Reactor Module Overview

Introduction

MOOSE's Reactor Module provides targeted capability for generating finite element meshes of common nuclear reactor core geometries. This module permits a reactor analyst to rapidly build finite element meshes of reactor pins, assemblies, and cores by augmenting MOOSE's existing Mesh System, which contains general meshing operations such as extrusion, rotation, and triangulation.

The Reactor Module contains mesh generation objects which a user calls from the [Mesh] block of a MOOSE input file. The user constructs sequences of these mesh generation objects to build custom Cartesian and hexagonal-based pins, assemblies, and cores. This module can also create rotating control drums and core periphery zones (outer barrel / shield). Mesh control features include the option to automatically preserve fuel pin volume, boundary layers, mesh biasing, and labeling of elements as they belong to specific components (e.g. pin, assembly, plane).

For more exotic geometries, Reactor Module objects may be combined with the powerful XYDelaunayGenerator contained in the Mesh System or with FillBetweenPointVectorsTools.

Meshes generated by the Reactor Module may be created in memory as part of a MOOSE physics application's input, or pre-generated and output as Exodus files for later use in a physics application.

To cite the Reactor Module, please see the Reactor entry in Citing MOOSE.

MOOSE Meshing vs External Tools

MOOSE's Reactor Module offers several benefits over commonly used meshing software for many supported geometries:

  • Free and open source (included with MOOSE, no additional software packages needed)

  • Tightly integrated with MOOSE-based applications (link mesh and physics input to same input and executable)

  • Specialized functions for reactor geometries

  • Component/zone bookkeeping through "extra element integers" for material assignment and post-processing

  • Automatic fuel volume preservation useful for mesh convergence studies

  • Saves analyst and computer time – easier to learn than generic FEM tools and runs quickly

The Reactor Module is currently not suited for non-extruded geometries, ex-core components such as piping, heat exchangers, or complex 3D meshing of inlet plenums, CAD geometries, or wire wrapped pins. No tetrahedral meshing options are currently available.

Reactor Module Examples

The Reactor Module has been used to mesh cores of several reactor types:

  • liquid metal-cooled fast reactor (SFR, LFR)

  • heat pipe-cooled microreactor (HP-MR)

  • gas-cooled microreactor (GC-MR),

  • prismatic high temperature gas cooled reactor (prismatic HTGR) core geometries.

Additionally, advanced meshing routines can be used to mesh some types of molten salt reactor (MSR) and pebble bed HTGR (PB-HTGR) cores.

The following meshes were generated by MOOSE's Reactor Module + Mesh System.

Figure 1: C5G7 light water reactor benchmark (Courtesy Yeon Sang Jung, Argonne National Laboratory).

Figure 2: Lead-cooled fast reactor assembly with annular pins (Credit: Emily Shemon, Shikhar Kumar, Hansol Park, Argonne National Laboratory).

Figure 3: Advanced Burner Test Reactor (ABTR) (Credit Shikhar Kumar, Argonne National Laboratory).

Figure 4: Mesh of DOE-NE's MARVEL microreactor at Idaho National Laboratory (Courtesy Stefano Terlizzi, Idaho National Laboratory).

Figure 5: Modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (MHTGR) (Courtesy Olin Calvin, Idaho National Laboratory).

Figure 6: Mesh of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Courtesy Kun Mo and Yan Cao, Argonne National Laboratory).

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