Development of a fully implicit ODE-solver for containment analysis code

The thermal–hydraulic dynamics in containment are governed by a system of stiff ordinary differential equations (ODEs). A fully implicit discretization scheme is adopted to discretize these ODEs in order to mitigate the effects of stiffness. In comparison with explicit or semi-implicit discretization schemes that are subject to Courant limits on time steps, the fully implicit discretization scheme is more suitable for a containment analysis code that focuses on predicting both short-term and long-term thermal–hydraulic parameters after an accident. This study introduces a general-purpose ODE solver for the containment analysis code. The outline of the solver is as follows: The fully implicit discrete equations lead to a large set of nonlinear equations that need to be solved using Newton’s iterative method. The partial derivative components in the Jacobi matrix are calculated by the perturbation method using finite difference approximation, which avoids the complicated derivation of partial derivatives. The scaling modification technique is incorporated into this ODE solver to deal with significant differences in unknown variable magnitudes, and the line search method is introduced to address the difficulty of obtaining an accurate root estimate with Newton’s method when the initial guess is far from the actual root. This proposed ODE solver was applied to two typical stiff ODE problems to test its stiffness-suppressed ability and to demonstrate that this proposed solver can perform calculations with a very large time step. Then, the CASSIA code, a containment analysis code developed by China Nuclear Power Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd (CNPRI), equipped with this ODE solver, was applied to the CSNI (Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations) benchmark problem and the Carolinas Virginia Tube Reactor (CVTR) test 3 problem to preliminarily demonstrate that the proposed ODE solver can perform containment thermal–hydraulic analysis correctly. This study could provide references for the development of a home-made containment analysis code

Boundary-obstructed topological high-Tc_c superconductivity in iron pnictides

Non-trivial topology and unconventional pairing are two central guiding principles in the contemporary search for and analysis of superconducting materials and heterostructure compounds. Previously, a topological superconductor has been predominantly conceived to result from a topologically non-trivial band subject to intrinsic or external superconducting proximity effect. Here, we propose a new class of topological superconductors which are uniquely induced by unconventional pairing. They exhibit a boundary-obstructed higher-order topological character and, depending on their dimensionality, feature unprecedently robust Majorana bound states or hinge modes protected by chiral symmetry. We predict the 112-family of iron pnictides, such as Ca$_{1-x}$La$_x$FeAs$_2$, to be a highly suited material candidate for our proposal, which can be tested by edge spectroscopy. Because of the boundary-obstruction, the topologically non-trivial feature of the 112 pnictides does not reveal itself for a bulk-only torus band analysis without boundaries, and as such had evaded previous investigations. Our proposal not only opens a new arena for highly stable Majorana modes in high-temperature superconductors, but also provides the smoking gun evidence for extended s-wave order in the iron pnictides.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures + supplementary material

Fast pyrolysis kinetics of waste tires and its products studied by a wireless-powered thermo-balance

Funding Information: Authors appreciate the financial support from the Liao Ning Revitalization Talents Program (grant number: XLYC2007179 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The AuthorsPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Fast pyrolysis of biomass with diverse properties to produce liquid hydrogen storage molecules

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