exact energy conservation, and improved load balancing and parallel efficiency. A users' guide also describes how to configure, make, and run Milagro2.

  19. Transport calculation of medium-energy protons and neutrons by Monte Carlo method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ban, Syuuichi; Hirayama, Hideo; Katoh, Kazuaki.

    1978-09-01

    A Monte Carlo transport code, ARIES, has been developed for protons and neutrons at medium energy (25 -- 500 MeV). Nuclear data provided by R.G. Alsmiller, Jr. were used for the calculation. To simulate the cascade development in the medium, each generation was represented by a single weighted particle and an average number of emitted particles was used as the weight. Neutron fluxes were stored by the collisions density method. The cutoff energy was set to 25 MeV. Neutrons below the cutoff were stored to be used as the source for the low energy neutron transport calculation upon the discrete ordinates method. Then transport calculations were performed for both low energy neutrons (thermal -- 25 MeV) and secondary gamma-rays. Energy spectra of emitted neutrons were calculated and compared with those of published experimental and calculated results. The agreement was good for the incident particles of energy between 100 and 500 MeV. (author)

  20. FOCUS: a non-multigroup adjoint Monte Carlo code with improved variance reduction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoogenboom, J.E.

    1974-01-01

    A description is given of the selection mechanism in the adjoint Monte Carlo code FOCUS in which the energy is treated as a continuous variable. The method of Kalos who introduced the idea of adjoint cross sections is followed to derive a sampling scheme for the adjoint equation solved in FOCUS which is in most aspects analogous to the normal Monte Carlo game. The disadvantages of the use of these adjoint cross sections are removed to some extent by introduction of a new definition for the adjoint cross sections resulting in appreciable variance reduction. At the cost of introducing a weight factor slightly different from unity, the direction and energy are selected in a simple way without the need of two-dimensional probability tables. Finally the handling of geometry and cross section in FOCUS is briefly discussed. 6 references. (U.S.)

  1. Modeling of the YALINA booster facility by the Monte Carlo code MONK

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Talamo, A.; Gohar, Y.; Kondev, F.; Kiyavitskaya, H.; Serafimovich, I.; Bournos, V.; Fokov, Y.; Routkovskaya, C.

    2007-01-01

    The YALINA-Booster facility has been modeled according to the benchmark specifications defined for the IAEA activity without any geometrical homogenization using the Monte Carlo codes MONK and MCNP/MCNPX/MCB. The MONK model perfectly matches the MCNP one. The computational analyses have been extended through the MCB code, which is an extension of the MCNP code with burnup capability because of its additional feature for analyzing source driven multiplying assemblies. The main neutronics arameters of the YALINA-Booster facility were calculated using these computer codes with different nuclear data libraries based on ENDF/B-VI-0, -6, JEF-2.2, and JEF-3.1.

  2. Monte Carlo tests of the ELIPGRID-PC algorithm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Davidson, J.R.

    1995-04-01

    The standard tool for calculating the probability of detecting pockets of contamination called hot spots has been the ELIPGRID computer code of Singer and Wickman. The ELIPGRID-PC program has recently made this algorithm available for an IBM reg-sign PC. However, no known independent validation of the ELIPGRID algorithm exists. This document describes a Monte Carlo simulation-based validation of a modified version of the ELIPGRID-PC code. The modified ELIPGRID-PC code is shown to match Monte Carlo-calculated hot-spot detection probabilities to within ±0.5% for 319 out of 320 test cases. The one exception, a very thin elliptical hot spot located within a rectangular sampling grid, differed from the Monte Carlo-calculated probability by about 1%. These results provide confidence in the ability of the modified ELIPGRID-PC code to accurately predict hot-spot detection probabilities within an acceptable range of error

  3. Contributions at the Tripoli Monte Carlo code qualifying on critical experiences and at neutronic interaction study of fissile units

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nouri, A.

    1994-01-01

    Criticality studies in nuclear fuel cycle are based on Monte Carlo method. These codes use multigroup cross sections which can verify by experimental configurations or by use of reference codes such Tripoli 2. In this Tripoli 2 code nuclear data are errors attached and asked for experimental studies with critical experiences. This is one of the aim of this thesis. To calculate the keff of interacted fissile units we have used the multigroup Monte Carlo code Moret with convergence problems. A new estimator of reactions rates permit to better approximate the neutrons exchange between units and a new importance function has been tested. 2 annexes

  4. Comparison of experimental and Monte-Carlo simulation of MeV particle transport through tapered/straight glass capillaries and circular collimators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hespeels, F., E-mail: felicien.hespeels@unamur.be [University of Namur, PMR, 61 rue de Bruxelles, 5000 Namur (Belgium); Tonneau, R. [University of Namur, PMR, 61 rue de Bruxelles, 5000 Namur (Belgium); Ikeda, T. [RIKEN Nishina Center, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198 (Japan); Lucas, S. [University of Namur, PMR, 61 rue de Bruxelles, 5000 Namur (Belgium)

    2015-11-01

    Highlights: • Monte-Carlo simulation for beam transportation through collimations devices. • We confirm the focusing effect of tapered glass capillary. • We confirm the feasibility of using passive collimation devices for ion beam analysis application. - Abstract: This study compares the capabilities of three different passive collimation devices to produce micrometer-sized beams for proton and alpha particle beams (1.7 MeV and 5.3 MeV respectively): classical platinum TEM-like collimators, straight glass capillaries and tapered glass capillaries. In addition, we developed a Monte-Carlo code, based on the Rutherford scattering theory, which simulates particle transportation through collimating devices. The simulation results match the experimental observations of beam transportation through collimators both in air and vacuum. This research shows the focusing effects of tapered capillaries which clearly enable higher transmission flux. Nevertheless, the capillaries alignment with an incident beam is a prerequisite but is tedious, which makes the TEM collimator the easiest way to produce a 50 μm microbeam.

  5. Clinical implementation of full Monte Carlo dose calculation in proton beam therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paganetti, Harald; Jiang, Hongyu; Parodi, Katia; Slopsema, Roelf; Engelsman, Martijn

    2008-01-01

    The goal of this work was to facilitate the clinical use of Monte Carlo proton dose calculation to support routine treatment planning and delivery. The Monte Carlo code Geant4 was used to simulate the treatment head setup, including a time-dependent simulation of modulator wheels (for broad beam modulation) and magnetic field settings (for beam scanning). Any patient-field-specific setup can be modeled according to the treatment control system of the facility. The code was benchmarked against phantom measurements. Using a simulation of the ionization chamber reading in the treatment head allows the Monte Carlo dose to be specified in absolute units (Gy per ionization chamber reading). Next, the capability of reading CT data information was implemented into the Monte Carlo code to model patient anatomy. To allow time-efficient dose calculation, the standard Geant4 tracking algorithm was modified. Finally, a software link of the Monte Carlo dose engine to the patient database and the commercial planning system was established to allow data exchange, thus completing the implementation of the proton Monte Carlo dose calculation engine ('DoC++'). Monte Carlo re-calculated plans are a valuable tool to revisit decisions in the planning process. Identification of clinically significant differences between Monte Carlo and pencil-beam-based dose calculations may also drive improvements of current pencil-beam methods. As an example, four patients (29 fields in total) with tumors in the head and neck regions were analyzed. Differences between the pencil-beam algorithm and Monte Carlo were identified in particular near the end of range, both due to dose degradation and overall differences in range prediction due to bony anatomy in the beam path. Further, the Monte Carlo reports dose-to-tissue as compared to dose-to-water by the planning system. Our implementation is tailored to a specific Monte Carlo code and the treatment planning system XiO (Computerized Medical Systems Inc

  6. The SGHWR version of the Monte Carlo code W-MONTE. Part 1. The theoretical model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Allen, F.R.

    1976-03-01

    W-MONTE provides a multi-group model of neutron transport in the exact geometry of a reactor lattice using Monte Carlo methods. It is currently restricted to uniform axial properties. Material data is normally obtained from a preliminary WIMS lattice calculation in the transport group structure. The SGHWR version has been required for analysis of zero energy experiments and special aspects of power reactor lattices, such as the unmoderated lattice region above the moderator when drained to dump height. Neutron transport is modelled for a uniform infinite lattice, simultaneously treating the cases of no leakage, radial leakage or axial leakage only, and the combined effects of radial and axial leakage. Multigroup neutron balance edits are incorporated for the separate effects of radial and axial leakage to facilitate the analysis of leakage and to provide effective diffusion theory parameters for core representation in reactor cores. (author)

  7. ITS, TIGER System of Coupled Electron Photon Transport by Monte-Carlo

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Halbleib, J.A.; Mehlhorn, T.A.; Young, M.F.

    1996-01-01

    1 - Description of program or function: ITS permits a state-of-the-art Monte Carlo solution of linear time-integrated coupled electron/ photon radiation transport problems with or without the presence of macroscopic electric and magnetic fields of arbitrary spatial dependence. 2 - Method of solution: Through a machine-portable utility that emulates the basic features of the CDC UPDATE processor, the user selects one of eight codes for running on a machine of one of four (at least) major vendors. With the ITS-3.0 release the PSR-0245/UPEML package is included to perform these functions. The ease with which this utility is applied combines with an input scheme based on order-independent descriptive keywords that makes maximum use of defaults and internal error checking to provide experimentalists and theorists alike with a method for the routine but rigorous solution of sophisticated radiation transport problems. Physical rigor is maximized by employing the best available cross sections and sampling distributions, and the most complete physical model for describing the production and transport of the electron/ photon cascade from 1.0 GeV down to 1.0 keV. Flexibility of construction permits the codes to be tailored to specific applications and the capabilities of the codes to be extended to more complex applications through update procedures. 3 - Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: - Restrictions and/or limitations for ITS depend upon the local operating system

  8. Monte Carlo electron-transport calculations for clinical beams using energy grouping

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Teng, S P; Anderson, D W; Lindstrom, D G

    1986-01-01

    A Monte Carlo program has been utilized to study the penetration of broad electron beams into a water phantom. The MORSE-E code, originally developed for neutron and photon transport, was chosen for adaptation to electrons because of its versatility. The electron energy degradation model employed logarithmic spacing of electron energy groups and included effects of elastic scattering, inelastic-moderate-energy-loss-processes and inelastic-large-energy-loss-processes (catastrophic). Energy straggling and angular deflections were modeled from group to group, using the Moeller cross section for energy loss, and Goudsmit-Saunderson theory to describe angular deflections. The resulting energy- and electron-deposition distributions in depth were obtained at 10 and 20 MeV and are compared with ETRAN results and broad beam experimental data from clinical accelerators.

  9. Applications of the Los Alamos High Energy Transport code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Waters, L.; Gavron, A.; Prael, R.E.

    1992-01-01

    Simulation codes reliable through a large range of energies are essential to analyze the environment of vehicles and habitats proposed for space exploration. The LAHET monte carlo code has recently been expanded to track high energy hadrons with FLUKA, while retaining the original Los Alamos version of HETC at lower energies. Electrons and photons are transported with EGS4, and an interface to the MCNP monte carlo code is provided to analyze neutrons with kinetic energies less than 20 MeV. These codes are benchmarked by comparison of LAHET/MCNP calculations to data from the Brookhaven experiment E814 participant calorimeter

  10. SRNA-2K5, Proton Transport Using 3-D by Monte Carlo Techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ilic, Radovan D.

    2005-01-01

    1 - Description of program or function: SRNA-2K5 performs Monte Carlo transport simulation of proton in 3D source and 3D geometry of arbitrary materials. The proton transport based on condensed history model, and on model of compound nuclei decays that creates in nonelastic nuclear interaction by proton absorption. 2 - Methods: The SRNA-2K5 package is developed for time independent simulation of proton transport by Monte Carlo techniques for numerical experiments in complex geometry, using PENGEOM from PENELOPE with different material compositions, and arbitrary spectrum of proton generated from the 3D source. This package developed for 3D proton dose distribution in proton therapy and dosimetry, and it was based on the theory of multiple scattering. The compound nuclei decay was simulated by our and Russian MSDM models using ICRU 49 and ICRU 63 data. If protons trajectory is divided on great number of steps, protons passage can be simulated according to Berger's Condensed Random Walk model. Conditions of angular distribution and fluctuation of energy loss determinate step length. Physical picture of these processes is described by stopping power, Moliere's angular distribution, Vavilov's distribution with Sulek's correction per all electron orbits, and Chadwick's cross sections for nonelastic nuclear interactions, obtained by his GNASH code. According to physical picture of protons passage and with probabilities of protons transition from previous to next stage, which is prepared by SRNADAT program, simulation of protons transport in all SRNA codes runs according to usual Monte Carlo scheme: (i) proton from the spectrum prepared for random choice of energy, position and space angle is emitted from the source; (ii) proton is loosing average energy on the step; (iii) on that step, proton experience a great number of collisions, and it changes direction of movement randomly chosen from angular distribution; (iv) random fluctuation is added to average energy loss; (v

  11. MCNP trademark Monte Carlo: A precis of MCNP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adams, K.J.

    1996-01-01

    MCNP trademark is a general purpose three-dimensional time-dependent neutron, photon, and electron transport code. It is highly portable and user-oriented, and backed by stringent software quality assurance practices and extensive experimental benchmarks. The cross section database is based upon the best evaluations available. MCNP incorporates state-of-the-art analog and adaptive Monte Carlo techniques. The code is documented in a 600 page manual which is augmented by numerous Los Alamos technical reports which detail various aspects of the code. MCNP represents over a megahour of development and refinement over the past 50 years and an ongoing commitment to excellence

  12. ZZ SAIL, Albedo Scattering Data Library for 3-D Monte-Carlo Radiation Transport in LWR Pressure Vessel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1982-01-01

    1 - Description of problem or function: Format: SAIL format; Number of groups: 23 neutron / 17 gamma-ray; Nuclides: Type 04 Concrete and Low Carbon Steel (A533B). Origin: Science Applications, Inc (SAI); Weighting spectrum: yes. SAIL is a library of albedo scattering data to be used in three-dimensional Monte Carlo codes to solve radiation transport problems specific to the reactor pressure vessel cavity region of a LWR. The library contains data for Type 04 Concrete and Low Carbon Steel (A533B). 2 - Method of solution: The calculation of the albedo data was perform- ed with a version of the discrete ordinates transport code DOT which treats the transport of neutrons, secondary gamma-rays and gamma- rays in one dimension, while maintaining the complete two-dimension- al treatment of the angular dependence

  13. Environmental dose rate heterogeneity of beta radiation and its implications for luminescence dating: Monte Carlo modelling and experimental validation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nathan, R.P.; Thomas, P.J.; Jain, M.

    2003-01-01

    and identify the likely size of these effects on D-e distributions. The study employs the MCNP 4C Monte Carlo electron/photon transport model, supported by an experimental validation of the code in several case studies. We find good agreement between the experimental measurements and the Monte Carlo...

  14. MC 93 - Proceedings of the International Conference on Monte Carlo Simulation in High Energy and Nuclear Physics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dragovitsch, Peter; Linn, Stephan L.; Burbank, Mimi

    1994-01-01

    The Table of Contents for the book is as follows: * Preface * Heavy Fragment Production for Hadronic Cascade Codes * Monte Carlo Simulations of Space Radiation Environments * Merging Parton Showers with Higher Order QCD Monte Carlos * An Order-αs Two-Photon Background Study for the Intermediate Mass Higgs Boson * GEANT Simulation of Hall C Detector at CEBAF * Monte Carlo Simulations in Radioecology: Chernobyl Experience * UNIMOD2: Monte Carlo Code for Simulation of High Energy Physics Experiments; Some Special Features * Geometrical Efficiency Analysis for the Gamma-Neutron and Gamma-Proton Reactions * GISMO: An Object-Oriented Approach to Particle Transport and Detector Modeling * Role of MPP Granularity in Optimizing Monte Carlo Programming * Status and Future Trends of the GEANT System * The Binary Sectioning Geometry for Monte Carlo Detector Simulation * A Combined HETC-FLUKA Intranuclear Cascade Event Generator * The HARP Nucleon Polarimeter * Simulation and Data Analysis Software for CLAS * TRAP -- An Optical Ray Tracing Program * Solutions of Inverse and Optimization Problems in High Energy and Nuclear Physics Using Inverse Monte Carlo * FLUKA: Hadronic Benchmarks and Applications * Electron-Photon Transport: Always so Good as We Think? Experience with FLUKA * Simulation of Nuclear Effects in High Energy Hadron-Nucleus Collisions * Monte Carlo Simulations of Medium Energy Detectors at COSY Jülich * Complex-Valued Monte Carlo Method and Path Integrals in the Quantum Theory of Localization in Disordered Systems of Scatterers * Radiation Levels at the SSCL Experimental Halls as Obtained Using the CLOR89 Code System * Overview of Matrix Element Methods in Event Generation * Fast Electromagnetic Showers * GEANT Simulation of the RMC Detector at TRIUMF and Neutrino Beams for KAON * Event Display for the CLAS Detector * Monte Carlo Simulation of High Energy Electrons in Toroidal Geometry * GEANT 3.14 vs. EGS4: A Comparison Using the DØ Uranium/Liquid Argon

  15. Monte Carlo alpha calculation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brockway, D.; Soran, P.; Whalen, P.

    1985-01-01

    A Monte Carlo algorithm to efficiently calculate static alpha eigenvalues, N = ne/sup ..cap alpha..t/, for supercritical systems has been developed and tested. A direct Monte Carlo approach to calculating a static alpha is to simply follow the buildup in time of neutrons in a supercritical system and evaluate the logarithmic derivative of the neutron population with respect to time. This procedure is expensive, and the solution is very noisy and almost useless for a system near critical. The modified approach is to convert the time-dependent problem to a static ..cap alpha../sup -/eigenvalue problem and regress ..cap alpha.. on solutions of a/sup -/ k/sup -/eigenvalue problem. In practice, this procedure is much more efficient than the direct calculation, and produces much more accurate results. Because the Monte Carlo codes are intrinsically three-dimensional and use elaborate continuous-energy cross sections, this technique is now used as a standard for evaluating other calculational techniques in odd geometries or with group cross sections.

  16. Automated importance generation and biasing techniques for Monte Carlo shielding techniques by the TRIPOLI-3 code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Both, J.P.; Nimal, J.C.; Vergnaud, T.

    1990-01-01

    We discuss an automated biasing procedure for generating the parameters necessary to achieve efficient Monte Carlo biasing shielding calculations. The biasing techniques considered here are exponential transform and collision biasing deriving from the concept of the biased game based on the importance function. We use a simple model of the importance function with exponential attenuation as the distance to the detector increases. This importance function is generated on a three-dimensional mesh including geometry and with graph theory algorithms. This scheme is currently being implemented in the third version of the neutron and gamma ray transport code TRIPOLI-3. (author)

  17. Monte Carlo Methods in ICF

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zimmerman, George B.

    Monte Carlo methods appropriate to simulate the transport of x-rays, neutrons, ions and electrons in Inertial Confinement Fusion targets are described and analyzed. The Implicit Monte Carlo method of x-ray transport handles symmetry within indirect drive ICF hohlraums well, but can be improved 50X in efficiency by angular biasing the x-rays towards the fuel capsule. Accurate simulation of thermonuclear burn and burn diagnostics involves detailed particle source spectra, charged particle ranges, inflight reaction kinematics, corrections for bulk and thermal Doppler effects and variance reduction to obtain adequate statistics for rare events. It is found that the effects of angular Coulomb scattering must be included in models of charged particle transport through heterogeneous materials.

  18. Monte Carlo methods in ICF

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zimmerman, George B.

    1997-01-01

    Monte Carlo methods appropriate to simulate the transport of x-rays, neutrons, ions and electrons in Inertial Confinement Fusion targets are described and analyzed. The Implicit Monte Carlo method of x-ray transport handles symmetry within indirect drive ICF hohlraums well, but can be improved 50X in efficiency by angular biasing the x-rays towards the fuel capsule. Accurate simulation of thermonuclear burn and burn diagnostics involves detailed particle source spectra, charged particle ranges, inflight reaction kinematics, corrections for bulk and thermal Doppler effects and variance reduction to obtain adequate statistics for rare events. It is found that the effects of angular Coulomb scattering must be included in models of charged particle transport through heterogeneous materials

  19. Applications guide to the RSIC-distributed version of the MCNP code (coupled Monte Carlo neutron-photon Code)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cramer, S.N.

    1985-09-01

    An overview of the RSIC-distributed version of the MCNP code (a soupled Monte Carlo neutron-photon code) is presented. All general features of the code, from machine hardware requirements to theoretical details, are discussed. The current nuclide cross-section and other libraries available in the standard code package are specified, and a realistic example of the flexible geometry input is given. Standard and nonstandard source, estimator, and variance-reduction procedures are outlined. Examples of correct usage and possible misuse of certain code features are presented graphically and in standard output listings. Finally, itemized summaries of sample problems, various MCNP code documentation, and future work are given

  20. Basic physical and chemical information needed for development of Monte Carlo codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Inokuti, M.

    1993-01-01

    It is important to view track structure analysis as an application of a branch of theoretical physics (i.e., statistical physics and physical kinetics in the language of the Landau school). Monte Carlo methods and transport equation methods represent two major approaches. In either approach, it is of paramount importance to use as input the cross section data that best represent the elementary microscopic processes. Transport analysis based on unrealistic input data must be viewed with caution, because results can be misleading. Work toward establishing the cross section data, which demands a wide scope of knowledge and expertise, is being carried out through extensive international collaborations. In track structure analysis for radiation biology, the need for cross sections for the interactions of electrons with DNA and neighboring protein molecules seems to be especially urgent. Finally, it is important to interpret results of Monte Carlo calculations fully and adequately. To this end, workers should document input data as thoroughly as possible and report their results in detail in many ways. Workers in analytic transport theory are then likely to contribute to the interpretation of the results

  1. DNA strand breaks induced by electrons simulated with nanodosimetry Monte Carlo simulation code: NASIC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Junli; Qiu, Rui; Yan, Congchong; Xie, Wenzhang; Zeng, Zhi; Li, Chunyan; Wu, Zhen; Tung, Chuanjong

    2015-01-01

    The method of Monte Carlo simulation is a powerful tool to investigate the details of radiation biological damage at the molecular level. In this paper, a Monte Carlo code called NASIC (Nanodosimetry Monte Carlo Simulation Code) was developed. It includes physical module, pre-chemical module, chemical module, geometric module and DNA damage module. The physical module can simulate physical tracks of low-energy electrons in the liquid water event-by-event. More than one set of inelastic cross sections were calculated by applying the dielectric function method of Emfietzoglou's optical-data treatments, with different optical data sets and dispersion models. In the pre-chemical module, the ionised and excited water molecules undergo dissociation processes. In the chemical module, the produced radiolytic chemical species diffuse and react. In the geometric module, an atomic model of 46 chromatin fibres in a spherical nucleus of human lymphocyte was established. In the DNA damage module, the direct damages induced by the energy depositions of the electrons and the indirect damages induced by the radiolytic chemical species were calculated. The parameters should be adjusted to make the simulation results be agreed with the experimental results. In this paper, the influence study of the inelastic cross sections and vibrational excitation reaction on the parameters and the DNA strand break yields were studied. Further work of NASIC is underway (authors)

  2. Fast Monte Carlo-assisted simulation of cloudy Earth backgrounds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adler-Golden, Steven; Richtsmeier, Steven C.; Berk, Alexander; Duff, James W.

    2012-11-01

    A calculation method has been developed for rapidly synthesizing radiometrically accurate ultraviolet through longwavelengthinfrared spectral imagery of the Earth for arbitrary locations and cloud fields. The method combines cloudfree surface reflectance imagery with cloud radiance images calculated from a first-principles 3-D radiation transport model. The MCScene Monte Carlo code [1-4] is used to build a cloud image library; a data fusion method is incorporated to speed convergence. The surface and cloud images are combined with an upper atmospheric description with the aid of solar and thermal radiation transport equations that account for atmospheric inhomogeneity. The method enables a wide variety of sensor and sun locations, cloud fields, and surfaces to be combined on-the-fly, and provides hyperspectral wavelength resolution with minimal computational effort. The simulations agree very well with much more time-consuming direct Monte Carlo calculations of the same scene.

  3. Monte Carlo closure for moment-based transport schemes in general relativistic radiation hydrodynamic simulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foucart, Francois

    2018-04-01

    General relativistic radiation hydrodynamic simulations are necessary to accurately model a number of astrophysical systems involving black holes and neutron stars. Photon transport plays a crucial role in radiatively dominated accretion discs, while neutrino transport is critical to core-collapse supernovae and to the modelling of electromagnetic transients and nucleosynthesis in neutron star mergers. However, evolving the full Boltzmann equations of radiative transport is extremely expensive. Here, we describe the implementation in the general relativistic SPEC code of a cheaper radiation hydrodynamic method that theoretically converges to a solution of Boltzmann's equation in the limit of infinite numerical resources. The algorithm is based on a grey two-moment scheme, in which we evolve the energy density and momentum density of the radiation. Two-moment schemes require a closure that fills in missing information about the energy spectrum and higher order moments of the radiation. Instead of the approximate analytical closure currently used in core-collapse and merger simulations, we complement the two-moment scheme with a low-accuracy Monte Carlo evolution. The Monte Carlo results can provide any or all of the missing information in the evolution of the moments, as desired by the user. As a first test of our methods, we study a set of idealized problems demonstrating that our algorithm performs significantly better than existing analytical closures. We also discuss the current limitations of our method, in particular open questions regarding the stability of the fully coupled scheme.

  4. Monte Carlo techniques for analyzing deep-penetration problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cramer, S.N.; Gonnord, J.; Hendricks, J.S.

    1986-01-01

    Current methods and difficulties in Monte Carlo deep-penetration calculations are reviewed, including statistical uncertainty and recent adjoint optimization of splitting, Russian roulette, and exponential transformation biasing. Other aspects of the random walk and estimation processes are covered, including the relatively new DXANG angular biasing technique. Specific items summarized are albedo scattering, Monte Carlo coupling techniques with discrete ordinates and other methods, adjoint solutions, and multigroup Monte Carlo. The topic of code-generated biasing parameters is presented, including the creation of adjoint importance functions from forward calculations. Finally, current and future work in the area of computer learning and artificial intelligence is discussed in connection with Monte Carlo applications

  5. Hybrid Monte-Carlo method for ICF calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clouet, J.F.; Samba, G.

    2003-01-01

    ) conduction and ray-tracing for laser description. Radiation transport is usually solved by a Monte-Carlo method. In coupling diffusion approximation and transport description, the difficult part comes from the need for an implicit discretization of the emission-absorption terms: this problem was solved by using the symbolic Monte-Carlo method. This means that at each step of the simulation a matrix is computed by a Monte-Carlo method which accounts for the radiation energy exchange between the cells. Because of time step limitation by hydrodynamic motion, energy exchange is limited to a small number of cells and the matrix remains sparse. This matrix is added to usual diffusion matrix for thermal and radiative conductions: finally we arrive at a non-symmetric linear system to invert. A generalized Marshak condition describe the coupling between transport and diffusion. In this paper we will present the principles of the method and numerical simulation of an ICF hohlraum. We shall illustrate the benefits of the method by comparing the results with full implicit Monte-Carlo calculations. In particular we shall show how the spectral cut-off evolves during the propagation of the radiative front in the gold wall. Several issues are still to be addressed (robust algorithm for spectral cut- off calculation, coupling with ALE capabilities): we shall briefly discuss these problems. (authors)

  6. SU-E-T-323: The FLUKA Monte Carlo Code in Ion Beam Therapy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rinaldi, I [Heidelberg University Hospital (Germany); Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich (Germany)

    2014-06-01

    Purpose: Monte Carlo (MC) codes are increasingly used in the ion beam therapy community due to their detailed description of radiation transport and interaction with matter. The suitability of a MC code demands accurate and reliable physical models for the transport and the interaction of all components of the mixed radiation field. This contribution will address an overview of the recent developments in the FLUKA code oriented to its application in ion beam therapy. Methods: FLUKA is a general purpose MC code which allows the calculations of particle transport and interactions with matter, covering an extended range of applications. The user can manage the code through a graphic interface (FLAIR) developed using the Python programming language. Results: This contribution will present recent refinements in the description of the ionization processes and comparisons between FLUKA results and experimental data of ion beam therapy facilities. Moreover, several validations of the largely improved FLUKA nuclear models for imaging application to treatment monitoring will be shown. The complex calculation of prompt gamma ray emission compares favorably with experimental data and can be considered adequate for the intended applications. New features in the modeling of proton induced nuclear interactions also provide reliable cross section predictions for the production of radionuclides. Of great interest for the community are the developments introduced in FLAIR. The most recent efforts concern the capability of importing computed-tomography images in order to build automatically patient geometries and the implementation of different types of existing positron-emission-tomography scanner devices for imaging applications. Conclusion: The FLUA code has been already chosen as reference MC code in many ion beam therapy centers, and is being continuously improved in order to match the needs of ion beam therapy applications. Parts of this work have been supported by the European

  7. A Monte-Carlo Benchmark of TRIPOLI-4® and MCNP on ITER neutronics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blanchet, David; Pénéliau, Yannick; Eschbach, Romain; Fontaine, Bruno; Cantone, Bruno; Ferlet, Marc; Gauthier, Eric; Guillon, Christophe; Letellier, Laurent; Proust, Maxime; Mota, Fernando; Palermo, Iole; Rios, Luis; Guern, Frédéric Le; Kocan, Martin; Reichle, Roger

    2017-09-01

    Radiation protection and shielding studies are often based on the extensive use of 3D Monte-Carlo neutron and photon transport simulations. ITER organization hence recommends the use of MCNP-5 code (version 1.60), in association with the FENDL-2.1 neutron cross section data library, specifically dedicated to fusion applications. The MCNP reference model of the ITER tokamak, the `C-lite', is being continuously developed and improved. This article proposes to develop an alternative model, equivalent to the 'C-lite', but for the Monte-Carlo code TRIPOLI-4®. A benchmark study is defined to test this new model. Since one of the most critical areas for ITER neutronics analysis concerns the assessment of radiation levels and Shutdown Dose Rates (SDDR) behind the Equatorial Port Plugs (EPP), the benchmark is conducted to compare the neutron flux through the EPP. This problem is quite challenging with regard to the complex geometry and considering the important neutron flux attenuation ranging from 1014 down to 108 n•cm-2•s-1. Such code-to-code comparison provides independent validation of the Monte-Carlo simulations, improving the confidence in neutronic results.

  8. Implicit Monte Carlo methods and non-equilibrium Marshak wave radiative transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lynch, J.E.

    1985-01-01

    Two enhancements to the Fleck implicit Monte Carlo method for radiative transport are described, for use in transparent and opaque media respectively. The first introduces a spectral mean cross section, which applies to pseudoscattering in transparent regions with a high frequency incident spectrum. The second provides a simple Monte Carlo random walk method for opaque regions, without the need for a supplementary diffusion equation formulation. A time-dependent transport Marshak wave problem of radiative transfer, in which a non-equilibrium condition exists between the radiation and material energy fields, is then solved. These results are compared to published benchmark solutions and to new discrete ordinate S-N results, for both spatially integrated radiation-material energies versus time and to new spatially dependent temperature profiles. Multigroup opacities, which are independent of both temperature and frequency, are used in addition to a material specific heat which is proportional to the cube of the temperature. 7 refs., 4 figs

  9. MKENO-DAR: a direct angular representation Monte Carlo code for criticality safety analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Naito, Yoshitaka; Komuro, Yuichi; Tsunoo, Yukiyasu; Nakayama, Mitsuo.

    1984-03-01

    Improving the Monte Carlo code MULTI-KENO, the MKENO-DAR (Direct Angular Representation) code has been developed for criticality safety analysis in detail. A function was added to MULTI-KENO for representing anisotropic scattering strictly. With this function, the scattering angle of neutron is determined not by the average scattering angle μ-bar of the Pl Legendre polynomial but by the random work operation using probability distribution function produced with the higher order Legendre polynomials. This code is avilable for the FACOM-M380 computer. This report is a computer code manual for MKENO-DAR. (author)

  10. Monte Carlo methods for neutron transport on graphics processing units using Cuda - 015

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nelson, A.G.; Ivanov, K.N.

    2010-01-01

    This work examined the feasibility of utilizing Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to accelerate Monte Carlo neutron transport simulations. First, a clean-sheet MC code was written in C++ for an x86 CPU and later ported to run on GPUs using NVIDIA's CUDA programming language. After further optimization, the GPU ran 21 times faster than the CPU code when using single-precision floating point math. This can be further increased with no additional effort if accuracy is sacrificed for speed: using a compiler flag, the speedup was increased to 22x. Further, if double-precision floating point math is desired for neutron tracking through the geometry, a speedup of 11x was obtained. The GPUs have proven to be useful in this study, but the current generation does have limitations: the maximum memory currently available on a single GPU is only 4 GB; the GPU RAM does not provide error-checking and correction; and the optimization required for large speedups can lead to confusing code. (authors)

  11. Importance iteration in MORSE Monte Carlo calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kloosterman, J.L.; Hoogenboom, J.E.

    1994-01-01

    An expression to calculate point values (the expected detector response of a particle emerging from a collision or the source) is derived and implemented in the MORSE-SGC/S Monte Carlo code. It is outlined how these point values can be smoothed as a function of energy and as a function of the optical thickness between the detector and the source. The smoothed point values are subsequently used to calculate the biasing parameters of the Monte Carlo runs to follow. The method is illustrated by an example that shows that the obtained biasing parameters lead to a more efficient Monte Carlo calculation

  12. Importance iteration in MORSE Monte Carlo calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kloosterman, J.L.; Hoogenboom, J.E.

    1994-02-01

    An expression to calculate point values (the expected detector response of a particle emerging from a collision or the source) is derived and implemented in the MORSE-SGC/S Monte Carlo code. It is outlined how these point values can be smoothed as a function of energy and as a function of the optical thickness between the detector and the source. The smoothed point values are subsequently used to calculate the biasing parameters of the Monte Carlo runs to follow. The method is illustrated by an example, which shows that the obtained biasing parameters lead to a more efficient Monte Carlo calculation. (orig.)

  13. Spread-out Bragg peak and monitor units calculation with the Monte Carlo Code MCNPX

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Herault, J.; Iborra, N.; Serrano, B.; Chauvel, P.

    2007-01-01

    The aim of this work was to study the dosimetric potential of the Monte Carlo code MCNPX applied to the protontherapy field. For series of clinical configurations a comparison between simulated and experimental data was carried out, using the proton beam line of the MEDICYC isochronous cyclotron installed in the Centre Antoine Lacassagne in Nice. The dosimetric quantities tested were depth-dose distributions, output factors, and monitor units. For each parameter, the simulation reproduced accurately the experiment, which attests the quality of the choices made both in the geometrical description and in the physics parameters for beam definition. These encouraging results enable us today to consider a simplification of quality control measurements in the future. Monitor Units calculation is planned to be carried out with preestablished Monte Carlo simulation data. The measurement, which was until now our main patient dose calibration system, will be progressively replaced by computation based on the MCNPX code. This determination of Monitor Units will be controlled by an independent semi-empirical calculation

  14. Benchmarking PARTISN with Analog Monte Carlo: Moments of the Neutron Number and the Cumulative Fission Number Probability Distributions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    O' Rourke, Patrick Francis [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2016-10-27

    The purpose of this report is to provide the reader with an understanding of how a Monte Carlo neutron transport code was written, developed, and evolved to calculate the probability distribution functions (PDFs) and their moments for the neutron number at a final time as well as the cumulative fission number, along with introducing several basic Monte Carlo concepts.

  15. Neutron flux investigation on certain alternative fluids in a hybrid system by using MCNPX Monte Carlo transport code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guenay, Mehtap [Inoenue Univ., Malatya (Turkey). Physics Dept.

    2014-04-15

    In this study, the molten salt-heavy metal mixtures 93-85 % Li{sub 20}Sn{sub 80} + 5 % SFG-PuO{sub 2} and 2-10 % UO{sub 2}, 93-85 % Li{sub 20}Sn{sub 80} + 5 % SFG-PuO{sub 2} and 2-10 % NpO{sub 2}, 93-85 % Li{sub 20}Sn{sub 80} + 5 % SFG-PuO{sub 2} and 2-10 % UCO were used as fluids. The fluids were used in the liquid first wall, blanket and shield zones of the designed hybrid reactor system. Four centimeter thick 9Cr2WVTa ferritic steel was used as the structural material. In this study, the effect of mixture components on the neutron flux was investigated in a designed fusion-fission hybrid reactor system. The neutron flux was investigated according to the mixture components, radial flux distribution and energy spectrum in the designed system. Three-dimensional analyses were performed using the most recent MCNPX-2.7.0 Monte Carlo radiation transport code and the ENDF/B-VII.0 nuclear data library. (orig.)

  16. Reflections on early Monte Carlo calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spanier, J.

    1992-01-01

    Monte Carlo methods for solving various particle transport problems developed in parallel with the evolution of increasingly sophisticated computer programs implementing diffusion theory and low-order moments calculations. In these early years, Monte Carlo calculations and high-order approximations to the transport equation were seen as too expensive to use routinely for nuclear design but served as invaluable aids and supplements to design with less expensive tools. The earliest Monte Carlo programs were quite literal; i.e., neutron and other particle random walk histories were simulated by sampling from the probability laws inherent in the physical system without distoration. Use of such analogue sampling schemes resulted in a good deal of time being spent in examining the possibility of lowering the statistical uncertainties in the sample estimates by replacing simple, and intuitively obvious, random variables by those with identical means but lower variances

  17. Principle of the determination of neutron multiplication coefficients by the Monte Carlo method. Application. Description of a code for ibm 360-75; Principe de la determination des coefficients de multiplication neutronique par methode de Monte-Carlo. Application. Description d'un code pour IBM 360-75

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Moreau, J; Parisot, B [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Saclay (France). Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires

    1969-07-01

    The determination of neutron multiplication coefficients by the Monte Carlo method can be carried out in different ways; the are first examined particularly complex geometries; it makes use of multi-group isotropic cross sections. The performances of this code are illustrated by some examples. (author) [French] La determination des coefficients de multiplication neutronique par methode de Monte Carlo peut se faire par differentes voies, elles sont successivement examinees et comparees. On en deduit un code rapide pour des geometries particulierement complexes, il utilise des sections efficaces multigroupes isotropes. Les performances de ce code sont demontrees par quelques exemples. (auteur)

  18. SU-F-I-53: Coded Aperture Coherent Scatter Spectral Imaging of the Breast: A Monte Carlo Evaluation of Absorbed Dose

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Morris, R [Durham, NC (United States); Lakshmanan, M; Fong, G; Kapadia, A [Carl E Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Durham, NC (United States); Greenberg, J [Duke University, Durham, NC (United States)

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: Coherent scatter based imaging has shown improved contrast and molecular specificity over conventional digital mammography however the biological risks have not been quantified due to a lack of accurate information on absorbed dose. This study intends to characterize the dose distribution and average glandular dose from coded aperture coherent scatter spectral imaging of the breast. The dose deposited in the breast from this new diagnostic imaging modality has not yet been quantitatively evaluated. Here, various digitized anthropomorphic phantoms are tested in a Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the absorbed dose distribution and average glandular dose using clinically feasible scan protocols. Methods: Geant4 Monte Carlo radiation transport simulation software is used to replicate the coded aperture coherent scatter spectral imaging system. Energy sensitive, photon counting detectors are used to characterize the x-ray beam spectra for various imaging protocols. This input spectra is cross-validated with the results from XSPECT, a commercially available application that yields x-ray tube specific spectra for the operating parameters employed. XSPECT is also used to determine the appropriate number of photons emitted per mAs of tube current at a given kVp tube potential. With the implementation of the XCAT digital anthropomorphic breast phantom library, a variety of breast sizes with differing anatomical structure are evaluated. Simulations were performed with and without compression of the breast for dose comparison. Results: Through the Monte Carlo evaluation of a diverse population of breast types imaged under real-world scan conditions, a clinically relevant average glandular dose for this new imaging modality is extrapolated. Conclusion: With access to the physical coherent scatter imaging system used in the simulation, the results of this Monte Carlo study may be used to directly influence the future development of the modality to keep breast dose to

  19. Monte Carlo Numerical Models for Nuclear Logging Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fusheng Li

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Nuclear logging is one of most important logging services provided by many oil service companies. The main parameters of interest are formation porosity, bulk density, and natural radiation. Other services are also provided from using complex nuclear logging tools, such as formation lithology/mineralogy, etc. Some parameters can be measured by using neutron logging tools and some can only be measured by using a gamma ray tool. To understand the response of nuclear logging tools, the neutron transport/diffusion theory and photon diffusion theory are needed. Unfortunately, for most cases there are no analytical answers if complex tool geometry is involved. For many years, Monte Carlo numerical models have been used by nuclear scientists in the well logging industry to address these challenges. The models have been widely employed in the optimization of nuclear logging tool design, and the development of interpretation methods for nuclear logs. They have also been used to predict the response of nuclear logging systems for forward simulation problems. In this case, the system parameters including geometry, materials and nuclear sources, etc., are pre-defined and the transportation and interactions of nuclear particles (such as neutrons, photons and/or electrons in the regions of interest are simulated according to detailed nuclear physics theory and their nuclear cross-section data (probability of interacting. Then the deposited energies of particles entering the detectors are recorded and tallied and the tool responses to such a scenario are generated. A general-purpose code named Monte Carlo N– Particle (MCNP has been the industry-standard for some time. In this paper, we briefly introduce the fundamental principles of Monte Carlo numerical modeling and review the physics of MCNP. Some of the latest developments of Monte Carlo Models are also reviewed. A variety of examples are presented to illustrate the uses of Monte Carlo numerical models

  20. Monte Carlo methods in ICF

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zimmerman, G.B.

    1997-01-01

    Monte Carlo methods appropriate to simulate the transport of x-rays, neutrons, ions and electrons in Inertial Confinement Fusion targets are described and analyzed. The Implicit Monte Carlo method of x-ray transport handles symmetry within indirect drive ICF hohlraums well, but can be improved 50X in efficiency by angular biasing the x-rays towards the fuel capsule. Accurate simulation of thermonuclear burn and burn diagnostics involves detailed particle source spectra, charged particle ranges, inflight reaction kinematics, corrections for bulk and thermal Doppler effects and variance reduction to obtain adequate statistics for rare events. It is found that the effects of angular Coulomb scattering must be included in models of charged particle transport through heterogeneous materials. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics