TRITA-FYS 2011-30 ISSN 0280-316X ISRN KTH/FYS/--11:30—SE ASSEMBLY HOMOGENIZATION OF LIGHT WATER REACTORS BY A MONTE CARLO REACTOR PHYSICS METHOD AND VERIFICATION BY A DETERMINISTIC METHOD M. Sc. Thesis by Aziz Bora PEKICTEN Supervisor: Dr. Tomasz Kozlowski Stockholm, Sweden, May 2011 Royal Institute of Technology School of Engineering Sciences Nuclear Energy Engineering
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TRITA-FYS 2011-30 ISSN 0280-316X
ISRN KTH/FYS/--11:30—SE
ASSEMBLY HOMOGENIZATION OF LIGHT WATER REACTORS BY A MONTE CARLO REACTOR PHYSICS METHOD AND VERIFICATION BY
A DETERMINISTIC METHOD
M. Sc. Thesis by Aziz Bora PEKICTEN
Supervisor: Dr. Tomasz Kozlowski
Stockholm, Sweden, May 2011
Royal Institute of Technology School of Engineering Sciences Nuclear Energy Engineering
ii
FOREWORD
I would like to express my deep appreciation and thanks for my advisors Dr. Tomasz Kozlowski and Prof. Dr. Bilge Özgener. This work is supported by Royal Institute of Technology Nuclear Power Safety Division and Istanbul Technical University Energy Institute.
May 2011
Aziz Bora Pekicten
Mechanical Engineer
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. vi SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. vii ÖZET ........................................................................................................................ viii 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Purpose of The Thesis ........................................................................................ 2 2. ASSEMBLY HOMOGENIZATION METHODS ................ .............................. 3
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 3 2.2 Koebke’s Homogenization Method and General Equivalence Theory .............. 5
2.3 Examining A Simple Homogenization Problem ................................................ 7
3. DESCRIPTION OF TOOLS ............................................................................... 10
4. DESCRIPTION OF MINI CORE PROBLEMS ............................................... 15
4.1 Main Properties of The Core Assemblies ........................................................ 15
4.2 Application of The Verification and The Homogenization ............................. 16
4.2.1 Generation of the assembly discontinuity factors ..................................... 17
5. PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS ................................... 20 6. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 24 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 25 APPENDICES .......................................................................................................... 26
iv
ABBREVIATIONS
BWR : Boiling Water Reactors CANDU : Canada Deuterium Uranium Fig : Figure HTGR : High Temperature Gas Reactors Keff : K-effective (Effective Multiplication Factor) LWR : Light Water Reactors MCNP : Monte Carlo N-Particle PARCS : Purdue Advanced Reactor Core Simulator PWR : Pressurized Water Reactors U.S. NRC : United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission U-235 : Uranium isotope-235 UMN : University of Minnesota VTT : Technical Research Centre of Finland
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LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 2.1: Parameters for the one-dimensional homogenization problem.................. 8 Table 2.2: ADFs for fuel and reflector assemblies...................................................... 8
Table 2.3: Comparison of solutions to one-dimensional homogenization problem ... 9 Table 4.1: ADFs for fuel and reflector assemblies for combination-1...................... 18 Table 4.2: Comparison of solutions of combination-1 .............................................. 18
Table 4.3: ADFs for fuel and reflector assemblies for combination-2...................... 18 Table 4.4: Comparison of solutions of combination-2 .............................................. 19
Table 4.5: ADFs for fuel and reflector assemblies for combination-3...................... 19 Table 4.6: Comparison of solutions of combination-3 .............................................. 19
Table 5.1: Comparison of solutions of mini core-1 .................................................. 20
Table 5.2: Comparison of solutions of mini core-2 .................................................. 20
Table 5.3: Comparison of solutions of mini core-3 .................................................. 20
Table 5.4: Comparison of solutions of mini core-4 .................................................. 20
Table 5.5: Comparison of solutions of mini core-5 .................................................. 21
Table 5.6: Comparison of solutions of mini core-6 .................................................. 21
Table 5.7: Comparison of solutions of mini core-7 .................................................. 21
Table 5.8: Comparison of solutions of mini core-8 .................................................. 21
Table 5.9: Comparison of solutions of mini core-9 .................................................. 21
Table 5.10: Comparison of solutions of mini core-10 .............................................. 21
Table 5.11: Comparison of solutions of mini core-11 .............................................. 22
Table 5.12: Comparison of solutions of mini core-12 .............................................. 22
Table 5.13: Comparison of solutions of mini core-13 .............................................. 22
Table 5.14: Comparison of solutions of mini core-14 .............................................. 22
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 2.1 : One-dimensional nodal flux distributions, adapted from Smith (1985)...4 Figure 2.2 : One-dimensional nodal flux distributions, adapted from Smith (1985)...6 Figure 2.3 : A one-dimensional homogenization problem .........................................8 Figure 4.1 : The cross section area of the fuel pin. ................................................... 15
Figure 4.2 : Geometry of combination-1. ................................................................. 17
Figure 4.3 : Geometry of combination-2. ................................................................. 17
Figure 4.4 : Geometry of combination-3. ................................................................. 18 Figure A.1 : Surface plots of errors of designing ADFs for combination-1 ............. 27 Figure A.2 : Surface plots of errors of designing ADFs for combination-2 ............. 28 Figure A.3 : Surface plots of errors of designing ADFs for combination-3 ............. 30 Figure B.1: Configuration of the geometry for each core ......................................... 32
vii
SUMMARY
ASSEMBLY HOMOGENIZATION OF LIGHT WATER REACTORS BY A MONTE CARLO REACTOR PHYSICS METHOD AND VERIFICATION BY A DETERMINISTIC REACTOR SIMULATION METHOD
Assembly homogenization is an important part of reactor core physics analysis. The loading of fuel assemblies in a commercial nuclear power plant is an important step before the startup of the reactor. Distribution of fissile materials is decided after reactor physics code calculations. Many different reactor physics codes are used with calculations taking weeks or months. The purpose in this study is to test and verify the assembly homogenization capability of a Monte-Carlo reactor physics code called Serpent.
In this study, Serpent did assembly homogenization of several different core configurations in two-dimensional geometry, and the results were tested in deterministic reactor simulation code called PARCS. Results showed that Serpent is capable to generate few-group constants for LWR-type assemblies. However, the assembly discontinuity factors generation by Serpent for fuel-reflector interface was not correct, so the objective of this thesis was to generate appropriate fuel-reflector discontinuity factors by off-line calculation, without access to the reference interface current. With the appropriately generated discontinuity factors, the results showed that assembly homogenization by Serpent is accurate to less than 0.5% keff error and less than 1.0% assembly flux.
viii
ÖZET
HAFİF SU REAKTÖRLER İNİN MONTE CARLO REAKTÖR F İZİĞİ YÖNTEM İ İLE HOMOJEN İZASYONU VE DETERM İNİSTİK YÖNTEM İLE DOĞRULANMASI
Günümüz nükleer enerji santrallarında, reaktör homojenizasyonu reaktör kalbindeki güç dağılımı için çok önemli bir konudur. Zira yakıt elemanlarının reaktör kalbi içindeki dağılımı, reaktörün çalışmasının başlangıcı için önemli bir adımdır. Bu dağılımların nasıl olucağı reaktör fiziği kodları hesaplaması ile yapılır. Bu reaktör fiziği hesaplamaları için kullanılan güvenilir bir çok kod vardır fakat hesaplama süreleri haftaları hatta ayları bulmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, son birkaç senedir kullanılan Serpent adındaki yeni bir reaktör fiziği kodunun homojenizasyon kabiliyetini test etmek ve doğrulamaktır.
Bu çalışmada değişik şekilde düzenlenmiş reaktör kalplerinin homojenizasyonu iki-boyutlu geometride Serpent tarafından yapılmış ve sonuçlar deterministik reaktör simulasyon kodu olan PARCS ile kontrol edilmiştir. Sonuçlar Serpent’in grup kesit alanı üretiminin uygun olduğunu gösterdi, ama devamsızlık faktörleri üretimi doğru değildir. Bu yüzden bu tezin amacı, referans arayüz akı verilerine sahip olmadan, kapalı bir yöntemle doğru devamsızlık faktörleri üretimidir. Üretilen faktörler ile en son sonuçlar, Serpent tarafından gerçekleştirilen reaktör kalbi homojenizasyonunun çok küçük hata yüzdesi ile yanlışsız olduğu görülmüştür. Hata yüzdeleri keff için 0.5%’in altında ve akı oranları için 1.0%’in altında olduğu görülmüştür.
1
1. INTRODUCTION
Extensive knowledge of different quantities is necessary for the physics design and
analysis of light water reactors. The prediction of neutron density in space, direction
and energy increases the ability to perform core-follow calculations where the
determination of power distribution, control rod worth, shutdown margins and
isotopic depletion rates must be known. With the assumption that thermal-hydraulic
properties of the reactor and fundamental data are known, three-dimensional neutron
transport equation is a task need to be solved. Explicit modeling of water channels,
fuel pins, control rods and burnable poisons limits the direct methods of solving the
three-dimensional transport equation. Tools such as three-dimensional continuous
energy Monte Carlo and deterministic neutron transport methods are similarly
overwhelmed by the complexity of the computational problem of explicit
geometrical modeling on a core-wide basis.
Many reactor analysis methods circumvent the computational burden of explicit
geometrical modeling by coupling geometrically-simple, energy-intensive
calculations with few-group, geometrically-complicated calculations via spatial
homogenization and group condensation. The question how to make the best use of
spatial and spectral distributions of reaction rates and neutron densities has prompted
several different approaches to reactor analysis.
Alternative methods, which can all be put in a general class called nodal diffusion
methods have been developed over the years. These nodal methods have been
capable of solving three-dimensional neutron diffusion equation with a less than 2%
error in assemble-averaged powers using assembly-size mesh. The assumption of
these nodal methods is that to obtain “equivalent” diffusion theory parameters, which
are spatially constant over the whole cross sectional area of a fuel assembly, pin-by-
pin lattice cross sections have been spatially homogenized. The nodal solution
provides only nodal (volume-averaged) and surface (face-averaged) fluxes and
reaction rates. It is important that accurate methods for homogenizing reactor
assemblies are developed and employed.
2
1.1 Purpose of The Thesis
The major aim of this thesis is to perform assembly homogenization in two-
dimensional LWR mini-cores with fuel and reflector assemblies. Homogenization
techniques will be applied using Serpent (Monte Carlo reactor physics code) and
verified by PARCS (deterministic reactor simulation code).
3
2. ASSEMBLY HOMOGENIZATION METHODS
2.1 Introduction
A number of homogenization techniques determine diffusion coefficients by
matching certain components of heterogeneous model properties. There is a
difficulty of determining appropriate values for homogenized diffusion coefficients,
and that difficulty is explained by considering a hypothetical one-dimensional
reactor, for which it is assumed that a one-group heterogeneous flux distribution have
been computed. Two adjacent nodes extracted from this reactor is considered as
shown in Fig. 2.1(a). Since the flux distribution is assumed to be known, exact flux-
weighted cross sections and conventional diffusion coefficients can be computed.
The diffusion problem is specified by imposing the known heterogeneous surface
currents on the two surfaces of node i. This results that diffusion equation is a
second-order differential equation with known coefficients with assuming that keff is
known. It can be only one flux distribution, which will satisfy the diffusion equation,
if surface currents are preserved for both of these nodes as shown in Fig. 2.1(b).
Since the homogenized flux distribution in each node is directly affected by the value
of the diffusion coefficients and the choice of flux weighted diffusion coefficients is
in a sense entirely arbitrary, in all probabilities the interface fluxes will be different
as shown in Fig. 2.1(c). One of many possible methods for specifying diffusion
coefficients and any particular choice of diffusion coefficients is from the fact that
flux weighting of diffusion coefficients that the homogenized surface fluxes will take
on different values. The homogenized flux distribution on both node i and node i+1
will be different that those of Fig. 2.1(c) when two-node homogenized diffusion
problem is solved with boundary conditions ��� and ����
� , and continuity of flux and
current interface conditions as a result of the difference between interface fluxes. An
absolute result of the different flux distribution in Fig. 2.1(d) is the homogenized
fluxes at the nodal interface will not be equal to the heterogeneous flux and more
importantly, the homogeneous currents will not be equal to the heterogeneous
interface current.
4
It can be seen that the homogenized currents are different from the reference currents
because of not the diffusion coefficient values but the interface condition and
continuity of flux. If we adjust �� and ���� such that
� �� � ���
� ��, (2.1)
it would not be a problem to impose continuity flux. It should be kept in mind to
preserve the current between node i and node i-1, and adjusting �� should already
preserve the current between node i and node i+1. We can state clearly that the
homogenized diffusion equation (with current across interface and continuity of flux)
is incapable of sufficient degrees of freedom to allow simultaneous preservation of
currents and reaction rates. [1]
Figure 2.1 : One-dimensional nodal flux distributions, adapted from Smith (1986): (a) Heterogeneous reactor flux. (b) Individual homogenized nodes. (c) Adjacent individual homogenized nodes. (d) Conventional diffusion solution to the two-node problem.
5
2.2 Koebke’s Homogenization Method and General Equivalence Theory
Advanced homogenization methods have been developed in order to improve the
accuracy of node-averaged reactor properties predicted through use of conventional
homogenized parameters. It was observed by Koebke that there exists a very close
connection between the homogenization and dehomogenization problems, and
improvements in predicted pin power distribution could be achieved only by
redefining the homogenized parameters. Recognizing the difficulty to preserve
surface currents, Koebke formulated a mathematical interface condition which
allowed exact preservation of both reaction rates and net currents from
heterogeneous reactor problems. Koebke found out the important point that if the
homogenized fluxes are allowed to be discontinuous the homogenized flux
distribution (as shown in Fig. 2.1(c)) could be preserved when the two-node
homogenized boundary problem is solved. As shown in Fig. 2.2, when two-node
boundary problem is solved, the homogenized flux distribution will be identical if an
interface condition is imposed such that
� ���� = � ���� ���� (2.2)
where
�� ≡ Φ�� Φ� ��⁄ , ���� ≡ Φ���� Φ� ����⁄ . (2.3)
This equation shows that heterogeneous flux is continuous across the interface and
that a direct relationship exists between heterogeneous and homogenized surface
fluxes. The homogenized flux is made discontinuous by a factor of �� ����⁄ when the
homogenized two-node problem is solved and in order to preserve interface currents
the homogenized flux distribution will be the same as in Fig. 2.1(c). Since the
equivalence factors �� and ���� can be defined from information known by reference
solution, they can be accepted as additional homogenization parameters. These
equivalence factors provide additional degrees of freedom which permit
simultaneous preservation of surface currents and reaction rates.
6
Figure 2.2 : One-dimensional nodal flux distributions, adapted from Smith (1986).
Koebke’s homogenization method is useful for the fact that exact values of the
equivalence factors can be found for any value of the diffusion coefficient. For an
arbitrary value of diffusion coefficients, the values of �� and �� for node i, j will
be different. Koebke’s method iterates on values of the diffusion coefficients for
node i, j such that �� and �� are the same. When this condition is met, the
resulting diffusion coefficients and heterogeneity factors (��) are considered as
direction dependent additional homogenization parameters. This homogenization
method is known as “Equivalence Theory (E.T.)” and when these parameters are
adopted, the homogenized diffusion equation can be solved such that keff, all surface-
averaged currents, all node-averaged reaction rates and all node-averaged fluxes are
concurrently preserved. [2]
Koebke’s homogenization method provides a well-defined, systematic method for
determining homogenized parameters, which will preserve the desired properties of
the heterogeneous reactor solution when used in the homogenized diffusion equation.
Koebke’s method for constraining the diffusion coefficients requires an iterative
method to be used to determine the coefficients. So that for a given direction and
group the heterogeneity factors are identical on both surfaces of a node. This
iteration is numerically straightforward. However, there exists a simple method for
avoiding the iterative determination. This variation of Koebke’s homogenization
method merely takes advantage of the fact that exact heterogeneity factors can be
defined from equation 2.2 for any value of the diffusion coefficient. Unless the
diffusion coefficients are found iteratively, the values of the heterogeneity factors on
opposite faces of a node will be different. These two factors are referred to as
discontinuity factors to distinguish them from heterogeneity factors, and they are
defined by the following expressions,
7
��,��� ≡ ���,�� ����
����,�� ���� , ��,�
�� ≡ ���,�� ������
����,�� ������ (2.4)
where ��and ����represent the lower and upper u-direction boundaries of nodei,j.
This theory is known as “Generalized Equivalence Theory (G.E.T.)”.
If equivalence parameters were strictly a function of assembly type and did not
depend on assembly boundary conditions, they could be determined from
heterogeneous assembly calculations. When two-dimensional assembly calculations
are performed for a given type of assembly, the resulting equivalence theory cross
sections and diffusion coefficients are identical to flux-weighted constants.
Generalized Equivalence Theory also requires that values of the discontinuity factors
be determined. The lack of sufficient information from assembly calculation makes
the determination of discontinuity factors not possible. In the analogous problem the
homogenized fluxes are spatially flat. Since the assembly-averaged fluxes in the
homogeneous and heterogeneous assembly calculations are equal by definition, the
discontinuity factors are simply ratios of the surface-averaged fluxes to the cell-
averaged fluxes in the heterogeneous assembly calculation. It is possible to
approximate all of the equivalence parameters by performing assembly calculations
for each assembly, where such equivalence parameters are referred to as assembly
discontinuity factors (ADFs). [1]
2.3 Examining A Simple Homogenization Problem
To illustrate the homogenization problem, a two-dimensional two-group problem
will be examined, as shown in Fig. 2.3, in which fuel properties were adopted from
Swedish Training and Education Reactor (STURE). Each assembly consists of 100
pins, which are placed in a 10x10 square lattices and the assembly pitch size is 18.0
cm. The cross sections of assemblies were generated by a Monte Carlo reactor
physics code called Serpent, and were adopted to the deterministic reactor physics
code called PARCS. The boundary conditions for all outer boundaries are assumed to
be reflective.
8
F1 R1
F2 R2
Figure 2.3 : A two-dimensional homogenization problem.
The macroscopic cross sections are shown in Table 2.1.
Table 2.1: Parameters for the one-dimensional homogenization problem
Composition Group, g Σ� Σ! "Σ# κΣ# Σ%�→' F1 1 0.36346 0.00622 0.00481 6.091e-14 0.03531 2 3.10069 0.08412 0.13026 1.733e-12
In general, the error in the results reduces remarkably with the use of ADFs. We can
see that the generated few-group constants by Serpent are reliable, because the
reduction error occurs with the use of correctly designed ADFs.
The three different discontinuity factor solutions (UDF, ADF and aADF) gave the
same flux ratio results for the fuel assemblies because the value of the discontinuity
factors in each solution is always 1.0 for fuel assemblies. However, the ADF and
aADF solutions for the reflector assemblies, which have at least one interface with
the fuel assemblies, had a remarkable improvement in the flux ratio results.
23
The ADF and aADF solutions always gave very good keff results. However, the UDF
solution gave inconsistent keff results. The inconsistency is because of the number of
the fuel assemblies in each configuration. The configurations which had a high
number of fuel assemblies gave closer keff results to the reference solution, because
there were fewer reflector assemblies, where the flux distribution was not correct.
However, when the number of reflector assemblies increased, the UDF solution gave
bad keff results.
The thermal flux group is more important than the fast flux group in light water
reactors. The value of aADF thermal discontinuity factor is very similar to the values
of ADF thermal discontinuity factor. Therefore, aADF solution gave similar results
as ADF solution.
24
6. CONCLUSION
The major purpose of this research was to verify the assembly homogenization
capability of Serpent. Since assembly power distribution is very important for
commercial reactors, the study is important for the application of Serpent as a tool
for cross section homogenization. The conclusion for few-group constant generation
is that Serpent is capable to generate few-group constants that can be used in a
deterministic reactor code. However, generation of ADFs for fuel-reflector interface
has to be done off-line by a separate method, as presented in this thesis. The effect of
ADFs is significant and cannot be neglected. With correct ADFs, the homogeneous
nodal solution errors were acceptable for every mini core.
As Serpent is much faster than MCNP and being highly efficient, it is recommended
that it is developed to generate correct ADFs for multi-assembly models.
The current study was done in two-dimensional geometry and with two type
assemblies, so further studies should be done for three-dimensional geometries and
multi type assemblies.
25
REFERENCES
[1] Smith, K. S., 1986: Assembly Homogenization Techniques For Light Water Reactor Analysis. Progress in Nuclear Energy, Vol.17, No. 3, pp. 303-335, Pergamon Journals Ltd., Great Britain.
[2] Koebke, K., 1978. A New Approach To Homogenization and Group Condensation. In: IAEA Technical Committee Meeting on Homogenization Methods in Reactor Physics, Lugano, Switzerland, 13-15 November, IAEA-TECDOC 231.
[3] Richard, S., 2009. Assembly Homogenization Techniques for Core
Calculations. Progress in Nuclear Energy, Vol.51, 14-31.
[4] Lappänen, J., 2010. PSG2 / Serpent – a Continuous-energy Monte Carlo
Reactor Physics Burn-up Calculation Code. VTT Technical Research
Centre of Finland.
[5] Downar, T., Xu, Y., Seker, V. And Carlson, D., 2007. PARCS v2.7 U.S. NRC
Core Neutronics Simulator. School of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue
University, W. Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.A. and RES / U.S. NRC,
Rockville, Md, U.S.A..
26
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A.1: Surface plots of errors of designing ADFs for combination-1
APPENDIX A.2: Surface plots of errors of designing ADFs for combination-2
APPENDIX A.3: Surface plots of errors of designing ADFs for combination-3
APPENDIX B.1: Configuration of the geometry for each core
27
APPENDIX A.1
(a)
(b)
Figure A.1 : Surface plots of errors of designing ADFs for combination-1: (a)K-effective. (b)Fuel flux ratio. (c)Reflector flux ratio.
28
Figure A.1(contd.) : Surface plots of errors of designing ADFs for combination-1: