Coupling of RMC and CFX for analysis of Pebble Bed-Advanced High Temperature Reactor core

This paper introduces a steady-state coupled calculation method using the Monte Carlo Code RMC (Reactor Monte Carlo) and the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) code CFX for the analysis of a Pebble Bed-Advanced High Temperature Reactor (PB-AHTR) core. The RMC code is used for neutronics calculation while CFX is used for Thermal-Hydraulics (T-H) calculation. The porous media model is used in CFX modeling to simulate the pebble bed structure in PB-AHTR. The CFX model has also been validated against the RELAP5-3D model developed in the previous research. The script language PERL is used as a development tool to manipulate and control the entire coupled calculation. This research gives the conclusion that the steady-state coupled calculation using RMC and CFX is feasible and can obtain stable results within a few iterations. However, due to the statistical errors of Monte Carlo method, the fluctuation of results still occurs. For the purpose of improving the accuracy, the paper applies and discusses two methods, of which increasing the number of neutron histories is an effective method.

► The CFD code CFX is used for whole pebble bed reactor core calculation.
► The Monte Carlo Code RMC and CFX are used for the coupling of neutronics and T-H.
► Coupled calculations for steady-state problem can reach stable results.
► Increasing the number of neutron histories is effective to improve accuracy.