FINIX fuel behavior module
Contents
About FINIX
FINIX is a novel light-weight fuel behavior code designed specifically for coupled calculations by T. Ikonen at VTT[1]. FINIX solves both the temperature distribution in the fuel rod and the heat flux from cladding to coolant allowing two-way couplings with both neutronics and thermal-hydraulics solvers. While the current capabilities of FINIX are specifically directed to calculating the fuel rods' thermal response in fast transient scenarios, FINIX can also be used to calculate steady state conditions.
The correlations used in FINIX are publicly available. The fuel rod is modeled in FINIX as consisting of separate axial zones that are coupled via the gas gap pressure. The thermal and mechanical models in each of the axial zones are coupled via the gas gap pressure and heat conductance.
FINIX uses the so-called 1.5 dimensional geometry model dividing the active length of the fuel rod into multiple axial zones. In each axial zone the fuel pellet and the cladding are divided into multiple concentric radial rings. The axial coupling between the different zones comes from the coolant temperature boundary condition and rod internal pressure.
Coupling with Serpent
FINIX is coupled with Serpent 2 at the source code level. The internal coupling works with direct memory access between Serpent and FINIX simplifying the solution transfer and use.
Obtaining FINIX
FINIX can be licensed from VTT for research & education (non-commercial) purposes. One license agreement per organization is enough.
Finally, contact Ville Valtavirta to obtain the latest version of FINIX to add to your Serpent source code.
Compiling Serpent with FINIX
The source code for FINIX should be located in the Serpent source code folder in a subfolder called
FINIX
To complile Serpent with FINIX, uncomment two lines from the Makefile:
<nowiki>
...
- Compilation with FINIX:
- OBJS += $(FOBJS)
- CFLAGS += -DFINIX
... </nowiki
is uncommented to
<nowiki>
...
- Compilation with FINIX:
OBJS += $(FOBJS) CFLAGS += -DFINIX ... </nowiki
Running the make-command for the uncommented Makefile will compile Serpent with FINIX-capabilities.
Usage
References
- ^ T. Ikonen, V. Tulkki, E. Syrjälahti, V. Valtavirta and J. Leppänen, "FINIX - Fuel Behavior Model and Interface for Multiphysics Applications", In proc. TopFuel 2013, Charlotte, NC, Sept. 15-19, 2013.
