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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2022)
August 7–10, 2022
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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September 2022
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August 2022
Latest News
DOE tags Los Alamos to lead $9.25 million molten salt computational research program
The Department of Energy has chosen Los Alamos National Laboratory to lead a $9.25 million collaborative project to model the behavior and properties of structural materials in molten salt through the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program and announced the news August 9. The team working on the five-year project includes experts from LANL; Carnegie Mellon University; and Idaho, Lawrence Berkeley, and Sandia national laboratories.
Bin Zhang, Hongchun Wu, Yunzhao Li, Liangzhi Cao, Wei Shen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 186 | Number 2 | May 2017 | Pages 134-146
Technical Paper | dx.doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2016.1273018
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In general, spatial homogenization, energy group condensation, and angular approximation are all included in the homogenization process. For the traditional pressurized water reactor (PWR) two-step calculation, the assembly homogenization with assembly discontinuity factors plus two-group (2G) neutron diffusion calculation have been proved to be a very efficient combination. However, this changes and becomes unsettled for the pin-by-pin calculation. Thus, this paper evaluates pin-cell homogenization techniques by comparison with the two-dimensional one-step whole-core transport calculation. For the homogenization, both the generalized equivalence theory (GET) and the superhomogenization (SPH) methods are studied. Considering the spectrum interference effect between different types of fuel pin cells, both 2G and 7-group (7G) structures are condensed from the 69-group WIMS-D4 library structure. For practical reactor core applications, the low-order angular approximations, including the diffusion and the SP3 methods, are compared with each other to determine which one is accurate enough for the PWR pin-by-pin calculation. Numerical results have demonstrated that both the GET and the SPH methods work effectively in pin-cell homogenization. In consideration of the spectrum interference effect, the 7G structure is sufficient for the pin-by-pin calculation. Compared with the diffusion method, the SP3 method can decrease the errors dramatically.
