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Development of an iterative coupled MCNP and ABAQUS heat transfer analysis process for moderated low-enriched uranium kilowatt-class space nuclear reactors
DiLuca, Erika M.
DiLuca, Erika M.
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2024
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This thesis presents the development of a coupled MCNP and ABAQUS iterative heat transfer process using unstructured meshes. The reactor cores used in this process are representative of a lowly enriched uranium Kilowatt-style reactor derived from the highly enriched uranium fueled Kilowatt Reactor Using Stirring Engine TechnologY (KRUSTY). The project considered three core fuel geometries - discs, helices, and spheres. Coreform CUBIT constructs the core geometry with is meshed in ABAQUS and read into MCNP. After the MCNP neutronics analysis, ABAQUS performs a core heat transfer analysis to calculate the temperatures in the core using the nodal energy deposition tallies from MCNP. These temperatures are binned into equally spaced temperature groups to redefine the materials in MCNP based by updating the unstructured mesh input file. The process temperature binning process was successfully completed on a single part system, however failed on a multi-part system. The complete iterative process was completed on a multi-part system, but instead the average fuel temperature and average moderator temperature were updated in MCNP after each iteration.
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