Publications related to Tool Developments in the OpenMC Code: Correlated Sampling and Transient Fission Matrix Approach Coupled to OpenFOAM

High-Resolution Modeling Without Computation Slowdown for PETALE in CROCUS

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Thomas Jean-François Ligonnet, Axel Guy Marie Laureau

In a collaboration between Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and CEA, in the fall of 2020, the experimental Programme d’Étude en Transmission de l’Acier Lourd et ses Eléments (PETALE) was successfully carried out in the CROCUS reactor of EPFL ...

2024

Extension, validation, and optimization of Serpent/DYN3D/ATHLET code system for SFR applications

Vincenzo Anthony Di Nora

The sequence of codes Serpent/DYN3D has been developed by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and successfully applied to core static and transient analyses of sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs). The successful application of the sequence to SFRs was ...

EPFL2023

Analysis of the preliminary campaign for the PETALE program

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Thomas Jean-François Ligonnet, Axel Guy Marie Laureau

The PETALE program aims to provide new experimental data to constrain the stainless steel nuclear data. In this frame, a preliminary measurement campaign has been performed to characterize the neutron flux in key positions of the CROCUS reactor and to deve ...

EDP SCIENCES S A2023

Gamma-Blind Fast Neutron Detection for Spent Nuclear Fuel Characterization

Alexander Wolfertz

In this thesis, the development and testing of a system for measuring the axial distribution of fast neutron emission of spent nuclear fuel rods is presented. Emphasis is placed on the novel fast neutron detector used which can reliably work in extremely h ...

EPFL2023

Automated image-based generation of finite element models for masonry buildings

Radhakrishna Achanta, Katrin Beyer, Bryan German Pantoja Rosero

To predict the response of masonry buildings to various types of loads, engineers use finite element models, specifically solid-element and macro-element models. For predicting masonry responses to seismic events in particular, equivalent frame models-a su ...

SPRINGER2023

HighNESS conceptual design report: Volume II. The NNBAR experiment

Xiaoxue Han, Sheng Xu, Davide Campi, Mina Akhyani

A key aim of the HighNESS project for the European Spallation Source is to enable cutting-edge particle physics experiments. This volume presents a conceptual design report for the NNBAR experiment. NNBAR would exploit a new cold lower moderator to make th ...

Ios Press2023

Robotic Assembly of Integrally-Attached Timber Plate Structures: From Computational Design to Automated Construction

Nicolas Henry Pierre Louis Rogeau

The digitization of timber construction, the emergence of engineered wood products, and the urgent need to drastically reduce buildings' environmental impact have given a rebirth to wood as a construction material. On the one hand, increasing the use of ti ...

EPFL2023

Regressive Tomography and Direct Regressive Reconstruction: A Research Note

Henri Weisen

Two related methods for inverting line-integrated measurements are presented in this research paper in the context of the recent deuterium-tritium experiments in the JET tokamak. Unlike traditional methods of tomography, these methods rely on making use of ...

2023

Design of an Instrumented Fuel Rod for Intra-pin Neutron Flux Measurements in the CROCUS Experimental Reactor

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Mathieu Hursin, Thomas Jean-François Ligonnet, Won Dong Shin, Tom Mager

In response to the need for validating high-fidelity deterministic neutronics solvers capable of pin-resolved neutron flux distributions, an instrumented fuel rod was designed for the experimental reactor CROCUS, operated by EPFL’s Laboratory for Reactor P ...

2023

Excitation of toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes with counter-current NBI in the TCV tokamak

Alexander Karpushov, Laurie Porte, Matteo Vallar, Samuele Mazzi

In TCV, unstable modes excited by resonant interaction between the shear Alfvèn waves in con- tinuum gaps and energetic particles have been observed in scenarios with Neutral Beam Injection (NBI). TCV is a middle-size device (R 0 /a = 0.88/0.25) equipped w ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2023

Latent Representation of Computational Fluid Dynamics Meshes and Application to Airfoil Aerodynamics

Pascal Fua, Benoît Alain René Guillard, Zhen Wei

Mesh manipulation is central to computational fluid dynamics. However, creating appropriate computational meshes often involves substantial manual intervention that has to be repeated each time the target shape changes. To address this problem, we propose ...

AMER INST AERONAUTICS ASTRONAUTICS2023

Electromagnetic processes of nuclear excitation: from direct photoabsorption to free electron and muon capture

Simone Gargiulo

In the vast expanse of the Universe and on our planet, nuclei exist in a state of excitement. These excited nuclear states (isomers) can persist for varying periods, from fractions of a second to billions of years and beyond, before decaying to their groun ...

EPFL2023

An a posteriori error estimator for isogeometric analysis on trimmed geometries

Ondine Gabrielle Chanon, Annalisa Buffa, Rafael Vazquez Hernandez

Trimming consists of cutting away parts of a geometric domain, without reconstructing a global parametrization (meshing). It is a widely used operation in computer-aided design, which generates meshes that are unfitted with the described physical object. T ...

2022

Investigation and Validation of Unstructured Mesh Methodologies for Modeling Experimental Reactors

Andreas Pautz, Mathieu Hursin, Carlo Fiorina, Tom Mager

This paper summarizes a methodology developed at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne for the neutronic modeling of the CROCUS experimental reactor and proposes solutions to the challenges one may face while modeling a research reactor with a complex g ...

MDPI2022

Synthesis and Analysis of 3D shapes with Geometric Deep Learning in Computer-Aided Engineering

Edoardo Remelli

In this thesis, we advocate that Computer-Aided Engineering could benefit from a Geometric Deep Learning revolution, similarly to the way that Deep Learning revolutionized Computer Vision. To do so, we consider a variety of Computer-Aided Engineering pr ...

EPFL2022

Advanced methodologies for modeling and assessment of SFR safety functions

Janos Bodi

The present doctoral work was performed to contribute to the conceptual design development and safety assessment of a Generation IV Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) in the frame of the European Sodium Fast Reactor Safety Measures Assessment and Research Tools (ES ...

EPFL2022

Quadrature-free immersed isogeometric analysis

Pablo Antolin Sanchez, Thibaut Hirschler

This paper presents a novel method for solving partial differential equations on three-dimensional CAD geometries by means of immersed isogeometric discretizations that do not require quadrature schemes. It relies on a newly developed technique for the eva ...

SPRINGER2022

Miniature and Minimalistic Neutron Detectors for Online High-Resolution Experiments in the Zero-Power Reactor CROCUS

Fanny Vitullo

The continuous strive for more efficient and reliable nuclear power plants is leading to increasing complexity in the design and operations of reactors. As a consequence, comprehensive analyses are required to assess the reactor's safety during normal and ...

EPFL2022

High accuracy measurement of the prompt neutron decay constant in CROCUS using Gamma Noise and bootstrapped uncertainties

Pavel Frajtag, Andreas Pautz, Oskari Ville Pakari, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Tom Mager

We experimentally demonstrate the advantages of gamma detection for noise measurements to deter-mine the prompt neutron decay constant a of a nuclear reactor using the power spectral density (PSD) method, coupled to a new uncertainty estimation scheme base ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2022

Stabilized isogeometric discretizations on trimmed and union geometries, and weak imposition of the boundary conditions for the Darcy flow

Riccardo Puppi

Modern manufacturing engineering is based on a ``design-through-analysis'' workflow. According to this paradigm, a prototype is first designed with Computer-aided-design (CAD) software and then finalized by simulating its physical behavior, which usually i ...

EPFL2022