@article{5840aa5db0c64ad8985c004d1bb4d7a8,
title = "Verification of moltres for multiphysics simulations of fast-spectrum molten salt reactors",
abstract = "Modeling strongly coupled neutronics and thermal–hydraulics in liquid-fueled MSRs requires robust and flexible multiphysics software for accurate simulations at reasonable computational costs. In this paper, we present Moltres and its neutronics and thermal–hydraulics modeling capabilities relevant to multiphysics reactor analysis. As a MOOSE-based application, Moltres provides various multiphysics coupling schemes and time-stepping methods, including fully coupled solves with implicit time-stepping. We verified Moltres{\textquoteright} MSR modeling capabilities against a multiphysics numerical benchmark developed for software dedicated to modeling fast-spectrum MSRs. The results show that Moltres performed comparably to participating software packages in the benchmark; the majority of the relevant quantities fell within one standard deviation of the benchmark average. Among the participating multiphysics tools in the benchmark, Moltres agrees closest to the multiphysics tool from the Delft University of Technology due to similarities in the numerical solution techniques and meshing schemes.",
keywords = "MOOSE, Molten salt reactor, Multiphysics, Neutronics, Open-source, Thermal–hydraulics",
author = "Park, {Sun Myung} and Madicken Munk",
note = "Funding Information: Dr. Madicken Munk is supported by the Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering Department in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Funding Information: Sun Myung Park is supported by the SNRSI Postgraduate Scholarship program, a graduate fellowship program from the Singapore Nuclear Research & Safety Initiative. Funding Information: This research is part of the Blue Waters sustained-petascale computing project, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (awards OCI-0725070 and ACI-1238993), the State of Illinois, and as of December, 2019, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Blue Waters is a joint effort of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Funding Information: This research is part of the Blue Waters sustained-petascale computing project, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (awards OCI-0725070 and ACI-1238993), the State of Illinois, and as of December, 2019, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Blue Waters is a joint effort of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Sun Myung Park is supported by the SNRSI Postgraduate Scholarship program, a graduate fellowship program from the Singapore Nuclear Research & Safety Initiative. Dr. Madicken Munk is supported by the Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering Department in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The authors thank Professor Kathryn Huff for her expertise and supervision throughout this study and for her help in reviewing this manuscript. The authors also thank Nathan Ryan for proofreading this manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2022",
month = aug,
doi = "10.1016/j.anucene.2022.109111",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "173",
journal = "Annals of Nuclear Energy",
issn = "0306-4549",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
}