Preliminary coupling of the Thermal/Hydraulic solvers in the Monte Carlo code MCS for practical LWR analysis

Abstract

A Thermal/Hydraulic (T/H) coupling interface has been developed in the Monte Carlo code MCS for coupling with different T/H solvers. The single channel T/H solver TH1D and the Sub-Channel T/H solver COBRA-TF (CTF) both have been coupled to MCS through this interface. A fixed-point iteration scheme is applied in this coupling interface to enable the T/H feedback to be fully updated for Monte Carlo neutron simulation. This paper describes in detail the single rod case to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of these two coupled T/H solvers, with the discussion of the results for fuel temperature, coolant temperature and coolant density distributions. On the other hand, the paper also depicts the preliminary application of MCS T/H coupling in BEAVRS whole core benchmark to demonstrate the feasibility of this coupling system for use in practical LWRs multi-physics coupling analysis.