MP-OFELIA (OpenMC-FEniCSx for muLtiphysics tutorIAl) is an open-source project developed by the ERMETE Lab at Politecnico di Milano. It serves as a comprehensive educational tool for simulating multi-physics scenarios in nuclear engineering. By integrating OpenMC (version 0.13.2) and FEniCSx (version 0.6.0) in a Python environment, MP-OFELIA provides an intuitive and powerful framework for solving complex coupled problems in nuclear applications (Loi et al., 2024).
🔑 Key Features of MP-OFELIA
📚 Comprehensive Tutorials
MP-OFELIA offers a series of tutorials designed for both single-physics and coupled multi-physics simulations. These tutorials cover a wide range of scenarios:
Fluid Dynamics: Simulations such as cavity flow, backward-facing step, and laminar flow over a cylinder.
Neutronics: Exercises such as neutron transport in a pin cell and a 2D mini core model.
Multiphysics Coupling: Simulations that address thermal-hydraulic and neutronics interactions, exemplified by a pin cell with thermal feedback.
🎓 Educational Focus
The project is specifically designed for educational purposes, providing users with hands-on experience in setting up and solving multi-physics problems relevant to nuclear reactor applications.
🔓 Open-Source Accessibility
MP-OFELIA is freely available on GitHub, encouraging collaboration and further development within the scientific and educational communities.
🚀 Recent Developments
Integration of Tutorials: The repository consolidates tutorials from previous projects (e.g., FEniCSx tutorials), offering an enhanced learning experience for users.
MP-OFELIA exemplifies the ERMETE Lab’s commitment to advancing multi-physics modeling and simulation in nuclear engineering. It provides valuable resources for both students and professionals in the field.
References
2024
NED
OFELIA: An OpenMC-FEniCSx coupling for neutronic calculation with temperature feedback
Lorenzo Loi, Stefano Riva, Carolina Introini, and 3 more authors
The state of an operating nuclear reactor depends on several physical phenomena that coexist and are interdependent: they can be taken into account simultaneously by adopting a multi-physics approach, allowing a higher level of detail of the system’s properties. Neutron physics and thermal hydraulics are of great importance in this framework, their interdependence being the most fundamental coupling effect in nuclear reactors, as their interaction determines the power and temperature profiles, being quantities of interest during the design and safety analysis phases. This work focuses on developing a fully open-source multi-physics and multi-scale tool capable of determining the temperature profile of a characteristic fuel pin of a PWR when the power generated by the system is known. This methodology is implemented in a Python environment coupling the open source library FEniCSx for the thermal-hydraulic analysis with the OpenMC Monte Carlo code for the description of the fissionable system: regarding the former, FEniCSx handles the thermal calculations, whereas a 1D model is used to predict the axial coolant temperature distribution. The coupling applies an explicit method, whose convergence is based on a Picard scheme, using an adaptive relaxation scheme. This coupling strategy is compared with literature data, providing a good agreement with a fully Multi-Physics solver.
@article{LOI2024113480,title={{OFELIA: An OpenMC-FEniCSx coupling for neutronic calculation with temperature feedback}},journal={Nuclear Engineering and Design},volume={428},pages={113480},year={2024},issn={0029-5493},doi={https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2024.113480},month=nov,url={https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0029549324005806},author={Loi, Lorenzo and Riva, Stefano and Introini, Carolina and Giacobbo, Francesca and Wang, Xiang and Cammi, Antonio},keywords={OpenMC, FEniCSx, Nuclear reactor, Monte Carlo, Thermal hydraulics}}
