• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.772-784
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• 2024

The hexagonal nodal code RENUS has been enhanced to handle irregularly deformed hexagonal assemblies. The underlying RENUS methods involving triangle-based polynomial expansion nodal (T-PEN) and corner point balance (CPB) were extended in a way to use line and surface integrals of polynomials in a deformed hexagonal geometry. The nodal calculation is accelerated by the coarse mesh finite difference (CMFD) formulation extended to unstructured geometry. The accuracy of the unstructured nodal solution was evaluated for a group of 2D SFR core problems in which the assembly corner points are arbitrarily displaced. The RENUS results for the change in nuclear characteristics resulting from fuel deformation were compared with those of the reference McCARD Monte Carlo code. It turned out that the two solutions agree within 18 pcm in reactivity change and 0.46% in assembly power distribution change. These results demonstrate that the proposed unstructured nodal method can accurately model heterogeneous thermal expansion in hexagonal fueled cores.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2172-2194
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• 2023

A variational nodal method (VNM) with unstructured-mesh is presented for solving steady-state and dynamic neutron diffusion equations. Orthogonal polynomials are employed for spatial discretization, and the stiffness confinement method (SCM) is implemented for temporal discretization. Coordinate transformation relations are derived to map unstructured triangular nodes to a standard node. Methods for constructing triangular prism space trial functions and identifying unique nodes are elaborated. Additionally, the partitioned matrix (PM) and generalized partitioned matrix (GPM) methods are proposed to accelerate the within-group and power iterations. Neutron diffusion problems with different fuel assembly geometries validate the method. With less than 5 pcm eigenvalue (k_eff) error and 1% relative power error, the accuracy is comparable to reference methods. In addition, a test case based on the kilowatt heat pipe reactor, KRUSTY, is created, simulated, and evaluated to illustrate the method's precision and geometrical flexibility. The Dodds problem with a step transient perturbation proves that the SCM allows for sufficiently accurate power predictions even with a large time-step of approximately 0.1 s. In addition, combining the PM and GPM results in a speedup ratio of 2-3.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.192-197
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• 2003

Three-dimensional cavity flow is analyzed with the code by using unstructured grid. Incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are used as governing equations, and governing equations are discretized by Finite Volume Method. Artificial compressibility method, proposed by Chorin, and developed by Soh, is used for coupling a pressure and a velocity. Cell-centered scheme is adopted in the code, this has the effect of having denser grid than nodal scheme when the same grid is used. Weighted Averaging scheme is used for the value at a nodal point. Cavity flow is analyzed, and this computed results are compared with the results in the research report

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.625-647
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• 2002

Parallel execution of computational mechanics codes requires efficient mesh-partitioning techniques. These mesh-partitioning techniques divide the mesh into specified number of submeshes of approximately the same size and at the same time, minimise the interface nodes of the submeshes. This paper describes a new mesh partitioning technique, employing Genetic Algorithms. The proposed algorithm operates on the deduced graph (dual or nodal graph) of the given finite element mesh rather than directly on the mesh itself. The algorithm works by first constructing a coarse graph approximation using an automatic graph coarsening method. The coarse graph is partitioned and the results are interpolated onto the original graph to initialise an optimisation of the graph partition problem. In practice, hierarchy of (usually more than two) graphs are used to obtain the final graph partition. The proposed partitioning algorithm is applied to graphs derived from unstructured finite element meshes describing practical engineering problems and also several example graphs related to finite element meshes given in the literature. The test results indicate that the proposed GA based graph partitioning algorithm generates high quality partitions and are superior to spectral and multilevel graph partitioning algorithms.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.601-613
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• 2017

An adjoint-based error estimation and mesh adaptation study is conducted for two-dimensional viscous flows on unstructured hybrid meshes. The error in an integral output functional of interest is estimated by a dot product of the residual vector and adjoint variable vector. Regions for the mesh to be adapted are selected based on the amount of local error at each nodal point. Triangular cells in the adaptive regions are refined by regular refinement, and quadrangular cells near viscous walls are bisected accordingly. The present procedure is applied to single-element airfoils such as the RAE2822 at a transonic regime and a diamond-shaped airfoil at a supersonic regime. Then the 30P30N multi-element airfoil at a low subsonic regime with a high incidence angle (${\alpha}=21deg.$) is analyzed. The same level of prediction accuracy for lift and drag is achieved with much less mesh points than the uniform mesh refinement approach. The detailed procedure of the adjoint-based mesh refinement for the multi-element airfoil case show that the basic flow features around the airfoil should be resolved so that the adjoint method can accurately estimate an output error.