Evaluation of Transport–Burnup Coupling Strategy in Double-Heterogeneity Problem
Author:
Zhang Yunfei12ORCID, Zhang Qian3, Zou Yang1, Zhou Bo1ORCID, Yan Rui1ORCID, Zhu Guifeng1ORCID, Guo Jian1, Zhang Ao1
Affiliation:
1. Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China 2. Fundamental Science on Nuclear Safety and Simulation Technology Laboratory, College of Nuclear Science and Technology, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China 3. Laboratory for Advanced Nuclear Energy Theory and Applications, Zhejiang Institute of Modern Physics, Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Abstract
The simulation of fuel composition requires coupled calculations of neutron transport and burnup. It is generally assumed that the neutron flux density and cross-sections remain constant within a burnup step. However, when there are strong absorber poisons present, the reaction rates of the absorbers change too rapidly over time, necessitating extremely fine step sizes to ensure computational accuracy, which in turn leads to low computational efficiency. As a type of accident tolerant fuel (ATF), fully ceramic micro-encapsulated (FCM) fuel is a promising new type of nuclear fuel. Accelerated algorithms for burnup calculations of FCM fuel containing gadolinium isotopes have been developed based on the ALPHA code, including the projected predictor–corrector (PPC), the log-linear rate (LLR), and the high-order predictor–corrector (HOPC) methods (including CE/LI, CE/QI, LE/LI, and LE/QI). The performances of different algorithms under the two forms of Gd2O3 existence were analyzed. The numerical results show that the LE/QI method performs the best overall. For Gd2O3 existing in both forms, the LE/QI algorithm can maintain accuracy with a burnup step size of up to 1.0 GWd/tU, keeping the infinite multiplication factor kinf within 100 pcm, and it exhibits high accuracy in simulating the atomic number densities of Gd-155 and Gd-157 throughout the burnup process.
Funder
Chinese Academy of Sciences Talent Introduction Youth Project Chinese TMSR Strategic Pioneer Science and Technology Project New Generation of Fission Energy Technology—Key Technologies of the Hundred-Megawatt Thorium-Based Molten Salt Reactor Nuclear Energy System Frontier Science Key Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences Project of Young Talents of China National Nuclear Corporation, Natural Science Foundation of China Chinese Academy of Sciences Special Research Assistant Project
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