Research · 08
Spectral Element Method for Large-Scale Reactor Analysis
스펙트럼 요소법 기반 대규모 원자로 해석
Resolving a domain as large as a whole core is not a matter of simply making the mesh finer. We raise the order of the solution inside each element instead.
Card figures are concept diagrams.
Resolving the inside of a reactor accurately means capturing even the small eddies, but covering a whole core by making the mesh finer makes the cell count explode. There comes a point where the cost outruns the accuracy.
The Spectral Element Method takes a different route. It divides the domain into a small number of large elements and represents the solution inside each one with a high-order polynomial. The same number of unknowns buys far more accuracy, and because elements exchange little information, the work spreads well across thousands of compute cores.
That brings problems of a size we previously had to give up resolution for, such as a pebble-bed core or a full rod bundle, back within reach of high-fidelity analysis.
We are applying the method to helical coil rod bundles, with the aim of resolving the flow inside next-generation reactor cores by large eddy simulation; the code is NekRS. The work is under way and there are no results yet.
What we work on
- 01Large elements at high order: more accuracy for the same unknowns
- 02Little inter-element communication, so it scales across many cores
- 03Bringing core-scale domains within reach of high-fidelity analysis
- 04LES of helical coil rod bundles with NekRS — under way